I have a dropdown list that contains a series of options: <select id=SomeDropdown> <option value="a'b]&lt;p>">a'b]&lt;p></option> <option value="easy">easy</option> <select> Notice that the option value/text contains some nasty stuff: single quotes closing square bracket escaped html I need to remove the a'b]<p option but I'm having no luck writing the selector. Neither: $("#SomeDropdown >option[value='a''b]&lt;p>']"); or $("#SomeDropdown >option[value='a\'b]&lt;p>']"); are returning the option. What is the correct way to escape values when using the "value=" selector?