This 2-ingredient Hot Honey Recipe is made from scratch using ingredients you probably already have at home. It's perfect to dress up biscuits, chicken, pizza...even tea or ice cream! So many spicy honey recipes take hours to make, but not mine! You'll be ready to drizzle in less than 20 minutes.
SAVE THIS RECIPE
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Hot honey is probably my favorite condiment over the past handful of years. My family loves it on biscuits, cornbread, and drizzled over pizza (it's also the easiest way to enhance a cheese board!). While it can be an expensive condiment at the grocery story to buy, it's so easy to make in a matter of minutes at home!
Even with this being a simple recipe, I have some shortcuts that make it even easier! You can either microwave or use a saucepan on the stovetop to make this condiment. If you are microwaving, all you need is a measuring cup - there's barely any clean up!
Serve this honey at any meal of the day or even put it into a glass jar and give it as a gift! I highly recommend making a batch of my 2 Ingredient Biscuits or Sweet Onion Cornbread to go along with it.
What is hot honey?
The short answer is, it's honey infused with dried or fresh chiles by warming the ingredients together to infuse their flavors. This spicy honey is trending as a pizza crust dipping sauce and often drizzled over everything from biscuits to fried chicken.
A popular store-bought brand that gave hot honey it's notoriety is called Mike's Hot Honey, but it's so simple to make this condiment from scratch (and more affordable, especially if you have your own bee hives).
Shortcuts
- Use the microwave to speed up the process. The microwave heats up the honey at least twice as fast as a pan on the stovetop.
- Measure the chilies and the honey in the same measuring cup to avoid dirtying another dish.
- Using crushed red chile pepper flakes rather than whole dried red peppers allows the capsaicin (spice) to work its magic faster than trying to penetrate through the dried pepper skins. They're also easier to find at the store.
- If you want a shortcut to this already quick method, omit the chile flakes and just stir hot sauce straight into the warm honey and serve.
Ingredients
Truly it's only 2 ingredients (how amazing is that!). I also bet you probably already have them in your kitchen cabinet.
Scroll down to printable recipe for exact ingredient quantities.
Scroll down to printable recipe for ingredient quantities.
- Honey: The base to the sweet and spicy condiment.
- Crushed red chile pepper flakes or dried chile peppers (Thai, red Fresno): Whichever is easier to find at the store. The crushed red chili peppers speed up the process.
- Hot sauce: This is optional, it's for the 1 minute hot honey version you'll see in the notes below!
How to make this Homemade Hot Honey Recipe
Warming up the honey in the microwave or on the stovetop not only helps the dried chile peppers infuse their flavor, but it also helps thin out the honey to stir them together more easily.
Scroll down to the bottom for the printable recipe with detailed instructions.
- Combine honey and crushed peppers or flakes in a microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup.
- Microwave at HIGH for 30 seconds or just until the honey is warm and thins out.
- Let stand 20 minutes or up to 8 hours, depending on heat level desired.
- Strain the chile pepper flakes through a fine metal sieve or strainer.
Kathleen's Tip: You may have to microwave the honey about 10 seconds again after infusing chile pepper flakes so it flows through the sieve easily when straining.
Pro Tips
- Use local honey for its antimicrobial benefits. Read more about the benefits of eating local honey from this article from Amazing Food and Drink.
- After you finish making the hot honey, pour the honey with a funnel into a plastic squirt bottle for easy drizzling.
- If using a saucepan instead of the microwave, keep the heat to low and watch carefully. You are just warming it up, not boiling it.
- Try infusing the honey with other ingredients too! You could try fresh herbs, like rosemary or thyme, or spices like cinnamon or coriander. If you do infuse with something fresh, you will need to refrigerate your honey to store.
Substitutions & Variations
- If you want an even easier method for making hot honey from scratch, simply stir in 1 teaspoon hot sauce to every ½ cup of honey - it will be ready in 1 minute!
- Fresh peppers, such as jalapeno or serrano, can also be used. Make sure you use a pepper that matches the level of heat you can tolerate. Chopped fresh habanero peppers will produce a much hotter level than dried chile flakes.
- BE CAUTIOUS: If using fresh ingredients to infuse honey, it must be stored in the refrigerator. Read more about infusing honey with fresh ingredients.
- Don't throw away the strained peppers! Save it to stir into soups and chili.
Storage
Generally, it's easy to store this spicy honey recipe at room temperature in an airtight jar for 2 to 3 months.
Depending on what kind of chilies you infuse into your honey could affect it's storage. Here are all of my tips:
- If hot honey is infused with dry ingredients such as chile pepper flakes, it can sit on the counter in an airtight container. If it is infused with fresh peppers like chopped jalapenos, then water is introduced and needs to be stored in the refrigerator.
- Although the refrigerator is not the ideal place to store honey, the microbial problems introduced by the fresh peppers requires it. You can always warm the honey back up before serving. It drizzles better warmer than cooler.
What to Serve Hot Honey On
I can't even begin to count how many different things hot honey is so delicious drizzled over. Here is a short list, but truly it boosts the flavor to so many different dishes!
- Biscuits
- Chicken and Waffles
- Pizza
- Cornbread
- Fried ice cream or ice cream
- Burgers like my Grilled Venison Burger
- Chicken fingers
- BBQ Chicken Wings
- French fries or Onion Rings
- Candied Bacon
- Hot tea or cocktails
- Add to salad dressings and dips
Leave a comment below the printable recipe if you have questions or want to tell me how you liked the recipe. Don't forget to give the recipe a rating of 5 stars if you love it!
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Be social and share, y'all! Want all my new recipes and updates? Get my weekly newsletter in your inbox!
Easy Homemade Hot Honey
SAVE THIS RECIPE
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon crushed red chile pepper flakes
Instructions
- Combine honey and pepper flakes in a microwave-safe bowl or glass measuring cup.
- Microwave at HIGH for 30 seconds or just until the honey is warm and thins out. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes.
- Strain the chile pepper flakes through a fine metal sieve or mesh strainer. Store in an air tight container at room temperature about 2 months. See note for storing infused honey with fresh ingredients.
Notes
- Mild- 1 teaspoon chile pepper flakes or 1 dried, crushed red Fresno pepper, 15 minutes
- Medium- 1 ½ teaspoons chile pepper flakes or 2 dried, crushed red Fresno peppers, 30 minutes
- Hot-1 ½ teaspoons chile pepper flakes or 2 dried, crushed red Fresno peppers, 2 hours or up to overnight
Nutrition
Nutrition analysis on GritsAndGouda.com recipes are mostly calculated on an online nutrition calculator. I am not a dietitian and nutritional information is an estimate and can vary based on products used.
Comments
No Comments