My first attempt at Homemade Sriracha

I had a bunch of peppers getting ripe this Fall so I picked them all and decided to try my hand at Sriracha. It seems like every year I just end up drying my peppers and using them for cooking. I’ve got dried peppers coming out of my ears. Time for something different.

I had Serranos and Jalapeños. The Serranos peppers were a touch over-ripe and had started to dehydrate. The Jalapeño peppers were just right. I did separate batches of each as a test.
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I started with whole peppers, just under a pound, and a couple garlic cloves in the food processor. Then chopped them close to a paste.
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I then added a couple Tbsp of Brown Sugar and about 2Tsp of Kosher Salt. I gave it another spin in the food processor and transferred the mixture to a Mason Jar. I put a paper towel over the mouth and screwed the ring on. I basically did the same thing to the Serranos.

Jalapeño
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Serrano
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I let the jars sit on the kitchen counter for a few days and once they started to fermented I stirred them daily for a a few more days. Total time was a week, after which I transferred the contents of each jar into a small sauce pan, added 1/2c of white vinegar and slowly cooked them down. The Jalapeño mixture had more liquid due to the peppers being more hydrated so I had to cook it longer. About 20-25 min.

Jalapeño
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Serrano
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Next I transferred the cooked down mixture to a small colander and pressed out the juice. After that I strained the juice through a strainer to remove to pulp that pushed through the colander.
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I ended up with about 1-1/2 C Jalapeno and 1 C Serrano. The flavors are distinctly different with the Serrano version taking on a heavier catsup like flavor and the Jalapeño version being sharp, tangy and hotter. My one issue is that I strained the mixtures down too much and ended up with a Tabasco like texture on both of them. NTTAWWT, but it would not fool someone as being true Sriracha. Damn tasty though.

Finished product.
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Has anyone else tried this? Any tips on getting the texture a bit thicker?

You might try grinding the cooked peppers thru a food mill or one of the fancy blenders that liquefy the seed and everything.

I have an old, 50 yrs+, Waring bar blender that does a pretty good job at that. So just keep it whole fruit with no straining eh? Will try that next time.

Without knowing the hydration of the peppers at the beginning you could chop, cook, grind, strain and then add back strained liquid to achieve the thickness you desire. Faced with a lot of strained juice, I’d cook it down to thicken to prior to adding it back to the sauce. While I’ve never made sriracha I’ve made plenty of veggie sauces and this is the format I’ve used with success.

I didn’t want to do the fermentation so I found this recipe that is pretty killer:
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/36060636540/paleo-sriracha

wowwwww. this looks awesome! what do you do with the left over peppers (after you press out the juice)… can you throw that into some marinate?

mannnn salivating…

That looks awesome Brian! Traditional sri racha is thinner than the Rooster Sauce so I guess you’re good.

I’ve had no luck growing peppers. I think we need to get our soil tested.

I lined the garbage can with them.

Have you tried them on bloomin onions?

Dang, Brian, that looks really good!

You could try passing the mixture through a tamis or chinois to achieve the texture you desire.

I find it interesting that you left the green tops on the peppers — what was your thinking behind that? I would have removed them.

I’m a whole cluster kinda guy. Didn’t have a negative effect on flavor and it reduced my prep time by a bunch.

Parts is parts!

LOL!! Nice.