This 3-ingredient hot honey is sweet, spicy, and super easy to make. It's a delicious way to add a little kick of sweet heat to your favorite foods. There's no cooking required, and it comes together in minutes using simple pantry staples. We drizzle hot honey over pizza, fried chicken, grilled meats, roasted veggies and more. Once you try homemade hot honey sauce, you'll want a jar in your fridge at all times!
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I first tried honey honey on a pepperoni pizza and became obsessed with it. It's easy to find brands, like Mike's Hot Honey online and at the grocery store, but they are not cheap. I knew I had to make it at home after buying a few jars.
For the first homemade jars, I used fresh chili peppers from my garden. I grow a variety of hot peppers, so I experimented with everything from medium heat jalapenos or serrano peppers, to super hot scotch bonnet or habanero peppers.
When the growing season was over, I turned to this version, using hot sauce and dried red pepper flakes. Now it's my go-to hot honey sauce recipe because it's so simple and just as delicious.
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Ingredients
- Honey. Your favorite honey is perfect for this recipe. I always recommend looking for local honey. Buying local, unfiltered raw honey supports your local bees and other pollinators! Clover honey is common, but depending on where you live, you can find honeys like cherry, apple, or orange blossom honey.
- Hot Sauce. Use a vinegar based hot sauce. The tang of vinegar is a perfect balance to the sweetness and spice for this spicy honey recipe. My favorite is Frank's RedHot, but use your favorite hot sauce. Louisiana, Tabasco and Cholula are all good choices.
- Hot Peppers. I always have crushed red pepper flakes in my spice cabinet, so that's what I use for the extra spicy kick in this recipe. Any dried chili flakes are fine.
How to make this hot honey recipe
Just whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Transfer to a jar with a lid and store.
How to use hot honey
There are countless ways to use this spicy honey sauce. Here are a few ideas:
- Dip. Use this spicy condiment as a dipping sauce for chicken strips, French fries (even my air fryer rutabaga fries). Hot honey can be a dip for any fried foods that you would normally dip.
- Vegetables. Use as a glaze for roasted vegetables like air fryer beets or miso roasted sweet potatoes. I love it instead of regular honey for my honey roasted carrots and parsnips.
- Pizza. Drizzle some over pepperoni or prosciutto pizza.
- Chicken. This hot honey sauce is divine with fried chicken, these grilled chicken thighs, and we love hot honey chicken wings.
- Seafood. Toss some grilled shrimp in hot honey, or replace the regular honey in my honey butter salmon recipe.
- Bread and biscuits. Hot honey is delicious with cornbread, like my gluten-free cornbread. Try it drizzled on homemade biscuits, or bran muffins.
- Drinks. Stir some into hot chocolate, hot tea, or a hot toddy. Use as a replacement for simple syrup to spice up a cocktail. It's especially good in a Mexican mule.
- Cheese board. Hot honey is a delicious addition to a charcuterie board, or drizzled over baked brie.
- Vinaigrette. Make a salad dressing with a little sweet heat. I love it on this kale and beet salad with apples.
- Dessert. A drizzle of hot honey over chocolate or vanilla ice cream is an amazing taste treat.
- Gifting. A jar of hot honey makes a perfect holiday or teacher gift. This recipe is shelf stable and you can easily make larger batches.
Tips and Variations
- Spice level. You can make this homemade hot honey recipe more, or less spicy. For less spice, use less hot sauce and you can also omit the red pepper flakes. Add more to amp up the heat level. Always start with less, taste, and add more if needed. But don't worry if you do accidently go overboard with spice. Just add more honey.
- Fresh chili peppers. If you prefer to use fresh chilis for this recipe, you can. With fresh chili peppers, it's best to slice the peppers thinly, combine them with the honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, remove from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature. You can then use a fine mesh strainer to remove the pepper slices before transferring the hot honey to a sealed jar. I like to add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to balance the sweet heat.
- Dried chili peppers. Substitute the red pepper flakes for cayenne pepper, chili powder, or chipotle powder. You can also replace the hot sauce with dried guajillo, pasilla, ancho, or chipotle pepper. Prepare the same way as for fresh chili peppers. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar after straining.
- Storage. Store homemade hot honey in a sealed glass jar (a mason jar works great) in a cool dry place, like your pantry, for up to 3 months. If you make the recipe with fresh chili peppers, store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Want to try more homemade spicy condiments?
My homegrown hot peppers have inspired a few spicy sauces. Mango habanero hot sauce is a little fiery but with delicious fruity notes. My cayenne pepper sauce is a versatile everyday hot sauce that's really easy to make. And for even more sweet heat, try my popular pepper jelly recipe.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating in the comments below and let us know how it turned out. Did you make any changes? We would love for you to share and your feedback is important! Thank you for visiting The Food Blog!
Recipe
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Hot Honey Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup honey
- 3 tablespoon hot sauce Louisiana style
- ½ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients.
- Transfer to a sealed jar.
Notes
- Spice level. You can make this recipe more, or less spicy. For less spice, use less hot sauce and you can also omit the red pepper flakes. Add more to amp up the heat level. Always start with less, taste, and add more if needed. But don't worry if you do accidently go overboard with spice. Just add more honey.
- Fresh chili peppers. If you prefer to use fresh chili peppers for this recipe, you can. With fresh chili peppers, it's best to slice the peppers thinly, combine them with the honey in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, remove from the heat and allow it to cool. You can then strain out the pepper slices before transferring the hot honey to a sealed jar. I like to add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to balance the sweet heat.
- Dried chili peppers. Substitute the red pepper flakes for cayenne pepper, chili powder, or chipotle powder. You can also replace the hot sauce with dried guajillo, pasilla, ancho, or chipotle pepper. Prepare the same way as for fresh chili peppers. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar after straining.
- Storage. Store homemade hot honey in a sealed glass jar in a cool dry place, like your pantry, for up to 3 months. If you make the recipe with fresh chili peppers, store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
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