We've picked out our favorite peppers for hot sauce (and some of your favorites) that you can grow in your garden to make hot sauce! Find our favorite hot sauce recipes and make them your own with any of these hot peppers. You can use any hot pepper or combination of peppers to make hot sauce, so don't feel limited, experiment! The sky's the limit. You'll find that some you love some peppers even more than others, but it's fun to try them all. Hot sauce captures the essence of the flavor of hot peppers and lets you taste their wide range of fruity and complex flavors all in a precious drop!
We'll kick things off with the hottest pepper you can grow in your garden! This super hot makes some killer Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce!
The Tombstone Ghost Pepper is wickedly hot and makes some mouthwatering, deliciously SPICY Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce! With a Scoville Heat Unit rating of 1,000,000+, this pepper isn’t just hot-it’s hauntingly hot.
Our favorite, Habaneros have a tropical fruity hot heat that is hard to match! They make our favorite kind of hot sauce, Habanero Hot Sauce! The flavor is so delicious that you're tastebuds will keep asking for more even if you're sweating profusely! Not as hot as the first two hot peppers we mention above, but the flavor is TOP NOTCH!! All Habaneros make great hot sauce, so be sure to grow all the varieties! We like to combine habaneros with roasted carrots which seem to be the perfect pairing for hot sauce!
Scotch Bonnets bring a vibrant heat and citrusy sweetness of Jamaica to your garden and hot sauces!
Also be sure to grow our Orange Scotch Bonnet which makes awesome hot sauce as well. You can use these to make any of our hot sauce recipes.
We have not just one variety of Jalapeno, but eleven varieties! Grow them all and experience their wide range of colors and heat levels! You can pick them green and make a green jalapeno hot sauce, or let them ripen to their mature color for even more flavor and sweetness. Try our Roasted Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe for a heavenly hot sauce that goes great with everything!
Hot Hatch chiles also make a killer green hot sauce! These are great as they grow quickly so you can make hot sauce sooner in the summer!
We all know the classic Tabasco hot sauce that has been an American (and world) staple for many years. You can grow your own Tabasco peppers and make your own hot sauce! Try making them with one of our Fermented Hot Sauces for the complex probiotic flavors!
What’s your favorite pepper used in hot sauces?
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Here are favorite hot peppers for hot sauce that you have shared with us:
The habanero. It’s in my scoville comfort zone for daily use and it’s not too perfumy.
- Brian C.
Habaneros hands down. Unique taste and just the right amount of heat. I love the aromatic floral flavor.
- Matthew O.
I love red fresnos. They have great flavor and color and I can add heat with other peppers.
- Ben Z.
Poblano’s. They are versatile, pack a ton of flavor, and can form the backbone of any sauce you ferment. It won’t outcompete your other hotter peppers for flavor, and they aren’t watery like tomatoes or tomatillos or other bell type peppers. That means you get more peppers into your ferment and less water. Plus, you can use them fresh, frozen, dried, powdered… it all works.
- Jason B.
Habs for a medium and scorpion for hot.
- John N.
Habernao, fruity flavor. I make salsa with em and peaches and mango with cilantro.
- James C.
Cayenne... not very exciting I know but its level of heat can be handled by anyone and it tastes amazing. Best sauce I made was about 90% cayenne and 10% habanero for extra heat.
- Francois H.
Thai and Jalapeños, fermented together create a great Sriracha! Heat and flavor. Then Habaneros, fermented and blended with honey and Mango.
- Jim R.
Arbol - Aaron L.
Red Jalapeños - Kelly I.
Habanero and Fresno is the perfect mix - Michael B.
Fatalii because they are a perfect balance of flavor and spice. And are prolific.
- Meri I.
I do a mix of ghost/reaper/scorpion in my go to sauce.
- Chantal K.
Smoked jalepenos - Kira M.
Most any habanero but mainly ghost pepper. The yield is good per plant. They resist heat and work well with the sea of green technique. - Elbert R.
Yellow fatalii, nice citrus notes
- Mike W.
Habanero. I eat them like candy. The heat is secondary, and negligeable. Their flavor and smell are superior. If you're not into the heat, try shaving off the outside skin, like lemon essence. "Habanero essence." It should be a perfume.- Hardy C.
The habanero, it provides plenty of heat which can be controlled to get the desired heat using other ingredients and has a somewhat fruity flavor, then again I use everything from Hungarians to reapers depending on what I want to make.
- Jerry Y.
Habaneros are pretty darn versatile.
Cayennes are wonderful for all manner of srriachas.
- Steve J.
The humble and mild "Chiltepin". You can make a classic Tex-Mex style Taco Sauce that has the same satisfying umami as "Old El Paso" or "Taco Bell" -- but goosed up a notch. Ferment it along with tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, and toss in 1 or 2 stoopid hots if you really wanna up the amperage. Seriously -- I have friends placing orders of this when they know I have the fermentation gear out.
I've done all the superhots. I still do them. But I'm more concerned with taste these days.
- Dave F.
Cayenne, not too hot and great flavor with garlic.
- Jamie L.
Ghost Pepper. Love the smoky taste of it.- Scott D.
To be honest my favorite hot sauces I've always been made with cayenne peppers. Louisiana style hot sauces are always my favorite.
- Will G.
Above: We don't make hot sauce to sell, but we did create some custom labels for a promotional hot sauce to send to our
Wholesale Seeds customers as a thank-you for their orders! Did you know our seeds are available in nurseries and garden centers across the United States? Explore our
Seed Retailers Map to find a nearby location, or ask your local nursery or garden center to carry our seeds. We’re proud to partner with local businesses to spread the love of chile!
Lemon drop & Jalapeño- Zoran S.
Habaneros are great.
Pleasant heat, wonderful aroma. But above all, I like the yield and how easy it is to remove the seeds. (At least with some varieties.)
Apart from that, I'm a big fan of the Carolina Reaper. It has an even better aroma and packs an even bigger punch.
- Jacques H.
Scotch bonnet or scorpion. - Andrew B.
I will probably have some haters but my solid base pepper is the Hungarian Wax. I grow my own & I’ve found: 1. They are prolific, by volume I get massive amounts of usable peppers for the space in the garden used. 2. Heat is manageable 2-4 times a jalapeño. 3. Colors, the pepper is very usable green, orange, & turns a deep dark red when fully ripe. 4. It’s kinda a thin to medium wall pepper and can be cut up nicely and ferments great. 5. I also dry and powder these peppers to make my own hot paprika & smoked paprika. So I consider it multi-use. But like I said it is a BASE pepper & I usually add to the recipes when blending different heat level sauces.
Sorry this was so long but you did ask why.
- Tim T.
Trick question!! lol I can’t pick a pepper that’s better than others. Each pepper fits a different mood I am or want to be in. Hot and savory or not so hot and more flavorful. It’s fun pairing ingredients with different peppers. Love the comments. Mine are jalapeno, Fresno, habanero and the three superhots.
- Lee G.
Woman, it changes every time! Like emotions! ;)
- Donovan K.
We have over 100 peppers of the world that you can use in hot sauces.
You can even mix sweet peppers in with hot peppers or mild peppers for more complex flavor or milder sauces. For example, try the Habanada which has all the tropical fruity flavor of Habaneros without the heat.
Our favorite pepper for hot sauce is Habaneros!
Try our Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe!
Be sure to check out our Seed Catalog which features some hot sauce recipes!
