Making candied jalapenos is fairly easy and well worth your time. These candied jalapenos are the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, AKA cowboy candy, and they are frankly an excellent complement to anything barbecue. If you can smoke it, it will taste better if you serve it with candied jalapenos.
Something most of us are well aware of with jalapenos is that they are not all the same spice level. Usually, the grocery store ones are fairly mild, while the ones that you raise at home in your backyard are a lot spicier. I say that little kiss of spice is a perfect complement to the sweetness in these candied jalapenos.
This recipe simply takes twenty-five minutes: five minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking time. This makes about 16 servings. But honestly, these things are so addicting you'll still never have enough. We start with 10 to 12 fresh jalapenos, a cup and a half of liquid, a cup of lily-white sugar, half a cup of vinegar, a teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of celery seeds. The first thing that we're going to do is slice all of our jalapenos. Were only doing resounds so take off the stem and then do fairly thin slivers all the way down.
So a lot of people are sensitive to the oils in jalapenos which make their hands itch or burn. If you're one of those people, I recommend picking up some latex or nitrile gloves. If you are brave and you want to go gloveless just make sure you wash your hands really well after you processed all of these jalapenos because you don't want any of that spicy seasoning liquor in your eyes or up your snout. Trust me because I have done and it is pain. Jalapenos are sliced now the rest of the ingredients are ready to be placed in a medium saucepan.
Combine your sugar, your vinegar, your celery seeds, your salt, and the peppers. Then we're going to put the pan on the stove, over high heat, give it a whisk and we want to bring these up to a good boil. the heat down to medium-low. Let simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. After 15 minutes of simmering, your jalapenos will darken in color and the ends will start to curl in and pucker a little. That's how you know they're ready to turn off the heat, let them cool a little on the stove and then transfer them to a glass jar. Use one either with a snap-on lid or a screw-on lid. Once you give the jalapenos over, you want to pour in the liquid, because this stuff is liquid gold. You can use it to supplement flavor and your barbecue sauces. You can glaze it on your ribs.
It's a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, it's good for everything, so don't throw out the pickled jalapeno liquid. You can eat these right now, but I actually recommend leaving them in the fridge. Those jalapenos will reabsorb that sugary, acidic brine, and all the flavors will have time to marinade. The jalapenos will plump back up, and absorbed a great deal of that sugary, brine and they're going to be so so good on all things barbecue. Enjoy your own batch cowboy candy soon.
