
The hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper. Of course, the whole point of growing the hottest peppers in the world is to make the hottest hot sauce. Ok, this recipe for Carolina Reaper hot sauce wont compete with those sauces that use pure capsicum extract, but it is hot enough to ruin your day…if you can’t handle it. I like to start my morning by dripping a bit on some of my fried eggs to really get the blood flowing.
As I don’t grow my own Carolina Reaper peppers I ordered some dried ones online. Making hot sauce with dried peppers is just as easy as with fresh, you just have to soak the peppers in water for at least a half hour before you start.
What Is A Carolina Reaper?

A Carolina Reaper is the hottest pepper in the world, at least accorded to Guinness. It was developed by Ed Currie, a chili pepper breeder in South Carolina. There are two peppers that claim to be hotter, Dragon’s Breath which was bred in the UK, and Pepper X – another Currie creation. However both of those peppers are yet to be officially confirmed.
Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce Ingredients

The most simple hot sauce recipes only have a couple ingredients. Chile peppers, vinegar, and salt. This is known as Louisiana style and made most famous by Tabasco. However you can, and should, get creative. My recipe adds a few more ingredients, just for extra flavor.

The first step is to place your dry Carolina Reaper peppers in a bowl and pour over a cup (250) ml of boiling water. I use 7 peppers for this recipe which is about 15 grams by weight.

After sitting for about a half hour the peppers are nice and plump. The liquid is a brownish gold. You can use this liquid in place of water for the recipe, however I discarded it as I use a different liquid.

Carrot Juice! Instead of using regular water, or the soaking liquid, I am using a cup (250 ml) of freshly pressed carrot juice. This goes into a blender along with the Carolina Reapers, a cup of white vinegar, and two teaspoons each of salt and garlic powder.

Because I am making a thin, drippy hot sauce, I suggest running the blender longer than normal. The most important part of this recipe is to try to extract as much heat as possible from the solids. It is possible that the final hot sauce, after bottling, can separate. So to prevent that you can add a teaspoon of sunflower or soy lecithin to the blender.

Pour the hot sauce through a fine mesh filter to strain out the solids. You should be left with a beautifully orange colored liquid that is ready for bottling. Use a funnel to pour the carolina reaper hot sauce into a little glass bottle. Make sure to add the dripper insert as you really need to be careful with how much of this you add!

Where To Use This Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce
If you can handle the heat you can use this delicious hot sauce anywhere you would use any of your favorite store bought or homemade hot sauces. Add a few drops to pico de gallo to kick it up a notch, or drip it over some fried eggs or Spanish potatoes for a eye-watering tasty way to start your day!
I especially love using this Carolina reaper hot sauce on all my tasty taco recipes like:
- GRILLED OCTOPUS TACOS WITH PINEAPPLE AND SHALLOT SALSA
- TACOS DE LENGUA
- BAJA CALIFORNIA SHRIMP TACOS WITH PINEAPPLE SALSA
- RAINBOW TROUT TACOS
- QUESABIRRIA TACOS

Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce
Equipment
- 1 Blender
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer the finer the better
Ingredients
- 15 grams Carolina Reaper Peppers dried (if you don't have dry then use about 7 fresh peppers.
- 1 cup White Vinegar 250 ml
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 cup Carrot Juice 250 ml
Instructions
- In a bowl add the dried peppers and pour over a cup of boiling water. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- Remove the peppers from the water and place them into a blender along with the rest of the ingredients. Run the blender until everything is as liquid as possible.
- Strain the hot sauce through a fine mesh strainer before putting into clean glass hot sauce bottles. Don't forget to add a dripper insert to control how much sauce comes out.
Notes

Really quite a good hot sauce recipe.