A recipe to make your own homemade cayenne pepper sauce in your own kitchen, with store bought or garden grown cayenne peppers, garlic, vinegar and salt. It's super easy and super flavorful.
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT20M
Total time: PT30M
Rating
4.89 stars (100 reviews)
Keywords
cayenne, condiment, hot sauce, spicy
Ingredients
10 ounces cayenne chili peppers
5-6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine vinegar ((or more, as desired - use 1 cup for a thinner sauce))
1 teaspoon salt (+ more to taste)
Categories
Main Course
Salsa
Cuisine
American
Steps
Chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and add them to a pot with the vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt.
Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes.
Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Process it until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste with more salt if desired
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve if you'd like a smoother sauce, or pour it into bottles as-is for a thicker sauce.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 32 kcal
Carbohydrates: 6 g
Protein: 1 g
Sodium: 164 mg
Sugar: 3 g
Reviews
Sarah on 2026-09-13 (5 stars): This is a great hot sauce recipe! It is on the thicker side, which is why the recipe includes instructions for making it thinner if you want a thin sauce. I chose to leave mine thick because it'll be used in recipes rather than as a condiment.
Roy Thompson on 2026-08-28 (3 stars): Way too many peppers and too little vinegar. About 5 Oz. of peppers and 1 cup of vinegar to start with, possibly adding more vinegar.
ed grundner on 2026-07-31 (5 stars): 10 oz. of peppers is a lot of peppers. After chopping I thought 1/2 cup vinegar wouldn't be enough; I added 1 cup then boiled. After blending it was very thick so I added a little lime juice and a glug of vinegar then re-blended. I filled 2 bottles and after scraping out the blender I got another 2/3 of a bottle it was still fairly thick. I couldn't waste what was on the walls of the blender so I added a little vinegar and shook the blender to get all the good stuff off and topped off the 3rd bottle.
Actually the 3rd bottle is probably the consistency I like. I think the cooking took a little heat out of the peppers, the raw pepper i tried was really hot but the sauce is a little milder. Definitely will make again.
Karl on 2026-07-03 (5 stars): This sauce was great. My wife doesn’t like spicy and she even commented on the aroma. I ended up adding 3oz lime juice and 1oz tequila
Alan Ehmke on 2026-06-25 (5 stars): I used 35 grams dried Tabasco Cayenne peppers and reconstituted them in 12 oz boiling water and drained saving liquid. Pureed with emulsion blender and added vinegar and salt to taste. It was too thin for me. I tried emulsifying with vegetable oil. Not great.
Do you have any tricks to thicken a sauce?
Thank You
Alan
Gregg Arvanitis on 2025-11-12 (5 stars): Mike,
does this sauce have to be refrigerated if I don't can it?
Thanks
Gregg A
Kristian on 2025-11-08 (5 stars): This was such a simple hot sauce, and the flavor is fantastic! I used apple cider vinegar since thats a flavor profile I prefer over white wine vinegar…out side of that though, I followed directions for this delicious hot sauce! This would be a great gift to family if they like a little heat! 🌶️
