Hot Honey Recipe
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Hot honey is the best new hot sauce and perfect for drizzling on pizza, fried chicken, biscuits, or roast veggies, to serve on a cheese plate, or to spread on toast. This easy hot honey recipe is made with 2-ingredients and takes only minutes to make.
Try spooning some of this spicy honey over baked salmon or this spicy chorizo pizza. And since you're a fan of spicy foods, make sure to check out our sriracha butter!
What is hot honey
Hot honey is a delicious spicy condiment that you can use to add sweet spice to everything from cheese, to meats, to dessert. While you can buy hot honey in your grocery store, you can also make it at home super easy.
We like to keep a jar on hand so we can always add a little sweet heat to our meal.
Hot honey also makes a wonderful DIY gift!
Ingredient notes
Honey ā You'll want to use liquid honey for this recipe. If you have access to local honey, that's always the healthiest option. But honestly, any jar or bottle of honey that you have in your pantry will work well.
Chili flakes ā We like to use dried chili flakes as the heat level and the flavor is a lot more consistent than fresh chilis. Plus, they're a pantry staple ingredient so you can make this hot honey without a trip to the grocery store.
Hot sauce/ vinegar ā This is optional in the recipe. If you're familiar with Mike's Hot Honey and are wanting that slight vinegar note that it's known for, adding a little hot sauce or apple cider vinegar is the way to go. We prefer to use a mildly spicy vinegary hot sauce (like Frank's) to boost the pretty red color without making the honey overwhelmingly spicy.
How to make hot honey
Making hot honey is easier than 1-2-3!
- Put some honey, chili flakes, and hot sauce into a small pot or pan and warm them gently over medium heat just until you see some bubbles near the edge of the pan. Don't let it boil! Honey will boil over very easily. It will also thicken too much if you let it boil even a little while.
- Now, all that you have to do is wait a few minutes for the chili flakes to infuse into the honey then strain the honey through a fine mesh seive. So easy!
Recipe FAQs
Can I use fresh chilis?
Fresh chilis will work in this recipe, but they tend to vary widely in flavor and spiciness. You may need to adjust the amount of honey or fresh chili peppers to get just the right flavor.
How long does hot honey last?
Honey lasts virtually forever, and so does this hot honey. It should be stored in a clean glass jar in your pantry. Don't store it in the fridge as the cool temperature will speed up the crystallization process. If your honey starts to crystalize (this is normal!) simply warm the jar gently in hot water.
How spicy is this honey?
If you eat a spoonful, you'll get a wonderful, spicy tingle on your tongue. But once it's added to other food, the spice level is tamer. If you want a more powerful punch, either let the chili flakes infuse into the honey longer, or add more hot sauce.
How to use hot honey
There are so many ways to use this spicy honey that once you get started you'll find yourself drizzling some on nearly everything you eat. Here are a few of our favorite ways to serve hot honey.
- Drizzled on top of baked chicken, baked pork chops, or baked salmon.
- Served with buttered no yeast bread.
- Drizzled over your favorite pizza ā try it with our gochujang pulled pork Korean pizza.
- Tossed with roasted carrots, roasted broccoli, or roasted root vegetables.
- Spooned on top of whipped feta, whipped ricotta, or baked brie.
- Drizzled over chocolate ice cream ā this is so good!
- Used as simple syrup to make a spicy margarita.
- Add some sweet heat to a stir fry.
- Spread it onto cornbread.
Popular spicy recipes
Hot Honey Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons chili flakes
- Optional: 2 teaspoons hot sauce or apple cider vinegar (see notes)
Instructions
- Add the honey and chili flakes to a small pot or pan over medium heat.1 cup honey, 2 tablespoons chili flakes
- Gently heat the honey until you see small bubbles forming along the edges of the pan then remove the pan from the heat.
- Let the honey infuse for 5 minutes. If you're using the hot sauce or vinegar, stir it into the honey now.Optional: 2 teaspoons hot sauce or apple cider vinegar
- Optional step: strain the honey through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean glass jar.
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
For more inspiration, check out all of our sauce recipes!
