Sweet honey and spicy chile flakes come together in one of the easiest homemade condiments you can make. Hot honey takes only a few minutes of hands-on work, requires just two basic ingredients, and somehow makes everything from pizza and fried chicken to biscuits and roasted vegetables taste more interesting.
The idea is wonderfully simple. Warm honey gently with dried chile flakes, give the peppers time to infuse, then taste and decide whether you want to strain them out or leave them in for steadily increasing heat.
You can keep the basic recipe clean and simple or add a little citrus, vinegar, smoked chile, or cayenne when you want to change the flavor. Once there is a jar in the kitchen, you may be surprised by how many reasons you find to use it.
🍯 Easy Homemade Hot Honey Recipe
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Infusion time: 15 to 30 minutes
Total time: About 25 minutes
Yield: About 1 cup
🛒 Ingredients
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- Small pinch of salt, optional
For hotter honey, increase the red pepper flakes to 1 1/2 or 2 tablespoons, or add a small pinch of cayenne.
🔥 How to Make Hot Honey
Pour the honey into a small saucepan and add the crushed red pepper flakes.
Place the pan over low heat and warm the honey gently for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the honey warm and fluid enough to draw flavor from the chiles, but there is no need to bring it to a vigorous boil.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the chile flakes steep in the honey for 15 to 30 minutes.
Taste a tiny amount from a cooled spoon. Remember that the chile flavor can become more pronounced as the mixture sits.
If the heat level is where you want it, pour the hot honey into a clean jar. Strain it through a fine-mesh sieve first if you prefer smooth honey, or leave the pepper flakes in for more texture and an infusion that continues becoming hotter over time.
Let the honey cool before covering the jar.
🌶️ How Spicy Is Hot Honey?
That depends entirely on your chiles.
One tablespoon of ordinary crushed red pepper flakes per cup of honey produces a noticeable but generally approachable level of heat. Two tablespoons creates something considerably more assertive.
The age of your pepper flakes also matters. Dried chiles lose aroma and intensity over time, so a jar that has been sitting in the back of the spice cabinet for years may produce surprisingly mild honey.
Start conservatively if you are using particularly hot chile flakes.
You can always add more heat, but you cannot remove it once the honey becomes fiery.
🍯 What Kind of Honey Should You Use?
You do not need an expensive specialty honey to make good hot honey.
A mild, pleasantly flavored honey such as clover or wildflower is a particularly versatile choice because it gives the chile room to stand out.
Stronger honeys can certainly be used if you already enjoy their flavor. Just remember that very floral or dark honey will give the finished condiment more personality.
The honey does not need to be raw. Because you are deliberately warming it for the infusion anyway, choose based primarily on flavor and quality.
Most importantly, use a honey you would happily eat on its own.
🌶️ The Best Chiles for Hot Honey
Basic crushed red pepper flakes are the easiest choice and probably already live in your pantry.
For a more distinctive batch, experiment with dried whole chiles.
Chile de árbol provides clean, assertive heat and works especially well when you want something significantly spicier than ordinary pepper flakes. Dried Thai chiles can be extremely hot, so use them sparingly.
Aleppo-style pepper provides a gentler heat with fruity, slightly earthy flavor.
Calabrian chile flakes can produce a bold, savory hot honey that is particularly good on pizza.
Chipotle brings smoke along with the heat, although a little goes a long way.
You can even combine several varieties to create your own house blend.
🔪 Using Whole Dried Chiles
If using whole dried chiles, cut or tear them into several pieces before adding them to the honey.
This exposes more of the chile’s interior and helps its flavor infuse.
For one cup of honey, start with about two to four small dried chiles, depending on their heat.
Warm them with the honey just as you would red pepper flakes, then steep and taste.
Whole dried chiles can be strained out very easily, which makes them especially convenient when you want clear, smooth hot honey.
🌡️ Don’t Overheat the Honey
Hot honey refers to the chile heat, not the temperature at which the honey needs to cook.
Gentle warming is enough.
Heating the honey over low heat loosens its texture and encourages the dried chiles to release their flavor. There is no need to boil it aggressively or reduce it like a sauce.
If the honey begins bubbling hard, lower the heat.
A quiet infusion gives you much more control over the final flavor and reduces the chance of scorching the sugars.
⏰ How Long Should the Chiles Infuse?
Fifteen to 30 minutes after warming is a useful starting point.
Taste toward the earlier end if you prefer gentle heat.
If you like a stronger chile kick, let the mixture sit longer before straining.
Leaving the flakes in the finished jar creates another variable: the hot honey can continue picking up heat from them over time.
If you want a consistent batch that tastes roughly the same from the first spoonful to the last, strain the chiles once the flavor reaches the level you like.
🥄 Should You Strain Hot Honey?
Either approach works.
Strained hot honey is smooth, clear, and easier to drizzle from a squeeze bottle. It also gives you better control over the final heat because you remove the chiles when the infusion tastes right.
Unstrained hot honey has visible chile flakes and a more rustic appearance. It can become progressively hotter as the flakes continue infusing.
For pizza, I particularly like leaving a few flakes behind.
For biscuits, cheese boards, or desserts, smooth strained honey can be a little more elegant.
🍋 Make Citrusy Hot Honey
The original Pop & Thistle version included both lemon zest and lemon juice, and citrus is a delicious variation.
Rather than making fresh lemon juice part of the base recipe, I prefer adding citrus when you plan to use the honey.
Warm the basic hot honey as directed, then add a little finely grated lemon or orange zest to the portion you are serving.
You can also stir a few drops of fresh lemon juice into an individual serving immediately before drizzling it over chicken, roasted vegetables, or cheese.
This preserves the clean, versatile character of the main batch while giving you the bright citrus flavor when you want it.
Lime zest is particularly good when the hot honey is headed for tacos or grilled chicken.
🍎 Add a Splash of Vinegar
A tiny amount of vinegar can balance particularly sweet honey and make the chile flavor seem sharper.
For a portion you plan to use right away, stir in a few drops of apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar.
You really do not need much.
The goal is not to make the honey taste like vinaigrette. You simply want a hint of acidity in the background.
This variation is particularly good for fried chicken, pizza, roasted vegetables, and savory sandwiches.
🌶️ Make Extra-Spicy Hot Honey
If ordinary red pepper flakes are not enough, there are several ways to increase the heat.
Add a pinch of cayenne while warming the honey.
You can also combine crushed red pepper with chile de árbol or dried Thai chile.
Freshly crushed dried peppers generally produce a livelier flavor than an old jar of flakes.
Add extra chile gradually. Honey’s sweetness can make the first taste seem milder than it actually is, while the chile heat often lingers and builds after a few seconds.
🔥 Make Smoky Hot Honey
A smoky version is excellent for barbecue, cornbread, pizza, roasted sweet potatoes, and grilled meat.
Add a small pinch of chipotle powder or one crushed dried chipotle chile to the honey.
Smoked paprika can provide smoky flavor without as much heat.
Keep either addition modest because smoke can quickly overwhelm the floral flavor of honey.
Combining ordinary red pepper flakes with just a touch of chipotle usually gives a better balance than relying entirely on smoked chile.
🍕 Hot Honey on Pizza
Pizza may be the food most closely associated with modern hot honey, and it is easy to see why.
Sweet honey cuts through salty cheese and cured meat, while chile adds another dimension to the richness.
Pepperoni pizza is the obvious starting point. Bake the pizza completely, then drizzle hot honey over the top immediately before serving.
The same idea works with sausage, prosciutto, bacon, mushrooms, roasted peppers, ricotta, and even simple cheese pizza.
Do not pour on so much that the crust becomes sticky. A thin zigzag across the finished pizza is usually enough.
🍗 Hot Honey and Fried Chicken
Crispy fried chicken and hot honey are practically designed for one another.
The sweetness contrasts with the salty crust, while the chile heat makes each bite more interesting.
Drizzle the honey over the chicken immediately before serving so the coating stays crisp.
You can also serve it in a small bowl on the side and let everyone control the amount.
The combination works equally well with chicken tenders, wings, chicken sandwiches, and oven-baked crispy chicken.
🧇 Drizzle It Over Biscuits
Warm buttery biscuits are another excellent destination.
Split a biscuit, add butter, and drizzle a little hot honey over the top.
The combination delivers sweet, salty, spicy, buttery, and flaky all at once.
Hot honey also works particularly well with cheddar biscuits.
For breakfast, add an egg and sausage or bacon and turn the whole thing into a spicy-sweet biscuit sandwich.
🌽 Try Hot Honey on Cornbread
Cornbread and honey are already natural partners.
Using hot honey simply adds chile heat to the equation.
Drizzle it over a warm wedge of skillet cornbread with a pat of butter.
It is particularly good when the cornbread accompanies chili, barbecue, smoked meat, beans, or fried chicken.
You can also combine softened butter with hot honey and whip the two together for a quick hot honey butter.
🧈 Make Hot Honey Butter
Mix 4 tablespoons softened butter with 1 to 2 tablespoons hot honey and a small pinch of salt.
Stir until smooth and creamy.
Spread it over cornbread, biscuits, rolls, toast, pancakes, waffles, or roasted sweet potatoes.
Hot honey butter can also be melted over grilled corn or vegetables.
For a spicy breakfast, put it on an English muffin with egg and cheese.
This is one of the easiest ways to turn a small amount of hot honey into a completely different condiment.
🧀 Serve It with Cheese
Sweet, spicy honey is excellent with salty or creamy cheese.
Drizzle it over goat cheese, feta, Brie, Camembert, blue cheese, aged cheddar, or Parmesan.
On a cheese board, put the hot honey in a small bowl with a spoon so guests can add it themselves.
Add crackers, toasted bread, apples, pears, nuts, and dried fruit.
The combination of creamy cheese, sweet honey, and chile heat works especially well because every element balances another.
🥕 Drizzle It Over Roasted Vegetables
Hot honey can rescue an otherwise ordinary tray of roasted vegetables.
Carrots are an especially good match because their natural sweetness echoes the honey.
Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, sweet potatoes, and parsnips also work.
Roast the vegetables until browned and tender, then add the hot honey after they come out of the oven.
Adding it at the end gives you fresh chile flavor and prevents the honey from scorching during a long high-temperature roast.
A sprinkle of flaky salt afterward makes the contrast even better.
🍠 Hot Honey Sweet Potatoes
Roasted sweet potatoes and hot honey are an easy side dish all by themselves.
Cut sweet potatoes into wedges or cubes, toss them with olive oil and salt, and roast until deeply browned at the edges.
Drizzle lightly with hot honey immediately before serving.
For extra richness, add crumbled feta or goat cheese.
A squeeze of lime can brighten the whole dish.
This combination works particularly well beside grilled or roasted chicken.
🍳 Put It on Eggs
Hot honey may not be the first condiment you think of for breakfast, but it works surprisingly well with eggs.
Drizzle a small amount over fried eggs on toast.
Add it to a breakfast sandwich with egg, cheddar, and sausage.
It also works over scrambled eggs when they are served alongside crispy potatoes or toast.
For a larger brunch spread, simply put the jar on the table beside hot sauce and maple syrup and let people experiment.
🥓 Try It with Bacon
Honey and bacon already provide an effective sweet-and-salty combination, and chile adds yet another layer.
Drizzle a tiny amount over crisp bacon immediately before serving.
You can also brush cooked bacon very lightly with hot honey and return it to the oven for a brief finish.
Watch closely, because the honey can brown quickly.
Hot honey bacon is especially good in breakfast sandwiches or alongside waffles.
🍔 Hot Honey on Burgers and Sandwiches
A thin drizzle can add surprising complexity to savory sandwiches.
Try it on a fried chicken sandwich, grilled chicken sandwich, turkey sandwich, or burger.
It is especially good with sharp cheese and pickles because the acidity and salt balance the sweetness.
For a burger, combine hot honey with mustard or mayonnaise rather than pouring on a huge amount.
That spreads the flavor more evenly and prevents the bun from becoming sticky.
🌮 Use Hot Honey on Tacos
Hot honey works especially well when tacos contain smoky or salty ingredients.
Try it with grilled chicken, crispy chicken, shrimp, pork, or roasted cauliflower.
A very light drizzle is enough.
Balance it with fresh lime, cilantro, cabbage, avocado, or pico de gallo.
For a distinctly citrusy variation, mix hot honey with a squeeze of fresh lime immediately before serving.
🥗 Make a Hot Honey Vinaigrette
Hot honey can replace ordinary honey in salad dressing.
For a quick vinaigrette, whisk together:
- 1 tablespoon hot honey
- 2 tablespoons red wine or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
This dressing works especially well with salads containing apples, pears, roasted squash, goat cheese, feta, pecans, walnuts, or grilled chicken.
Because the hot honey already contains chile, taste before adding any additional pepper.
🐟 Hot Honey and Salmon
Hot honey makes an excellent glaze for rich fish such as salmon.
Brush a small amount over nearly cooked salmon and finish it under the broiler, watching closely so the honey does not burn.
You can also simply drizzle hot honey over roasted or grilled salmon after cooking.
Add lemon or lime for acidity and serve with rice and vegetables.
The sweet heat contrasts particularly well with salmon’s richness.
🍑 Pair It with Fruit
Hot honey does not have to stay on the savory side of the kitchen.
Peaches, nectarines, pineapple, and melon all work well with chile and honey.
Drizzle a small amount over grilled peaches and serve them with vanilla ice cream.
Try it on watermelon with lime and a pinch of salt.
Hot honey can also be excellent with fresh pears and blue cheese or apples and aged cheddar.
The key is restraint. Fruit already supplies sweetness, so you usually need only a small drizzle.
🍨 Yes, You Can Put Hot Honey on Ice Cream
Vanilla ice cream is a particularly good blank canvas.
Drizzle just a teaspoon of hot honey over a scoop and add chopped peanuts, pecans, or pistachios.
The first impression is cool, creamy, and sweet, followed by the warmth of the chile.
Chocolate ice cream can work too, particularly with smoky or chipotle hot honey.
It sounds unusual until you try it.
🌶️ Hot Honey vs. Chili Crisp
Hot honey and chili crisp both bring chile heat to food, but they serve different purposes.
Hot honey is fundamentally sweet. Its texture is smooth or syrupy and its flavor revolves around honey with infused chile.
Chili crisp is generally oil-based and may contain fried garlic, onion, sesame, spices, or crunchy chile solids.
They are not direct substitutes, although there are plenty of foods where either condiment could work.
Pizza, eggs, roasted vegetables, noodles, and fried chicken are good examples.
🍯 What If the Honey Crystallizes?
Crystallization is a natural property of honey and does not automatically mean something has gone wrong.
If your hot honey becomes grainy or partially solid, place the tightly closed jar in a bowl of warm water.
Let it sit until the honey begins loosening, then stir.
Avoid aggressively boiling or microwaving the entire jar for long periods.
The goal is simply to warm the crystals enough that they dissolve back into the honey.
🫙 How to Store Homemade Hot Honey
For the simplest version made only with honey and thoroughly dried chile flakes, transfer the cooled hot honey to a clean, dry, airtight jar and keep it in a cool, dark place.
Moisture is the enemy of ordinary honey storage, so always use a clean, dry spoon and keep the container tightly sealed.
If you add fresh fruit, fresh chiles, fresh citrus juice, or other moisture-rich ingredients, do not assume the mixture has the same keeping qualities as plain honey. Refrigerate modified versions and make smaller batches rather than treating them as indefinitely shelf-stable.
Refrigeration can cause honey to crystallize more quickly, but gentle warming restores its pourable consistency.
👶 Hot Honey Is Still Honey
Hot honey should not be given to children younger than 12 months.
The chile does not change the usual infant-honey guidance.
Honey can contain spores associated with infant botulism, and the CDC advises that babies under one year old should not be given honey or foods containing honey.
For older children who already eat honey, remember that the chile itself may still be too hot for their preference.
❓ Hot Honey FAQs
What is hot honey?
Hot honey is honey infused or mixed with chile. The simplest homemade version combines ordinary honey with dried red pepper flakes and gently heats them together.
How much red pepper should I use?
Start with about one tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes per cup of honey. Use less for mild honey or increase the amount for stronger heat.
Can I make hot honey with cayenne?
Yes. Add a small pinch of cayenne to honey for quick heat. Cayenne is powerful, so begin with about 1/8 teaspoon and adjust carefully.
Can I use fresh peppers?
You can find recipes that use fresh chiles, but fresh peppers introduce additional moisture. For the simplest homemade condiment and easiest storage, dried chiles are the better choice.
Do I have to strain the pepper flakes?
No. Leave them in if you like their appearance and texture. Strain them if you want smooth honey or want to stop the infusion from becoming hotter.
Why isn’t my hot honey spicy?
Your chile flakes may be mild or old. Add additional fresh pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne and warm the mixture again.
Why is my hot honey too spicy?
Dilute it with additional plain honey. Warm the two together gently and taste again after they are thoroughly mixed.
Can I use maple syrup instead of honey?
You can make spicy maple syrup using a similar idea, but it will be a different condiment with different storage characteristics. For hot honey, use actual honey.
Can I add garlic?
Garlic and honey can be delicious together, but adding fresh garlic creates a different infused food with different food-safety considerations. I would keep fresh garlic out of this simple hot honey recipe and add garlic separately to whatever dish you are making.
Can I add lemon?
Yes. For the brightest citrus flavor, add fresh lemon zest or a squeeze of juice to the amount of hot honey you plan to serve rather than introducing substantial fresh citrus into the entire storage jar.
What is hot honey best on?
Pizza, fried chicken, biscuits, cornbread, roasted vegetables, sandwiches, cheese, salmon, tacos, eggs, and even vanilla ice cream are all excellent places to start.
🔥 Sweet, Spicy & Ridiculously Useful
Hot honey is almost too easy to qualify as a recipe, and that is exactly why it is worth keeping around.
A cup of honey, a spoonful of chile flakes, and a few minutes of gentle heat are enough to create a condiment that can move from breakfast to dinner to dessert.
Make the first batch simple. Taste it after 15 minutes, decide whether you want more heat, and strain it when the balance tastes right.
After that, start experimenting.
Add citrus when it is headed for grilled chicken. Try smoke for barbecue. Whisk it into vinaigrette. Drizzle it over pizza. Put it on a biscuit with butter. Pair it with salty cheese or roasted vegetables.
You may start wondering why the plain honey jar is getting lonely.
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