Pickled Jalapeños

This quick and easy recipe for pickled jalapeños will have you hooked after your first taste! Perfectly tangy, spicy, and juicy chiles are ready to eat in less than 10 minutes. Use them to garnish your favorite dishes, or eat them straight from the jar!

💚 Why you’ll love this recipe

• Simple: All you need is 5 pantry staple ingredients and some spicy peppers to make this recipe.
• Versatile: Enjoy pickled jalapeños by the spoonful, or top dishes like chili, soup, tacos, quesadillas, and enchiladas.
• Quick: This recipe requires just 10 minutes of cook time. You’ll barely have time to blink before it’s ready!
• Healthy: Since they contain no artificial ingredients or preservatives, making pickled jalapeños at home is much healthier (and tastier) than store-bought.

If you love Mexican-inspired sides, you should really check out our pickled red onions, refried beans, chiles toreados, and homemade black beans.

🌶 What are “quick-pickled” jalapeños?

Quick-pickled jalapeños are a simple way to enjoy the flavors of pickled jalapeños in a fraction of the time. Compared to traditional canning methods that take days or weeks, these babies are ready to snack on in about 10 minutes.

Just boil the brine, add in the sliced jalapeños, and transfer them to mason jars for storage. You’ll end up with zesty, spicy, and slightly sweet jalapeños with a soft crunch.

You can use them for just about anything, too. Think tacos, tortas, tostadas, enchiladas, burritos, pizzas, chilis, soups, stews, and more.

🫙 Quick-pickling options

There are 2 methods for quick-pickling jalapeños — in a pot or jars. We typically mix the jalapeños right into the pot of brine, but everyone’s preferences are different. Here are the basics for both options:

• In the pot: Bring the brine to a boil, then add the jalapeños right in. Turn the heat off and give them a stir. Cover the pot and let the jalapeños sit for about 10 minutes before transferring them to mason jars.
• In mason jars: While you’re bringing the brine to a boil, pack a jar (or jars) tightly with jalapeño slices in the meantime. Pour the hot brine into the jars until they’re full, then screw on the lids.

Both options will yield delicious results, so it’s ultimately up to you! Just note that the peppers shrink slightly once mixed with the brine, so you may end up with more dead space in the jars using the pour-over method.

🛒 Ingredients & substitutions

• Jalapeños: Our jalapeños are fairly large, so you may need to add a couple more if yours are on the smaller side. You can remove the seeds if you are sensitive to spice.
• Vinegar: We use white vinegar for a more neutral flavor, but both white and apple cider vinegar work.
• Water: To balance the tang of the vinegar. This can be adjusted up or down based on your taste preferences.
• Salt: Use kosher salt or pickling salt.
• Garlic: Use fresh garlic cloves, and crush them slightly to release the flavor.
• Mexican oregano: Our preferred seasoning is Mexican oregano for citrusy, anise, and herbaceous notes. Try Mediterranean oregano if you can’t find the Mexican variety. 
• Cane sugar: Provides sweetness that balances the tang and spice. Cane sugar is optional, though.

For a complete ingredient list and step-by-step guide, scroll down to our recipe card.

📝 How to make pickled jalapeños

Step 1: Prep the peppers

First, remove and discard the stems of the jalapeños. Then, slice the peppers thinly. Peel and crush the garlic with the side of your chef’s knife (this will help release the flavor).

Step 2: Boil the brine

In a medium saucepan, bring the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar (if you’re using it) to a boil. Once boiling, add in the garlic cloves, oregano, and jalapeño slices, then give it a stir.

Step 3: Let the peppers sit

Let the mixture simmer for about 15-20 seconds, then turn off the heat, cover the saucepan, and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Store the jalapeños

Add the jalapeños to a mason jar and pour the liquid over top to cover them. Let them cool completely before putting the lids on. Once they are cool, cover and transfer the jars to your fridge for storage. Happy eating!

If you have questions about making pickled jalapaeños, check out our FAQs or leave a comment down below!

🌮 How to use pickled jalapeños

You’d be surprised at how many dishes you can serve pickled jalapeños with! Here are a few ideas, but this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Tacos & burritos: Serve them as a garnish on crispy black bean tacos, jackfruit carnitas tacos, vegan birria tacos, or cauliflower tacos. Or, stuff them into burritos!
• Antojitos: The tangy spice of pickled jalapeños pairs perfectly with crispy sopes, panuchos, pambazos, and tostadas.
• Soups: Try using them as a topping on black bean soup, pinto bean soup, or vegan chili.
• Rice: Use these spicy pickled peppers to jazz up rice-based dishes like taco bowls, morisqueta, or just plain rice and beans.
• Salsas: Pickled jalapeños are a great addition to guacamole or pico de gallo.

We even find ourselves eating these chiles straight from the jar! Let us know in the comments what your favorite ways to use pickled jalapeños are.

🌡️ Storage

Since vinegar and salt act as a natural preservatives, you’ll have no problem storing pickled jalapeños for later use. Just keep these tips in mind:

• Fridge: In the fridge, pickled jalapeños will last for up to 3 months without any issues. Just note, the longer they sit, the softer they will become. Additionally, the brine will start to lose a bit of flavor.

♻️ Variations

• Vinegar: Instead of white vinegar, use white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar for a slight difference in flavor.
• Herbs & spices: Try adding different seasonings like celery seeds, whole cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, thyme, or rosemary.
• Carrots & onions: For taquería-style pickled jalapeños, sauté jalapeños, sliced carrots, and white onions together before adding the brine.
• Peppers: For an extra spicy version, replace the jalapeños with serranos, habaneros, or a combination of them all.

🧑‍🍳 Top tips

• Slice the jalapeños thinly: For the ideal texture and crunch, slice the jalapeños thinly. Also, make sure the slices are fairly similar in size.
• Avoid reactive cookware: Aluminum, copper, iron, and non-stainless steel cookware will release metal into acidic foods (like vinegar). This can result in an off-putting flavor and discoloration. When in doubt, stick to stainless steel!
• Taste and adjust: Before adding the jalapeños in, you may want to taste the brine to see if it’s okay for your liking. You may prefer it slightly more or less tangy, sweeter, or saltier.

💬 FAQ

🍴 More flavor enhancers

If you enjoyed these pickled jalapeños, be sure to check out some more flavor-intense recipes to serve with your meals:

• Salsa Taquera: One of the most vibrant sauces in Mexico.
• Mango Habanero Salsa: Balance the heat of habaneros with sweet mangos.
• Adobo Sauce: Perfect for marinating tofu, vegan chicken, veggies, and more.
• Chamoy: A sweet, spicy, salty, and tangy sauce typically found in mangonadas.
• Mexican Pickled Carrots: Another bold, tangy, and crispy condiment.

Note: We’ve updated this post to include new information and helpful tips about the recipe.