The Best Easy Spicy Jalapeno Pickled Eggs for Canning
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It’s no secret I love canning pickled eggs. It’s one of my favorite, quick high-protein snack to have on the shelf just waiting for me! Whenever I have extra eggs that aren’t fit for lime water preserving or that I don’t really need preserved that way or dehydrated, the easy way to preserve them is to pickle them. This spicy pickled eggs recipe is one of many I use, as I enjoy having quite the variety on my shelves with the best flavor. They look awfully pretty and they sure taste good, too! This easy recipe comes together quickly and the hardest part is getting all the eggs hard boiled and peeled, so what I do is work in smaller batches so I’m not peeling 60+ eggs at once. A dozen or two is much more manageable!
This homemade pickled egg recipe contains easy to follow, simple steps to quickly turn some fresh eggs into shelf stable healthy recipes for snacking for years to come that store leaps and bounds longer than lime water preserved or dehydrated. I don’t have a freeze dryer so that’s not an option. Lots of people know these as “bar eggs” or the obvious ” old fashioned pickled eggs” and many other strange names. I’ve never been somewhere that has served me pickled eggs like a Mexican restaurant serves chips and salsa and I’m pretty salty about that!
​My Other Pickled Egg Recipes
Yes, This is Rebel Canning
There are no “tested” recipes for canning eggs. Â Does that mean it’s unsafe? Â NO. Â Guess what… you can buy them in the convenience stores canned for you, so you can absolutely do it at home. Â And, no, they’re not using anything more special than us. Â Commercial equipment allows for massive batches, very quickly and has nothing to do with being “safer.” Â
Good grief… have you not watched all the food recalls lately?! Â If you are uncomfortable canning outside the recommended and tested recipes, that’s totally fine, nobody is making you. Â Check out a canning book or the National Center for Home Food Preservation for more guidance. Â But for those of you that are, know that this recipe is predominantly white vinegar and ain’t nothin’ gonna grow in these jars. Â Please use cleanliness and common sense and remember, what I’m doin’ in my kitchen don’t gotta be what you’re doin’ in yours. Â I can’t make you do a thing and I’m just sharing what I’m doing in mine.
Best Way to Hard Boil Farm Fresh Eggs
If you have chickens and are hard boiling eggs, you’ll know that everyone has an opinion on how to hard cook them and make them peel easy.  I’ve seen things from adding baking soda to the boiling water, vinegar, using old eggs, you name it.  BUT.  I have a method and it’s the best and I’m always right.  K?  LOL.  I steam my eggs. Â
I have dash egg cooker that steams the eggs for me and it does take some time working in batches but it works AMAZING and the peels legit just fall right off.  You simply poke a hole in the round end and steam them pointy end down.  You have a small measuring cup to add an exact amount of liquid for however you want your eggs cooked, add it to the bottom, fill with eggs, and turn it on.  Mine chimes when it’s done and I just plop them in ice water and fill it up again while I prep the rest of the ingredients for canning.  I have a small 6 egg cooker but I’ve seen a double decker one at Sam’s Club I eyeballed pretty hard, but never bought since I already had one.  Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without kinda mentality here. Â
Another method that works pretty well is what’s known as the 5-5-5 method using an electric pressure cooker. I have stainless egg racks that I can fill with 18 eggs in mine at a time. You set your pressure cooker on high pressure to cook for 5 minutes, then let it naturally cool for 5 minutes before manually releasing any remaining pressure, then place them in an ice bath for 5 minutes before peeling. Super easy and it works great! I did try once to haphazardly fill my pressure cooker with eggs just stacked inside and it went horribly wrong, so don’t do that. Eggs cracked and it was a mess. I guess it could have been a fluke, but I avoid it now because I don’t want to share that many eggs with my chickens again.
Sometimes if I’m canning a lot of eggs, I use both methods simultaneously.
Equipment You Might Want
- Medium saucepan
- Wide mouth quart-size canning jar
- Canning lids & screw bands
- Egg steamer
- Steam canner
Ingredients:
- Hard boiled eggs
- Jalapeno peppers
- White distilled vinegar 5% or apple cider vinegar
- Red onions
- Hot water
- Sugar
- Salt
- Garlic cloves
Let’s make some spicy pickled eggs!
This recipe is PER QUART JAR
Step 1: Prepare Hard-cooked Eggs
Your first step is to hard boil about 12 chicken eggs per quart jar you plan on pickling using your preferred method. You can use whatever eggs you have… quail eggs are super cute, you’ll just need a bunch more! If you’d like to know what I use to hard cook eggs, see the above section where I talk about it.
Place eggs in ice water to cool just enough to be able to handle and peel them. Any eggs that don’t peel nicely and are damage should not be used for canning.
​A lot of the time making this recipe is from cooking and peeling the eggs. The rest goes really fast.
Step 2: Make the Pickling Solution
To a sauce pan, add:
- 2 cups vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Stir and bring to a boil. Stir frequently to dissolve sugar and salt. Work on next steps while you wait on the brine to heat.
Step 3: Prep Ingredients
Rinse and slice 1-2 fresh jalapeno into rings. I always plan on 2 jalapenos per quart jar. I leave the seeds in because I want the spice, but you can remove them.
Halve and thinly slice half a red onion. Break apart and set aside.
Mince or thinly slice 2 garlic cloves.
Step 4: Fill Jars
Wash quart mason jar and lid with hot, soapy water. Rinse well.
To the jar, place eggs on the bottom (about 2-3 eggs), top with some of the jalapeno slices and red onions and garlic. Continue layering until the jar is full, keeping the final egg below 1″ headspace. Do not press hard on jars and overpack. You will overcrowd the eggs and have air pockets and places that aren’t touching the pickling solution.
Ladle boiling pickling brine over top to 1/2-inch headspace. Remove bubbles gently and add more liquid to maintain headspace.
I have tried just jamming all the peppers, onions, and garlic on the bottom, adding the eggs, and then the brine and they weren’t as good. The eggs touching the peppers at the bottom were more spicy and flavorful than the ones at the top. I had assumed the brine would transfer the flavor around the jars, and maybe it would have if I agitated the jars every day, BUT I know me, you know that I know me, and I know that you know that I know me and that isn’t just happening. PLEASE tell me you get the movie reference :D
Step 5: Canning
Wipe jars rims with a clean cloth. Add lids and secure with bands according to lid manufacturer’s specifications.
Water bath or steam can jars of pickled eggs for 15 minutes, adjusting time for altitude if needed. If you are not sure, read my post about canning & altitude for clarification!
Once processing time is complete, shut off heat and remove jars from canner and set aside to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
For what it’s worth, I actually use the open kettle canning method for my pickled eggs so you can do that if you’d like. I just make sure to not over stuff my jars and use eggs basically peeled hot out of the steamer and cooled just enough to handle. Works perfectly but can come with some seal failures if you don’t work quickly, which is why I gave water bath canning instructions as well.
Step 6: Storage
After cooling time, remove bands and test seals, wash jars, label, and store finished product in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures. Allow eggs to pickled about 6 weeks before enjoying, although you can eat them sooner. The longer they sit, the better they get.
The shelf life of pickled eggs is til you eat them. If the seal is good, they are good and there’s no tossing them at the 2 year mark. Promise.
Any jars that did not seal can be stored in the refrigerator for months. They keep just as good as refrigerator pickles. I would NOT reprocess them as the eggs will get a very rubbery and undesirable and overcooked texture.
Now use this recipe to use up that surplus of eggs from the coop or store-bought eggs you snagged on sale that you’ve been wondering what to do with and be sure and check out my other delicious pickled egg recipes!
Notes:
Depending on the type of garlic, your garlic slices may turn blue when pickled. This is a normal reaction with pickling and it does not affect the quality or flavor of the brine.
The sugar in this recipe is entirely optional and can be replaced with honey or not used at all. I just find it helps curb the intense pucker of a vinegar heavy hot brine.
Equipment
- Medium saucepan
- Wide mouth quart-size canning jar
- Canning lids & screw bands
Ingredients
- 2 cups white 5% vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 jalapenos sliced
- 1/2 red onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced or minced
- 12 eggs hard boiled & peeled
Instructions
- To a medium sized saucepan, add vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar.
- While brine is heating, layer 2-3 eggs alternating with jalapenos, onions, and garlic until jar is filled, keeping the eggs under 1 inch headspace.
- Ladle hot brine liquid over jars to 1/2″ headspace. Gently de-bubble and add more liquid if needed to maintain headspace.
- Wipe jar rims well, add lids and bands, and water bath or steam can for 15 minutes, adjusting time for elevation. If you do not want to can them, place them in the fridge and shake them every so often. Allow to pickle for 2 weeks before eating!
