What is a Good Substitute for Jalapeño Peppers?

Jalapeño peppers are some of the most common peppers available in supermarkets. They are a medium-spicy pepper with a unique, delicious flavor. But what can you use in place of jalapeños when they are needed in a recipe?

We have a number of suggestions for the best ingredients to use as a jalapeño alternative. Which substitute you choose will depend on the intended purpose of the jalapeños.

If you are trying to make poppers, you will need to use another type of fresh pepper. If you just need to add a little heat to your stir fry, you have other options. So, in this article, I’ll share our favorite jalapeño substitute options.

Read Next: All about the jalapeño pepper.

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1. Serrano Peppers

If you are looking for a slightly different pepper to use as a jalapeño alternative, the serrano pepper is a good choice. Serranos will amp up the heat level while maintaining a familiar hot pepper flavor.

Suggested: Serranos vs jalapeños

Serranos look similar to jalapeños, however they are narrower with a thinner wall. The smaller size may prevent them from being the right jalapeño replacement for your needs. They are also slightly less common in supermarkets than jalapeños, but are still fairly easy to come by.

While serranos are not ideal stuffing peppers, they are another spicy green pepper with similar flavor properties to jalapeños. The main differences are their slender shape and a higher heat level.

Tip: Jalapeños also make a great substitute for serranos! If your recipe calls for serrano peppers, jalapeños are a more commonplace pepper to find in markets.

More fresh pepper varieties to substitute jalapeños:

• Fresno – Milder, slightly larger, red, best alternative for making poppers
• Poblano – Milder, much larger, thinner walls
• Cayenne – Spicier, thin walls, red

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2. Cayenne Pepper Powder

The drawback of replacing jalapeños with cayenne pepper is obvious: Its a powder.

If your recipe calls for fresh jalapeños, you’ll be missing out on that crunchy, fresh pepper flavor. However, if it is just a minor ingredient meant to add heat, cayenne is a reasonable fallback. Plus, it is a staple on most kitchen spice racks.

Tip: Learn how to make your own dried pepper powder to save for later use!

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3. Smoked Paprika Powder

Another jalapeño substitute spice is smoked paprika. While paprika won’t give any heat to your meal, it can add wonderful flavor and color. We especially love using smoked paprika for its wonderful smoky flavor and aroma.

Paprika is simply dried, finely ground red chili peppers. Usually, these are sweeter, milder peppers without much heat. This is why paprika isn’t spicy, but adds a familiar sweet red pepper flavor and color, making it a potential jalapeño alternative.

Smoked paprika is the same thing, but with smoked red chili peppers which adds a ton of flavor. We like to use smoked paprika when we make homemade salsa or hot sauce. It isn’t on everyone’s spice shelf, but if you have it, try it as a jalapeño replacement.

Tip: Smoked paprika works especially well as a replacement for any chipotle-flavored recipes!

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4. Bell Peppers

Substituting jalapeños with bell peppers will give you a less spicy meal, but a similar flavor and crunch factor.

Tip: If you still want heat, try adding bell peppers and cayenne pepper powder for the best of both worlds!

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5. Hot Sauce

This may be a bit more obvious, but another option for substituting jalapeño peppers is with hot sauce. Grab your favorite variety and splash a few dashes into your meal for some added heat and flavor.

• Keep it simple: Try using Tabasco or Frank’s RedHot. These hot sauces add a ton of pepper flavor and heat without too much complexity. For example, Frank’s has just 5 ingredients.
• Complex and versatile: Try a new hot sauce. Here is a list of our favorite Habanero hot sauces with incredible versatility and flavor.

We use hot sauce on almost every meal, even if it has jalapeño peppers in it. In a pinch, if we need jalapenos and don’t have any, we’ll use some chunky hot sauce as a jalapeno alternative. Better yet, we’ll try to use a combination of the substitutes on this list.

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How spicy are jalapeño peppers?

Jalapeños range in heat level from 3,000 – 8,000 SHUs on the Scoville scale. This spiciness is usually in the sweet spot for those who enjoy hot food.

There are hotter jalapeño varieties, such as the jalafuego, that were specifically bred for higher heat. On the flip side, mild jalapeños, such as the Tam jalapeño, were bred for those who don’t like as much spice.

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I hope you found a perfect jalapeño substitute for your recipe! Let us know if you used one of our suggestions or if you have any other ideas for those who need it. Enjoy!