Save It
Saved
This year I decided to grow jalapeño and serrano chiles—those wonderfully hot and flavorful Mexican chiles that are used to make salsa, guacamole, and so many Mexican dishes. But I certainly wasn’t expecting each plant to yield over a pound of chiles. What to do with so many?
Make jalapeños escabeche, or pickled jalapeños!
What is Escabeche?
Pickled jalapeños, or escabeche, are served as a condiment with many meals in Mexico. Chiles, onions, carrots, cauliflower are pickled with the jalapeños. My mother used to buy jars of escabeche when I was a child. The chiles can be cut up and used for many dishes.
From the editors of Simply Recipes
How to Make Pickled Jalapeños
Unlike a lot of other pickle recipes, this one starts by frying the jalapeños and other vegetables in oil before pickling. This gives them a more complex, concentrated flavor.
After frying, simmer the vegetables in a simple pickling liquid of cider vinegar, salt, bay leaves, dried oregano, marjoram, thyme, and sugar until completely cooked. Pack the hot vegetables and pickling liquid into canning jars and seal.
Process the jars following the hot water bath canning method (Elise likes the method used here). If you prefer not to process your pickles, you can store them in the fridge and use within a month or so.
Ways To Use Escabeche
Crunchy pickled escabeche can be eaten as a snack or appetizer, or served on the plate alongside Mexican recipes. You can also slice or mince the pickled vegetables to make a quick relish for burgers, tacos, or burritos.
More Easy Pickle Recipes
Escabeche (Pickled Jalapeños) Recipe
Recipe adapted from Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico.
Ingredients
- 1 pound jalapeño (and/or serrano if you wish) chile peppers
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 medium white or yellow onions, thickly sliced
- 2-3 medium carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
- Florets from half a small cauliflower (optional)
- 1 head garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
- 4 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Kosher salt or sea salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 sprigs fresh marjoram (can sub fresh oregano) or 1/4 teaspoon dried
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Special equipment:
- 4 - 5 pint-size canning jars
Method
1 Prep the chiles: Wash the chiles, leaving the stems intact. Cut a cross in the tip end of each chile so that the vinegar will be able to penetrate the chiles.
2 Fry the vegetables in olive oil: Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the chiles, onions, carrots, cauliflower if using, and garlic. Fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning them over occasionally.
3 Boil with vinegar and seasonings: Add the vinegar, salt, bay leaves, dried oregano, marjoram, thyme, and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Make sure the chiles are entirely cooked through before canning. You will know they are cooked when they are no longer vibrant green, but a dull, olive green.
4 Pack the jars: Pack 4 to 5 pint-sized sterilized jars with the chiles and vegetables. Top with the vinegar cooking liquid and seal.
5 Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Once opened, can keep for one to two months in the refrigerator.
Hello! All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. Thank you!
Products We Love
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Simply Recipes. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Escabeche (Pickled Jalapeños)
Oh geeze, somewere (maybe another recipe) I read you don’t need to do the hot water bath process (I just sanitized my jars and lids) – but the content needs to be consumed within a month. Is this correct? Yikes! My relatives and friends won’t get sick, will they? Now I’m worried!
xxxxxyyyyy
Hi Yolanda, just store your pickled jalapenos in the refrigerator and you should be fine. There is a lot of vinegar in these pickles and that will help them keep. Do use them up within a month.
I made some for the holidays, and yes, I changed a couple of things. One, I cut the peppers in half and cut in strips. I added thick sliced mushrooms (delicious!) and left out the carrots. I also added red bell pepper and poblanos. Was real happy with the results. I did not do the canning process, but I read that they will keep for about 30 days without. Thank you for the recipe! I hadn’t made this in about 30 plus years!
xxxxxyyyyy
Great, Yolanda! Love the idea of including mushrooms, red bell peppers, and poblanos. Do make sure you are storing the jars in the refrigerator if you haven’t canned them.
Very easy recipe, smelled authentic. Thanks for sharing.
xxxxxyyyyy
All of you changing the recipe are scaring me. Safety in canning means you can’t change recipes unless you really know what you’re doing! Please be careful.
Hi ab, thank you for your comment. Are your referring to the note about our August 9, 2020 update to this post? No changes were made to the original recipe. What we did was add information to the post before the recipe to make safe canning easier. We care about safe canning and are glad you do, to!
My grandma she put also bay leafs and black pepper clovers
xxxxxyyyyy