Nothing completes a meal like a nice dose of hot sauce, and there are a ton of delicious options on the market. Personally, I prefer to stock my pantry with one hot sauce from each of my favorite cuisines — Sriracha for Asian food, Crystal for Southern food, and so on. It’s all about variety!
But sometimes, it’s nice to be able to completely customize the heat level, flavor, and consistency of your hot sauce. That’s where DIY hot sauces come in.
Making your own hot sauce is surprisingly really simple. It’s something that anyone can do, regardless of your level of cooking expertise. But you’d never guess that from how seriously people take their hot sauce. (Have you ever witnessed an argument about the number one brand of hot sauce? It ain’t pretty. Chairs go flying.) Nonetheless, it is true.
The fact is, it’s hard to screw up a hot sauce recipe. It only requires four basic ingredients: peppers, vinegar, salt, and garlic. Actually, the garlic isn’t even absolutely necessary. Make that THREE basic ingredients.
As long as you have those three items in some reasonable proportion, your hot sauce will taste like hot sauce.
Now, it might not taste like the best hot sauce that your local hot sauce guru has ever tasted, at least not on your first or fifth try. Let’s not forget that people spend entire careers crafting the perfect hot sauces, studying different chile peppers and flavor combinations and fire-roasting methods. But if you keep it simple, it will almost certainly taste pretty yummy. Do you want to be a leading hot sauce aficionado or do you want to just make some dang hot sauce?!
I just wanted to make some dang hot sauce, and so I did. It turned out really well.
For this recipe, you will need the four ingredients listed above (garlic included), as well as a medium-sized pan and a blender or food processor. If you want your hot sauce to be fully liquid, you’ll also need a strainer.