Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce

Learn how to make Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce. My hot sauce recipe is a delightfully delicious combination of spicy peppers with a sweet smoothness from honey and carrots. It’s super tasty on chicken wings, and it would also be delicious on subs, sandwiches, pizza, and more. 

I’m addicted to creating new Hot Sauce Recipes…

I’ve mentioned before that I’m super addicted to eating hot sauce and growing hot peppers. On top of these addictions is another layer: now I’m also addicted to creating new and unique hot sauce recipes. 

I think it fits perfectly with my love for researching things. I’ll open up about a hundred tabs on my computer for various hot sauce recipes from other folks and then study them and think about what they have in common. I’ll write it all down on pieces of paper and then categorize the common ingredients and ratios (ex: 1 part vinegar, 1 part fruit, etc.) and think about how to combine things to make a brand new recipe. I absolutely LOVE the research process for creating unique hot sauces.

Check out my other flavorful and unique hot sauce recipes here:

• Citrus Grapefruit Habanero Hot Sauce
• Pineapple Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
• Roasted Hot Pepper Hot Sauce

This summer, we had a freak heat wave for a few weeks that totally killed most of my garden…except the hot peppers. They went bonkers. Hot peppers love hot weather. So, instead of waiting until mid-October for my first habaneros to be harvested, this year, they were already being harvested in August. Eep. That’s a LONG season of harvesting habaneros.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my hot peppers, but there’s only so many recipes you can make with habaneros, and most of those recipes only use one habanero at a time. So I knew that this summer was the perfect time to play around in the kitchen with creating brand new hot sauce recipes. I had an excess of hot peppers to experiment with, so I didn’t feel as guilty or frustrated with any failed recipes.

Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce: The Ingredients

Most of my other invented hot sauce recipes lean heavily into adding fruit (see recipe links above) to help counter the spice of the hot peppers. This time, I wondered if I could make a non-fruity hot sauce that still wasn’t unbearably spicy-hot. To counter the heat of the peppers, I added carrots and honey for some sweetness.

In addition to baskets of habaneros, I also had an incredible harvest this year of poblano peppers. I’ve been trying various varieties of poblano peppers for years now and I’ve had limited success in the past with growing them, but I finally found the perfect poblano variety for our garden climate.

There’s nothing like the taste of roasted poblano peppers (the roasting seems to add a depth of flavor that’s hard to describe), so I decided to roast the poblanos for the hot sauce. THEN, I wondered, why stop there? So I roasted the poblanos, habaneros, garlic, carrots, and onion to add a depth of delicious flavor to the hot sauce.

I also added a bit of tomato paste to add some heft and thickness to the hot sauce as well as some lime juice because citrus really helps take the edge off of hot sauces. Finally, I added some paprika because paprika is my favorite spice (learn more about using paprika in the kitchen here).

This made a perfectly thick hot sauce for wings. I did not have to thicken it later with cornstarch or arrowroot powder.

How spicy is this Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce?

I would say this hot sauce is maybe a 7 .5 out of 10 on the spicy scale for hot sauces. It is probably my spiciest hot sauce (so far), but it is still tolerable and does not make you miserable while eating it. My husband is less-tolerable to eating spicy things than me, and he also enjoyed the flavor and spiciness of this roasted poblano habanero hot sauce.

Tips for Making Hot Sauce Safely at Home

Making homemade hot sauce is a special type of challenge because it’s possible to leave spicy imprints everywhere. I wear two layers of gloves and try to keep remembering what I touch so I can wipe it down afterwards.

I have a lot of experience with making things with hot peppers in my kitchen, so I’ve gotten really good at… “learning hot pepper lessons” that includes things like:

1. If you touch the refrigerator door with glove that touched hot peppers, your fridge door handle is now covered in hot spicy pepper and it needs to be washed off;
2. If you turn on your kitchen faucet to wash your gloved hands so you can take your gloves off, you now need to wash the faucet handle because it’s covered with hot spicy peppers; 
3. If you touch kitchen utensils, pot handles, the kitchen counter, or ANYTHING while handling hot peppers, you need to take note of them so you can wash them off.

So yeah, if you start making hot sauce at home, PLEASE be extra careful by wearing gloves and cleaning every kitchen surface possible. Your eyes and skin will thank you for all the cautions you take.

Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 medium-sized poblano peppers
• 6 habaneros
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• Juice and zest of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup water
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. hot paprika (you can also use smoked paprika)
• 1-2 tsp. honey

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Put foil on your baking sheet. 
2. Prep your vegetables: cut out the core of your poblano peppers and habaneros and scoop out the seeds. Cut both types of peppers into half to lie flat on your baking sheet. Peel your carrots and cut into pieces (no need to be uniform or super small here). Peel your garlic cloves and cut in half. Cut your half of an onion into pieces (no need to be perfect here either).
3. Roast your poblano peppers, habaneros, garlic cloves, carrots, and onion for 20 minutes. IMPORTANT TIP: this might make your kitchen heat up (and make you cough/eyes water), so open your kitchen windows and put on your kitchen vent and/or put on some fans (aiming at the windows) beforehand. 
4. Transfer your roasted vegetables into a tall stock pot. Add the tomato paste, white vinegar, juice and zest of a lime, water, salt, and paprika (everything except the honey).
5. Sauté and simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat. Add 1 tsp. honey. Use an immersion blender (like this) to make the hot sauce completely smooth. Put a tiny bit of hot sauce on a spoon and taste. If you think it needs to be a bit sweeter and/or smoother, add up to one more 1 tsp. of honey.
7. At this point, you can either have approx. 2 cups of a chunky condiment-type sauce OR you can strain it. I prefer straining it. Use a mesh strainer over a bowl and pour the hot sauce into the mesh strainer and then use a spatula to gently press the hot sauce through the strainer. Compost the leftover pulp. You’ll end up with approx. 1 cup of strained hot sauce.
8. Pour into glass jars. Label and date your glass jars and store them in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Notes:

**Use a tall pot so that when you use the immersion blender, you don’t spray hot sauce in your face and on the walls (ask me how I know this can happen…).

**As mentioned throughout this post, WEAR GLOVES AND AVOID TOUCHING YOUR EYES. Hot sauce is delicious on food, but agony on your face and eyeballs.

Did You Try My Roasted Poblano Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe?

PLEASE let me know if you liked my poblano habanero hot sauce recipe! I love getting feedback from folks who try my recipes!

And if you like spicy things, make sure you check out my other articles:

• Roasted Hot Pepper Hot Sauce Recipe
• Citrus Grapefruit Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
• Pineapple Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce Recipe
• Ways to Preserve Jalapenos and Serranoes
• Refrigerated Pickled Jalapeno (or Serrano) Slices (MY FAVORITE!!!)
• Homemade Salsa Recipe
• Homemade Chili Recipe (my family-favorite recipe)