"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- 4 ounces red, ripe chile peppers*, remove top and slice
- 4 ounces onion*, cut into chunky pieces
- 6 garlic cloves, peel and cut in half lengthwise
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp. coriander seeds
- ½ tsp. cumin seeds
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 - 1 ½ cup distilled white vinegar*
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In a small sauce pan, add the vinegar, star anise, coriander, cumin, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce and simmer for 2 minutes.
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While the vinegar is heating, prepare the chile peppers, onion and garlic. Transfer to a bowl and toss together to mix it all up. Transfer to a clean glass jar.
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Pour the hot vinegar and spices into the jar. Add enough vinegar to cover the chile slices. Place the lid on a jar and set on the counter for 24 hours.
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Transfer to the refrigerator and enjoy! Pickled chile peppers will keep for at least 6 months, but they'll be gone long before then.
Chile Peppers – For pickled chile peppers, use small, thick walled, hot red peppers – like these Sandia… or jalapeno. You could use green or a mix of red and green or go all green, but the flavor will be different. Red chile is sweeter than green chile, so what you use is based on the flavor you want.
Onion – Sweet onions and red onions work best IMO, but you can use whatever you have.
Vinegar – For pickling, I prefer white vinegar as opposed to apple cider vinegar, because it doesn’t take away from the flavor of the onion and chile. Apple cider vinegar can add a totally different profile which I’m not crazy about. But if that’s what you have, then give it a try.
Doubling/Tripling recipe – To make a larger batch, just maintain the same proportions on all ingredients, except for the vinegar. The amount of vinegar you use depends on the size of the jar and how well you pack the jar. For example, a batch with 8 ounces of chile in a quart jar will require more vinegar than 12 ounces of chile packed into a quart jar. Therefore, for larger batches, start with 2 – 2 ½ cups of vinegar. You can always boil additional vinegar and add it to the jar if you need to.