These sweet and spicy maple pickled jalapeños add an amazing burst of flavor to tacos, salads, and cheese plates.
This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.
Basic pickled jalapeños have long been on my yearly must-make list. I like having them around for folding into burritos, stirring into chili, and adding to blender salsa. But until recently, I never even considered making a sweet pickled hot pepper. I figured I was covered with my simple, savory pickle. Oh, how wrong I was!
As part of my June assignment for my @ballcanning partnership, I cooked up a batch of Maple Pickled Jalapeños and now, my jalapeño priorities are changed forever. This perfectly balanced pickle is sweet, spicy, tangy, and earthy. It’s the new must-have condiment in my household!
As with any canning project, you start by setting up your canning pot. Fit your favorite canner with a rack and set four pint jars on top. Fill the jars with hot tap water and then fill the pot (doing the jars first ensures they don’t float and clank around). Add a generous splash of white vinegar to prevent mineral deposits on your jars. Put the canner on the stove and bring it to a simmer. Wash four new lids with warm soapy water and set them to air dry. Position four rings nearby.
Once the canner is doing its thing, turn your attention to 3 pounds of jalapeños. Wash the peppers well and then clear the sink so anything that has hot pepper residue on it can get washed immediately after use. Pull on a pair of disposable kitchen gloves (I keep a box of these under my sink) to protect your hands from the capsaicin burns.
Make sure that you can chop the peppers from start to finish without interruption. I waited to make these until a day when my husband was home and could take the boys out to the park. I didn’t want them anywhere near potential pepper irritation. Finally, slice those peppers into rounds around 1/4 inch thick.
Once your peppers are chopped, it’s time to assemble. Get out a big pot. Add 3 cups of apple cider vinegar, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup maple syrup, and salt, mustard seeds, and black pepper corns (click here to get the complete recipe). Bring that to a boil and then add the jalapeño rounds, along with a finely sliced red onion.
Return the liquid to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Make sure to turn on your kitchen fan and open any nearby windows at this stage, as this pickle puts out a pungent fragrance as it cooks.
Once the cook time is up, remove the pot from the stove. Remove one of your hot jars (I like the Ball® Nesting Jars for this pickle) from the canner and fit it with a wide mouth funnel. Using tongs, fill the jar with the peppers and then ladle the brine in on top, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove any trapped air bubbles from jars and add more brine, if necessary. Wipe the rim, apply the lid and ring, and place the filled jar in the canner. Repeat with the remaining jars.
When all the jars are full, bring the canner to a boil and process for 15 minutes (if you live above 1,000 feet in elevation, make sure to adjust your processing time accordingly). After the processing time is up, turn off the heat, remove the lid, and let the jars cool in the pot for 5 minutes.
Finally, remove the finished jars from the canner and set them on a wooden board or a folded kitchen towel to cool. Let them rest undisturbed for at least 12 hours. When the time is up, check the seals. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly. Sealed jars are shelf stable for up to a year.
Are you a fan of sweet and spicy pickled peppers? Use the comments section to share how you like to eat them!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own.
These sound delicious! Curious if the quick pickling method would work with this recipe? Love your podcast as well. Started listening at the beginning of quarantine and have made it through all the episodes and have enjoyed many recipes as a result.
Keep up the good work!
You could certainly make this pickle as a fridge pickle instead of processing it. And thank you for the kind words about the podcast!
Hi! Will this still be safe to can if I omit the sugar, or can I use coconut sugar instead of white cane sugar
You can omit the sugar, but it will leave the finished pickle unbalanced. I like your idea of using coconut sugar.
Question about red onion for this recipe. Our red onions seem to be HUGE. are we talking a medium sized one for this?
So sorry that I didn’t see this question earlier! Go for baseball, not softball size.
HI Marisa, what size red onion did you use? Most are HUGE right now!
Go for baseball size, not soft ball sized!
This looks amazing! However, while I’m fond of refrigerator pickles I’ve never really been interested in canning. Can I use this same recipe and just put them in the fridge after they’re in the jars? If so, how long do you think they’d keep in the fridge? Thanks!
You can certainly skip the canning step and just keep them in the fridge. They’ll keep for several months.
What would be the processing time for 1/2 to 1/4 pints? We would not go through a pint quickly enough.
Could I use just white distilled vinegar instead of apple cider or would that be too harsh? Sometimes I am not a fan of apple cider vinegar in my recipes.
Thank you!
Processing time remains the same for smaller jars. And you could certainly use white distilled rather than apple cider. Just check the bottle and make sure it says 5% acidity vinegar (some white vinegars are diluted to 4%).
There is something very wonky with the printing of this recipe and the links on the page. (I don’t like having a computer in the midst of my counter when canning or cooking. I prefer to print the recipe to use while preparing this.)
There is no formatted recipe that appears on the page. It appears to be embedded in the paragraphs of texts and photos. The “Jump to the Recipe” link at top goes nowhere. The “Print Recipe” link opens up a page with a list of the ingredients formatted but the directions just say “click here for the directions”. There is nothing to click, it is just words, not a link.
How can I print this recipe for use?
This post was part of a brand partnership and they didn’t want me to include the full recipe. However, given the confusion, I’ve added the directions.
They call those jalapeños cowboy candy around here, I love them! I will try your recipe this summer.
This was a helpful post. I’m trying to see if there’s a way to make something similar to Cowboy Candy but with natural sugar sources (honey, maple syrup, other things are fine too). Do you think it could be done to this recipe, safely for canning, or do you have anything like that in any of your books? Thanks.
I don’t think you could get the candied effect with a natural sweetener. But maybe with honey?
This looks really good.
It uses less sugar than Cowboy Candy and has the addition of onion. I wonder how this compares with regard to taste.
(I’m down to my last jar of 2022 Cowboy Candy and need to make more candied jalapeños soon – especially before my daughters come over and raid my canning pantry!)
This is definitely not as sweet and candy-like as Cowboy Candy. But it is delicious.
Hi, could the jalapenos be replaced with cucumber/pickling cucumber instead?
You could try it, though I would be afraid you’d end up with something quite soggy, as cucumbers soften a great deal more than jalapeños.
I love these jalapenos. Recently I made an egg bake with sweet potato, ham and maple sweetened jalapenos. Today I am spicing up a bowl of beans with eggs and cheese. I need to make another batch!
So glad you like them!