Pickled Banana Peppers Recipe

These sweet and spicy peppers make a perfect pizza topping or sandwich ingredient.

Closeup of pepperoni pizza topped with pickled banana peppers and basil leaves.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • A basic brine and a simple quick-pickling procedure keep prep time to a minimum for this essential pizza topping.
  • Adding the sliced peppers to the saucepan rather than pouring the brine over them in a bowl reduces the number of dirty dishes.

My uncle had a bumper crop of tomatoes and hot banana peppers this year and decided to send'em all on up to New York from Pennsylvania via my-sister-express. What do you do with a peck of peppers? Why, you pickle'em of course.

Not only that, but once I walked into the supermarket under my building and discovered a brand new Boar's Head display right in the front of the store stocking natural casing hot dogs, sauerkraut, pickles, and... wait for it... natural casing sticks of real-deal pepperoni. I'd been scouring New York for years for a reliable source of natural casing pepperoni, and lo and behold, the pepperoni came to me instead.

Like Adam, I first started liking the combination of pepperoni and some kind of hot pepper when I tasted it on a limited edition Papa John's jalapeño and meat pizza a few years back. That pizza wasn't particularly great, but the topping combo was. Pickled banana peppers (I like'em better than jalapeños) are a go-to topping when I'm ordering pizza, but I'd never actually made myself one of these pies at home. All that changed.

Overhead view of a pepperoni and pickled banana pepper pizza, fresh out of the oven.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

The peppers were done in a simple basic pickling solution—1 part distilled vinegar, 1 part water, half a part sugar, and a pinch of salt, simply heated and poured hot over the sliced peppers. I also added a sliced shallot because I happened to have it on hand. The pepperoni was thick sliced by hand, and curled up beautifully around the edges. The dough was a basic New York pizza dough, the sauce was my New York pizza sauce, and the cheese was a dry mozzarella from Vermont.

I baked the whole thing off on a Baking Steel (my favorite baking surface), and five minutes later, I was enjoying one of the finest pies to come out of my kitchen.

September 2012

Recipe Details

Pickled Banana Peppers Recipe

Cook 5 mins
Active 10 mins
Cooling Time 25 mins
Total 30 mins
Serves 8 to 12 servings
Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar

  • 1 cup water

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 6 to 9 banana peppers, stems removed, sliced thinly into rounds (about 3 cups sliced peppers)

Directions

  1. Combine vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until salt and sugar dissolve. Remove from heat and add sliced peppers. Stir for about 15 seconds as the peppers soften. Peppers should become mostly submerged in the liquid. Allow to cool to room temperature, about 25 minutes. Drain liquid until peppers are just covered. Transfer peppers to a sealed container and store in the refrigerator.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Peppers can be refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 2 months.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
26 Calories
0g Fat
6g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 12
Amount per serving
Calories 26
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 57mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 6g 2%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 26mg 128%
Calcium 5mg 0%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 80mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)