If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on some ghost chiles, I highly recommend making this Ghost Chile Hot Sauce ~ a fragrant and powerfully hot sauce.
A few weeks ago just before Hurricane Sandy hit, I received a box of exotic foods from Frieda’s, including a pack of vibrant red chile peppers. I had no idea what these peppers were called, but they were a brilliant red and just plain beautiful. I was playing around with these red chile peppers with my bare hands – a big mistake! Even after washing my hands numerous times, the oils from the hot chile peppers were still on my fingers and the next morning when I tried to get my contact lenses in, boy did I cry.
Ghost Hot Chiles
Lesson #1: Always wear gloves when handling hot chile peppers, especially when they are the hottest pepper in the world! I actually had no idea how spicy these chile peppers were until I emailed Frieda’s to find out what type of chile peppers they had sent me. When I read that Ghost Chiles were the world’s hottest chile pepper, with a Scoville Unit rating of about 1 million, I realized why my eyes burned so much.
So, what do you do with these Ghost Chile Peppers that are astronomically hot? The best thing I can think to do is to make some Hot Sauce. Frieda’s sent me a fact sheet on Ghost Chiles which included a recipe for “Hurtin’ Hot Sauce (Proceed with caution!)” This recipe intrigued me because it called for a lot of tomatoes and some red bell pepper in addition to the Ghost Chile Peppers. I removed the seeds from the Ghost Chile Peppers even though the recipe only said to remove the stems.
Even without the Ghost Chile Pepper seeds, and the addition of tomatoes and red bell peppers, this Ghost Chile Hot Sauce was fiery. Ghost Chile Peppers have an exotic, fruity aroma that is so enticing – even though this Hot Sauce is really hot, you’ll want to dip a spoon in just to taste it.
P.S. This is one of the items I couldn’t bare to throw out when Hurricane Sandy hit, so I actually brought it over to my friend’s house and stored it in their refrigerator. So glad I did, as I had to throw out all my condiments and when the power came back on, I still had this chile sauce.
Analyzed to serve 48 (approx.. 1 Tbsp per serving). Calories 30, Total Fat 0g, Saturated Fat 0g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 30mg, Total Carbohydrate 6g, Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 4g, Protein 2g, Vitamin A 40%, Vitamin C 10%
Red Hot Homemade Ghost Chile Hot Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 ghost chiles
- 1 small red bell pepper diced
- 1 28- ounce can whole tomatoes pureed
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves cut in half
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon organic sugar
Instructions
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Wearing gloves, remove stems and seeds from ghost chiles.
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Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes until vegetable are soft.
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Place in a blender and blend until smooth.
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Store in a glass jar or plastic container.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Frieda's.
If you like this ghost chile hot sauce recipe, you might also like:
Thai Chili Pepper Sauces (3 Ways)
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I’m so glad you rescued this sauce! (Yes, I would keep the hot sauce and toss everything else, too.) I’ve never tried ghost peppers but I’m starting to hear more about them, so I’m intrigued.
I had such a hard time throwing all my condiments out – so glad I saved this one. These are the hottest chilies I’ve ever encountered. They are deceiving – so pretty and dainty. I made the mistake of not wearing gloves when cutting them and paid for it dearly the next day! Very fragrant chilies.
Jeanette, the oil in chilis is not water soluble so washing your hands with soap and water won’t help that much. They are oil soluble so if you get some on your hands, just pour some vegetable oil on our hands and rub it around. You can then wash your hands with soap and water and the heat will be gone.
Thanks for the tip Rod!
I want to make a salsa recipe and chili recipe also with Ghost Chilis, but don’t know where you can buy them. Could you please direct to a site that sells Ghost Chilis.
Thank You for your help
Shea
Shea – I got mine from Frieda’s http://www.friedas.com/ghost-chile/
hi. the ghost chilli is 1.200.000 scovilles and the hotter chillie is the caroliner reaper at 2.200.000 scovilles i grow them and love them regards alan
Thanks for sharing this Al – I’ve never tried the caroliner reaper but I bet it is a real burner!
I have bag full of great ghost peppers they aren’t fully ripe yet can I make sauce with these?
Hi Mike – I’ve never used ghost peppers that aren’t fully ripe, but I’m guessing it might be like a green pepper is to red pepper. The flavor may be a little different, maybe not as sweet. You might try what this article suggests to ripen unripe peppers: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/preserving-chili-peppers/how-to-ripen-unripe-peppers/
Carolina reapers are much much hotter
I haven’t come across Carolina reapers – they must be super hot!!
Definitely holding onto this recipe. We have a ton of chiles and I think it’d be great to turn them into hot sauce!
This is a really good recipe Brian – definitely worth trying with a very hot chile. The tomato helps tame the heat.
Jeanette you are a brave lady for handling ghost chlies. I bet this is marvelous!
Sommer – I wish I could say I was brave…I was simply ignorant ;). Had no idea how spicy these peppers were! The sauce is so flavorful, so it was so worth the burn.
My husband would love this – I, on the other hand, wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pool – i know how hot ghost chiles are!!
I almost bought a ghost chili plant for our garden this year! Love hot sauce, but I wasn’t sure if this would be too much for me.
Rachel – I had never heard of ghost chiles before, so you are ahead of me!
Carolyn – these are super hot so worth trying in a hot sauce that tames the heat a bit if you like spicy.
I just *love* the name “Ghost Chiles”. I’ve never heard about them before but that name has me hooked. I bet that if this sauce was available bottled in the stores people would buy it based on that name alone. Very cool. Sorry about the eye-burning thing. I hate when that happens. Somehow it happens to me even when I wear gloves. 🙁
I’d never heard of Ghost Chiles, but now that I’ve tried them, I would definitely buy hot sauce made with them. Next time, I will definitely wear gloves and hope that it helps!
love this one! Very different!
Great gift idea for the fiery food lovers on my list.
How fantastic. I’ve never heard of ghost chiles before. This sounds fiery but delicious and I love the color.
I used to never wear gloves when handling hot peppers, but I learned my lesson this summer when I burned myself on jalapenos. (Yes, jalapenos!) I can’t imagine how much these ghost peppers would hurt! I’m definitely curious to try this sauce–I’m sure a little bit goes a long way. 🙂
I try to always remember to wear gloves when touching any pepper….even jalapenos that aren’t THAT spicy. But when I forget…man do my eyes pay for it! I know I’d LOVE this sauce since me and hot sauce are pretty much BFF. It tastes good on pretty much everything!
If I show this recipe to my daughter, I think she will cry… She and I recently tried the teensiest drop of Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce at a Mexican restaurant, and, yes, it was the hottest thing we have ever tasted {and I love spicy food!} Your hot sauce is so pretty though-love the color-and perhaps without the seeds, it is bearable 🙂
Ah, the old Naga Bhut Jolokia – they’ll get you everytime! ;-). You’ve done a lovely job with this sauce Jeanette – so vibrant looking. (p.s. like your new watermarked images!)
I have to say that making your own Hot Sauce from fresh peppers leaves you feeling a bit toasted afterwards. Recently we bought some Ghost Peppers, I cleaned them out saved all the seeds for later planting, and moved on to cooking them. Have to say a face mask will be needed and goggles, the steam was extremely nasty. All In all my sauce now complete rendered 18 oz’s of base pepper sauce, which can be thinned down and still be extremely hot, the flavor of the Ghost Pepper remains vibrant along with color. Still playing with variations on it’s theme.
Hi Jeanette!
A lovely recipe that I’ll be sure to try. Just some information you might be interested though. I’m a Chilli fanatic’! I grow many varieties and know quite a bit about them.
The ghost chilli or the Bhut Jolokia as it’s real name is, is actually no longer the hottest in the world and hasn’t been for some time. The Bhut Jolokia tips the 1000000 SHU. This was over taken shortly after by the Trinidad Scorpian at 1600000 SHU. This was then in 2012 overtaken by the Moruga Scorpian at 2 million SHU.
I currently grow all 3 and am hesitant to make a hot sauce with them and merely grow them as a novelty as their quite the challenge to grow, however I have many orange habanero’s sitting awaiting use and think would make a fantastic addition for your hot sauce. I will certainly do this!
Chris – thanks for sharing your knowledge on the hottest chiles in the world! I’ve never heard of the Trinidad Scorpian or Moruga Scorpian – and I would be afraid to eat them too. The Ghost Chiles are so hot already!
Jeanette… I bought some Bhut Jolokia seeds 2 years ago, and managed to get 1 plant to grow. Last year I got about 40 chilli’s off it. I made about ½ a litre of sauce with 2o of them, and dried the rest in my oven.
Last autumn I broke all the branches off the plant leaving a rough stem (we get frosts and I figured that getting rid of all the leafy bits would protect it, which it did). This year the plant regrew all new branches to a hight of over 3′, and I have harvested about 100 chilli’s off it.
I’ve put all my dried chilli’s from last year through my coffee grinder (making a fine powder), and just yesterday cooked it all up with tomato paste and some spices, making almost a litre of sauce… and it is EXTREMLY sickeningly hot!!
Jeanette, Thanks! I grew some of these peppers and really didn’t know what to do with them… Now I do!
Thanks so much for the recipe! I have 2 very full ghost pepper plants and also a basket of fire pepper plant. Of any one knows the SHU on the basket of fire I’d be interested to know. Also would love any more recipes or tips on drying them.
How fun! Would be great to have a ghost pepper plant. Hope you enjoy this hot sauce – it’s so spicy!
i place my ghost peppers in the dehydrator whole, ( remove stem) takes about 2 days for them to fully dry, i rotate the shelf’s and flip the peppers 2-4 time a day, more to just see the progress. *do no do this inside* did this is my garage the first time was unable to get to my car for 1 hour till it aired out, very strong smell for the first 24 hours, i set the temp to 135
That’s a great idea Matthew – thanks for sharing. I wish I had a dehydrator, would be fun to experiment with it.
I used your recipe but I had to modify it a little since I only had 1 ghost pepper. But even with just one that is still some hot sauce! And man, did my kitchen smell good when I was cooking it!
Alexis – the ghost chiles are so fragrant aren’t they – so glad you had a chance to try this. I need to get my hands on more ghost chiles so I can make this again.
Any idea how long this will keep in the fridge?
I think it should keep in the fridge for a week or so. You can also freeze it.
Wow, made some today… Very good! Thanks for your awesome web site!
Arnold, so glad you had a chance to try this recipe – I need to make some again soon!
I am definitely trying this!! I have two ghost pepper plants ready to be picked but no clue what to do with them.
I will try freezing the sauce or canning.
Thank you!!
Dear Jeanette,
I’ll try rhis recipe, but I do not understand what do you mean in recipe “add enough water to cover”? Is there not enough liquid from tomatoes? This is 800g (28ounce) if I understand correct (I’m from Slovenia). So how much water did you add?
Another thing. If you put this sauce in glass jars, it will last only a week?
Thank you!
Kolma, you may not need to add water if there is enough tomato juice. The idea is to make sure there is enough liquid to cover the peppers in the pot. I put the sauce in my refrigerator and it lasted several weeks (you may eat it up before then).
Wonderful sauce! My wife loved it and it is already gone. I had fatalli’s which worked in place+as always used three cloves more garlic. My ghost peppers are now ripe so today I am making more. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.
Michael, so glad you liked this hot sauce recipe – it is really flavorful isn’t it! I’ve never seen fatali peppers – bet they’re really hot too!
Thank you for the recipe. I have a gallon size ziplock bag in the freezer full of the Ghosts and another full of Habaneros. I am making fit now with 4 ghosts and 2 Habaneros. It smells divine.
Doris – you’re so lucky to have so many chili peppers on hand to make this sauce. I remember how fragrant it was when I made it – wish I had some Ghost chilies now. Enjoy!
Actually the Carolina reaper is the worlds hottest pepper…. It’s three times as hot as a ghost but it’s a hybrid so it’s not on the charts… Add tht to ur recipe and u may lose ur stomach lol
This recipe is great. It turned out very “tomatoey” though, maybe because I used canned plum tomatoes instead, I find it made a better tomato sauce that you would use for chili, spaghetti, lasagna or pizza sauce . I also used shallots instead of onion. could be hotter for my liking. Think next time ill double up the peppers. I also added extra garlic to it and salt and pepper. when all was done. tasted it and it was definitly delicious and not too hot so i think family/friends would enjoy it. i think im going to add some oregano to it and use it on some homemade pizza. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Jordan, this is on the “tomatoey side” relative to some hot sauces. Did you use fresh Ghost Chiles? They are super hot. Extra garlic sounds like a great idea. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Tasted it the next day (today) super hot! but not too hot! don’t think i need more peppers next time haha. and yes I did use fresh peppers. next time i think I will fire roast them. as for the tomatoey thing. I think I am more used to the vinegar based hot sauces and its nice to have something different on hand now. definitely a recipe I will continue to use though! ghost chili sauces are very cost effective too because you don’t need a lot 4$ for 7 of them where i live! and everything else is fairly cheap as well. much better compared to the 30 habanero peppers i needed to make another sauce.
Jordan – ghost chilies are super hot, very fragrant though.
Thanks for the super recipe, Jeanette! I grew one Ghost Pepper plant this year because my husband loves really hot (but flavorful!) anything, I only had two peppers so I used about 1/3 of the other ingredients. Instead of adding water, I just covered the pan and cooked to get a thicker sauce. I also added a tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro before blending it. My husband said it was “terrific” and although it;s too hot for me, it did smell great!
Kathy, love the addition of cilantro – I bet it was really flavorful. Thanks so much for letting us know that you tried this recipe and enjoyed it.
This is a great sauce. I modified mine a teenie bit and used a 50/50 blend of ghost and scorpion peppers what are growing in the garden. Also used fresh tomatoes and pretty much followed all other directions except I put it in steriliized clean jars, lids, and rings and canned it using a boiling water bath. Outstanding tropical fruit flavor. I have tried Dave’s Ghost Pepper Sauce but got to say your’s puts it to shame.
I know that this is an old post, but thought I would give my version for those interested. I grow two plants every year and get well over 100 peppers every time. Multiple people are now requesting this before harvest season.
All cooking is done on grill and side burner. Only inside time is puree and bottling…
Fire roast 20 ghost peppers and puree two raw
Chop 4 whole carrots
Chop whole onion
Chop two bell peppers
6 cloves minced garlic
2 cups cider vinegar
2 table spoons salt
2 table spoons pepper
Combine all into sauce pan and simmer till veggies are soft (about 45 min)
Turn on oven fan and open window, puree in batches, return to pan.
Back on side burner bring to simmer and add two 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce.
Simmer for about an hour, cool and bottle.
I salt and pepper to taste, pretty sure it is more than I stated, but it should be a good start.
I leave all seeds in, but the extra cider and the carrots help to tone it down. HOT AND TASTY;)
John,
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. Interestingly, I just made a ghost chile hot sauce last week with carrots and bell peppers – I really liked how the carrots mellowed out the peppers with its natural sweetness.
Hey I was wondering if you could use this hot sauce to cover hot wings and make hot wings with it. If not do you know of a ghost chili recipe that could be used for hot wings?
You could use this on hot wings – it is very spicy though so just use a little bit – I would shake the wings in a container with some of the sauce
Made this for the second time. My husband loves it!!! Giving a jar to all our family!!
Crystal – so glad you and your husband are enjoying this! Thank you for sharing it with your family.
I would like to try but cannot find the actually recipe here on the site
Hi Chad,
The recipe is at the bottom of the post. Sorry we had some technical problems today which have now been resolved.
No problem and Thank You
any idea if you can can this recipe?
I’ve never canned it but I don’t see why not.
I canned this tonight… 5 4oz jars, 2 8 oz jars and another half cup or so.
I did a 15 minutes hot water bath and let it sit for another five after turning off the heat.
It is hell hot… but it has a nice fruitiness underneath.
There is no way a tablespoon in one serving. I stirred 1/4 of a teaspoon into a curry squash soup and that was just the right amount.
How long will the sauce stay fresh refrigerated?
This should keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks.
Thank you! It is hot, hot, hot! ????????????????????
Yes this is one of the hottest chile peppers that I’ve come across!
Just made 2 separate batches, on with Caramel Moruga peppers and the other with the so far worlds hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper. Turned out really good
Bob – I’ve never tried either Caramel Moruga or Caroline Reaper peppers. You must grow your own. So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
This looks a delicious sauce but, since this has been written, the Ghost chilli has been well and truly superseded by the California Reaper which comes in at a staggering 2.2 million SHU.
Thanks for sharing this Rodina – appreciate it!
These ghost chilies do sound intriguing! I’m tempted to try the recipe just as an excuse to use the ghost chilies. Thanks for sharing.
Jeanette, this recipe is an absolute keeper for the books! Thank you for sharing it and I also just wanted show thanks to you on keeping up with replying to everybody’s feedback. Keep up the great work. ????
Hi Rob – so glad you enjoyed this recipe! This is still one of my favorite hot sauce recipes 🙂
I just made this and it’s awesome (although very tomato heavy….which is not a bad thing by any means) but I wonder what you eat it on. It almost reminds me of a very spicy marinara.
I stir it into anything I normally would add hot sauce to – dips, sauces, noodles, rice bowls