I had some leftover jalapeños from making a batch of Ciao! Picollo and, well, the canning pot was still full of water, and I had lids and jars prepped anyway, so…
Why not make Cowboy Candy?
Cowboy Candy is basically sliced jalapeños that have been pickled in a sugar brine; so they’re a bit sweet and a bit spicy, and totally delicious. I should note that my small batch only made a couple of half pints of peppers and a couple of extra juice, but I am giving
the recipe to make a full batch, which should yield about nine half pints of candied peppers and three additional half pints of the hot and sweet pickle juice, which is a nice addition to everything from deviled eggs and potato salad, brushed on grilled chicken or meats, or with most anything you might want to top off with a bit of spicy sweet brine.
INGREDIENTS
•3 lbs jalapenos, fresh and firm
– about 10 cups of sliced jalapeño
•2 cups cider vinegar
•6 cups sugar
•1/2 tsp turmeric
•1/2 tsp celery seed
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•3 tsp garlic powder
•1 tsp Cayenne
•1 tsp mustard seed
Wearing gloves, cut off the stem end of the jalapeños, then slice them about 1/4 of a inch thick and set aside.
Stir the sugar, turmeric, and other seasonings into the vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes, stirring often.
Stir in the sliced jalapeños, bring back to a boil, and boil hard for six minutes.
Divide the jalapeños among the prepared canning jars, then cover with the pickling syrup. As I noted you will more than likely have extra syrup, so go ahead and add that to jars, too.
Add lids and screw bands on the jars, then process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.
Remove the jars to a rack and listen for them to “pop” letting you know the jars have sealed. Any jars that have not sealed can be preprocessed in the boiling water.
Enjoy!