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Chilli Jam

There are lots of different varieties of chillies, all with different levels of heat. The rule of thumb is usually the smaller, the hotter. For a milder sauce, use 2-3 chillies and a large red pepper.

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Annabel Langbein Media

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Chilli Jam
1 head garlic, cloves peeled

6-8 long red chillies, roughly chopped
3 thumb-sized pieces (200g) fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped 
2 double kaffir lime leaves, deveined (optional)
2½ cups caster sugar
½ cup water
finely grated zest of 4 limes
½ cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp fish sauce 
1 tsp soy sauce

© Annabel Langbein Media 
https://www.annabel-langbein.com/recipes/chilli-jam/286/

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Prep time:: 10 mins
Cook time:: 10 mins
Makes:: 2 cups

1 head garlic, cloves peeled
6-8 long red chillies, roughly chopped
3 thumb-sized pieces (200g) fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 double kaffir lime leaves, deveined (optional)
2½ cups caster sugar
½ cup water
finely grated zest of 4 limes
½ cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp soy sauce

Sterilise a 2-cup screw top jar and its metal lid.

Purée the garlic, chillies, ginger and kaffir lime leaves, if using, to a coarse paste. Place in a saucepan with the sugar, water, lime zest, rice vinegar, fish sauce and soy sauce.

Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then boil for about 10 minutes until reduced by a third. It will bubble up like jam.

Spoon the hot chilli jam into the warm sterilised jar until it is filled to within 3mm of the top. Seal with the screw lid. Once opened, store Chilli Jam in the fridge. It will keep for months.

Serve with cucumbers, celery and carrots.

Read my blog about homemade Christmas gifts or download free gift tags for this recipe (PDF 1.4 MB).

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28 comments

Hi Annabel, I have made the Chilli jam twice , sticking to your yummy recipe, the jam seems to go extremely think and crystallises after a week. Are you able to give some advise on what I may be doing wrong.?

AmandaRW June 20, 2020

Hi when you say it keeps for months is this in the fridge or is it shelf stable? Don't want to make people sick when gifting this ;) Thanks!!

nzkaren December 03, 2019

I absolutely love this recipe!!!!!! Just one comment: 3 thumb sized pieces of ginger is nowhere near equivalent to 200 g!!! I’ve always gone with the thumb sized measure and it’s tasted amazing, but perhaps the recipe could be updated as it’s confusing :) JH

JessH November 10, 2019

I just love this recipe, but here in Brazil we don't have chilli, so i use red bell peppers and "dedo de moça" our local pepper. :)

marytelles December 12, 2017

Hi, I would love to make this and substitute the sugar content is there something you can recommend to get the sweetness without the actual sugar?

chantalmahony June 12, 2017

Hi Annabel, I have used all our chillies this season and made 3 batches of SCJam and its been amazing. I was trying to help a young one learn to cook and it looks like my last batch was way overboiled. Only realised when we went to open one of the jars... is there any tricks to thin this out? so its useable as a jam?? Thanks so much :)

riap July 18, 2016

Just made your chilli jam. But I also added the juice of a lime I'd zested. Delicious. It's also a bit thicker too.

Kellymrodger March 29, 2016

This Chilli Jam recipe is like a home made Sweet Chilli Sauce. It is a combo of sweet and savoury. It is a pouring consistency and is great for dipping things - such as spring rolls, rice paper rolls or crudite. You do not need to use gelatine to thicken it - just boil it for longer! Hope this helps!

Annabel Langbein February 21, 2016

Hi Dthorpe, You could use a mix of green and red chillies. Green have a slightly different flavour (and can be much hotter!), but will still be delicious!

Annabel Langbein February 21, 2016

Watched the video, but still unclear. My partner loves Hot chilli sauces - not the oils where the chillies & other ingredient are put in a jar with the liquid around them. With the Chilli Jam, is it more for on scones etc (thinking of the word sweet here) & more importantly, is the final product thick. His words would be, ' does the chilli sauce stick to the meat or is the meat soaking in liquid". Also if I did make any chilli sauce that came out to thin in its consistency, can I thicken it with gelatine? Did you mention which book of yours that this was in? Do you have any THICK & Hot chilli sauce recipes at all? Love your books. Needing a large book shelf area to display them all.

city to farm girl January 13, 2016

Keep for months? You surely jest. This goes on and with almost everything unlikely to last one month in this house.

Jilrob August 16, 2015

Just made this recipe and it's yum! So much better than the bought sweet chilli sauce. I used leaves off my ordinary lime tree, not kaffir, and that worked perfectly. Grew the chillies and limes myself, so feeling chuffed.

JoJoiner April 25, 2015

Hi Annabel, I see someone else asked if you could use green chillies, I have a lot of green and about 4 red, can you mix them?

Dthorpe March 11, 2015

Hi Annabel , love watching your TV shows. Got to try the chilli jam.

Andrealochan December 28, 2014

Hi, Annabel. How can we replace kaffir lime leaves? Because in my country it is very hard to get.

ninia September 29, 2014

Hi Nina, A standard cup is 250 millilitres. Hope this helps!

Annabel Langbein July 27, 2014

Hi Jan, Yes it will work with green chillies, but will not be a red colour and may be milder. Happy cooking!

Annabel Langbein July 27, 2014

I love this recipe and have made it several times, so much so that this summer I planted chilli plants, so I could make it from my own homegrown, but was wondering if this recipe would work with green chilli's instead of red chilli's

Jan Burns February 05, 2014

thank you this recpe is great...

петяспасова January 05, 2014

I will cook this jam and i wonder which cup do you use for measuring the sugar, water and rice vinegar? Thank you for the answer.

ninapr September 12, 2013

Not a real big chilli fan as it often doesn't agree with me, but I recently discovered your show and now your website and this recipe really appealed to me. Just finished bottling my first jar and it tastes YUM! Thanks so much! Love your TV series too :))

Chelle February 13, 2012

Hi Tracey, I hope you've had more success with this! The most important thing is to dissolve the sugar, then have on a gentle boil for about 10 minutes or until it is reduced by a third. If it goes solid, add a little water to thin it out again. I hope this is helpful and I look forward to hearing how you get on. Happy cooking!

Annabel Langbein January 23, 2012

Dear Annabel, Thank you so much for all your recepies, and especially this one, this is so good. Eugenie from the Netherlands.

Eugenie Toorop January 13, 2012

i have made this for the second time, love the flavours. only problem is that i don't get jam, only sauce. have cooked it longer this time and yet still is very runny. i want this to be easy to spread on cheese etc but so far always have to dip. shall i reduce the water only? i love the Free Range book, have made many of the recipes. have also searched out previous books a bought them also. thanks for the inspiration.

Tracey May 27, 2011

This is brilliant. I love chillies and could eat them with everything, so I really wanted to try it. Excellent, will be making it again. Didn't have enough ginger - only put in about a third of required because I read the recipe wrong and I couldn't get rice vinegar so I used balsamic but it is really gorgeous. Thanks

Toni April 15, 2011

Loved it and so does everyone else who I have shared it with!

Chrissy Thomson April 03, 2011

Glad you like the Chilli Jam Elizabeth - it has been one of the most popular recipes in Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook. It's also great tossed through noodles with prawns and vegetables or as a dipping sauce for spring rolls like my oven-baked Prawn and Coriander Spring Rolls or fresh Prawn and Mint Finger Rolls (you'll find both recipes in Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook). Happy cooking!

Annabel Langbein March 15, 2011

Wow! Wanted to use up some chillies from my garden - bought some more so I could make a double batch! Unfortunately, couldn't get my hands on any limes - added some bottled lime juice and lemon rind instead. Looking forward to trying with the limes next time! Love the smell, the colour and the flavour! I used on chicken and you suggest to use as a dip..... Any other ways to use this lovely jam? Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Cox February 24, 2011