Candied Pickled Jalapeños: Champion’s Cowboy Candy Recipe

Bring the heat with these homemade pickled jalapeño slices.

There are two kinds of “Cowboy Candy” and this easy recipe is not for chaw. This is a sweet/sour pickled pepper that is great as a relish on hot dogs, burgers, cold cut sandwiches, pulled pork, coleslaw, potato salad, on grilled cheese sandwiches, on Italian beef and Italian Sausages, or mixed in with your cornbread. Take a block of cream cheese and cover the top with these tasty rings and serve with crackers as an appetizer.

Pleasantly, the heat is diminished by the cooking process, so the results are not as hot as you might fear. This recipe is a refrigerator pickle, so all jars must be stored in the fridge. When you are done, save the syrup. You’ll find a use for it in sauces like DC Mumbo sauce, barbecue sauce, cocktails, and more.

How this recipe got its name

When I was a boy, one of my heroes was Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, and I was nuts about his horse Champion. So I have named my Cowboy Candy recipe after the world’s smartest horse.

He made himself a household name starring on radio in the 1930s and 40s, in movies in the 40s and 50s, and on television in the 1950s. He made 640 recordings, including more than 300 songs written or co-written by him. His records sold more than 100 million copies and he has more than a dozen gold and platinum records, including the first record ever certified gold. His Christmas and children’s records Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) and Peter Cottontail are among his platinum recordings. His version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, is the second all-time best selling Christmas single. But my favorite, as a kid who wore a cowboy hat and chaps everywhere, was Back in the Saddle Again. In 1961 he bought the California Angels baseball team.

Gene Autry’s Cowboy Code

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Candied Pickled Jalapeños Recipe

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Add some sweet heat to sandwiches, favorite side dishes, cornbread, and much more for this recipe for Cowboy Candy, a.k.a. candied jalapeños. Serve on burgers, nachos, quesidillas, sandwiches (especially liver sausage sandwiches), hot dogs, pulled pork, crackers, mix into egg salads and pimento cheese.

This recipe is a refrigerator pickle, so all jars must be stored in the fridge. When you are done, save the syrup: it's got so many uses.

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Course:

Appetizer

,

Sandwich

,

Sauces and Condiments

,

Side Dish

,

Snack

,

Vegetable

Cuisine:

American

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Makes:

one 12-ounce jar

Servings: 12

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Takes:

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Equipment

• 32 ounce jar with lid

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Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

• ▢ 1 pound fresh green jalapeños or other spicy chiles
• ▢ 2 cups white granulated sugar
• ▢ ⅔ cup distilled vinegar
• ▢ ½ cup water
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt

Notes:

About the jalapeños. You can use any chile pepper you wish, hotter of less hot. Click here to see your options.

About the vinegar. I prefer this with white vinegar than with cider vinegar. Click here for more about vinegars.

About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.

Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

• Prep. Wear disposable gloves when cutting and handling hot peppers and safety glasses are not a bad idea. Think you're a tough guy and don't need the protection? Do it barehanded and then go take a leak. Then, while you're crying, wipe your eyes. But for goodness' sake, don't make love for 24 hours unless you've worn gloves. Once your protection is in place, thoroughly wash the jalapeños, cut off the top stem of each pepper, scoop out the seeds with a knife or small spoon, then slice them into ⅛ inch (3.2 mm) rings, unless you are afraid they will be too hot. In this case, get a knife and reach down into the pepper with it and scrape off the white veins. They hold most of the heat. The seeds have some of the capsaicin, but not as much. Then rinse out the cavity and slice into ⅛ inch (3.2 mm) rings.
• Cook. Cook the sugar, vinegar, salt, and water in a saucepan over medium heat until it boils and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

  Before you proceed, beware. When you add the peppers to the hot syrup they will off-gas capsaicin, a.k.a. pepper spray, almost the same stuff the riot police use. It can really fill the house with pepper gas. Please do not hover over the pan, and remember to turn on the overhead fan on your stove. I do the cooking outside on my grill or the side burner. I have found that an N95 surgical mask helps.

  Now add the peppers and the liquid will stop boiling. Wait for it to boil again, then turn it off after about 30 seconds. This will pasteurize the peppers. While the syrup is hot, use a slotted spoon to move the peppers into a very clean 12 ounce (29.6 ml) jar. Pack them in tight and pour in the syrup. Poke around with a fork until the air is gone, tighten the lid, and refrigerate. Keep refrigerated.
• Serve. After a few hours the jalapeños will start losing the bright green color and the peppers and the syrup will swap their fluids. You can dig in then, but if you wait a few days, you will be rewarded for your patience.

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