Sweet, spicy, and incredibly tasty, these Candied Jalapenos may just be your new favorite! These are also known as “Cowboy Candy” because of how addictive they are!
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Last weekend, we had some friends over for dinner. I had bought some jam and cream cheese to put out as an appetizer, but when I mentioned it to my hubby, he threw the idea out to try candied jalapenos on top of cream cheese. Say what?? I honestly have no idea where that idea of his came from, but we ran with it!
We got home from my daughters swim meet early afternoon and after doing some chores around the house, it was only about 2 hours from our guests arriving. My hubby still hadn’t made the candied jalapenos he talked about earlier, so I assumed we were using the jam again! Little did I know just how simple these are to make!
He came into the kitchen, sliced these up, added some ingredients and off to the stovetop they went. I must admit, I was a little hesitant on the idea because “candied jalapenos” sounded a bit odd to me. Sweet? Spicy?
These finished in no time and he set the jar on the counter to cool off before needing to serve! Once our guests arrived, he scooped this over cream cheese onto our cheeseboard (and I silently crossed my fingers for success since it was too late at that point to change appetizers). One bite in, instant hit! As in, WOW! Incredibly flavorful! Sweetened heat is what I call it! All the adults (and even my oldest kiddo) loved this and the cream cheese was devoured!
We ended up having about half the jar leftover, so into the refrigerator it went! Later that week we added some onto our grilled burgers and tacos!
You can serve this as an appetizer, topping, or just about anything else you can think of!
Give it a try and let me know what you think! I bet you too will love it!
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Candied Jalapenos
Ingredients
- 1 lb jalapenos, fresh
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Slice jalapenos into rounds. *You don't have to deseed them, we did on about half.
- In a medium pot, add in the sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, celery seed, ground turmeric, and red pepper flakes.
- Cook mixture over medium high heat and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low and stir for about 5 minutes, or until sugar has dissolved.
- Add the sliced peppers into the pot and turn heat to high, bringing to a boil once more.
- Once boiling, turn heat lower and simmer 5 minutes.
- Spoon the peppers into a jar and allow the liquid to boil over heat 5 additional minutes.
- Pour into the jar(s) with peppers and allow to cool.
- Store in refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Notes
Check out other dip recipes on the blog here, https://thecookinchicks.com/tag/dip/
Joyce Dalton says
I make these using a much easier recipe. Drain the liquid from a jar of pickled sliced jalapeño then add as much sugar as you can to the jar. Let sit at room temp for a while. Shake and store in fridge. The sugar makes them crispy and takes away some Frye heat. Joyce
Kristin says
What a wonderful recipe too! I’ll need to try that soon too! Thanks for sharing!!
Heather says
Do you let them cool off before putting the jars in the fridge?
Kristin says
Yes, I let them sit out for about 30-45 minutes prior to putting in the fridge!
Beverly says
I can’t picture how it’s served. First of all…what is a cheese board? I guess I could spread cream cheese on a plate or tray (?), though it might not look proper. This sounds delicious and I want to try it, but I want to serve it in an appealing way as well. Spread the cheese then spread the sauce over it, serve with what? Crackers? Any suggestions? Sorry, I don’t entertain a lot and have no imagination. lol
Kristin says
I take a block of softened cream cheese and simply spread about 1/2 cup of this on top of it. We use crackers to dip into the cream cheese/jalapeno mixture and its incredible! You can also serve these jalapenos on tacos, burgers, nachos, and anything else jalapenos would go on!
Denise says
Do you think it would work using Splenda?
Kristin says
Sure! It will alter the flavor slightly since its not real sugar, but will work great! Enjoy!
Rosa parks says
do you close the lids or leave them off till it cools?
Kristin says
Good question! We made two small jars (it makes 2 pints total) and 1 jar, we placed lid on, whereas the other we didn’t because we were going to be using it for the dinner party. Worked great because the jar that was still hot when lid went on, ended up sealing itself and storing perfectly in the refrigerator!
Mary Lou Hudman says
The candied jalapeños over cream cheese has been a favorite of mine for years, but I’m now glad to have the recipe!
Kristin says
You’ll love this! So simple and tasty! I’m hooked!