This simple and easy to make homemade hot honey recipe takes only 4 ingredients to make. In less than 10 minutes, you’ll have this deliciously sweet and spicy sauce to drizzle over pizza, toast, fried chicken, roasted vegetables or anything else you can imagine.
Hot honey is immensely popular and with good reason! This honey hot sauce recipe adds a delicate sweet heat to any dish (or even drink). It pairs perfectly with flatbreads, biscuits or fried chicken.
This versatile condiment is also ideal for drizzling over pizzas, wings, or charcuterie boards. You can even use this spicy honey as a base for a sweet and tangy salad dressing or a soothing cup of hot honey tea.
With just a few simple ingredients and easy to follow steps, you can create a flavorful hot honey sauce that will impress your taste buds and elevate any meal.
What Is Hot Honey?
Hot honey is pure honey infused with vinegar and hot essence to give it a sweet, tangy sauce with a little bit of heat.
Key Elements Of This Recipe
- Honey: Using raw unfiltered honey is the best. I recommend (Nate’s or Kirkland Signature)
- Apple Cider Vinegar: Vinegar adds that slightly tangy kick to the hot honey recipe that gives it that signature hot honey taste
- Hot Essence: In this recipe, we’ll use fresh jalapenos and cayenne pepper to give this hot honey sauce its heat (optional – habanero peppers)
The Ingredients for Homemade Hot Honey
- 2 cups Raw Unfiltered Honey (Nate’s or Kirkland Signature)
- 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Jalapeno Peppers (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup Habanero Peppers (thinly sliced, optional)
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
The Equipment Needed
- Medium Sauce Pan
- Strainer
How To Make Homemade Hot Honey
Start by adding your honey, sliced jalapenos, vinegar and cayenne pepper into a medium sauce pan.
Heat the sauce pan over low heat until the honey comes to a light simmer, stirring every minute or so. (Do not let it come to a boil.)
As soon as it reaches a light simmer, turn off the heat and remove from the stove immediately.
Pro Tip: As your honey simmers, it’ll lose a bit of moisture. This might make your honey a bit thicker and less pourable. Some prefer this, but if you’d like a more flowing hot honey, add in 1 additional teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 2 teaspoons of water. Mix well.
Let it sit until it cools to room temperature (gives more time to infuse the spicy flavor into the honey).
Then strain the honey into a jar and your homemade hot honey is ready to use!
Serving Your Homemade Hot Honey
There are so many different ways to utilize this versatile and delectable spicy honey! Here are a few suggestions:
- Hot Honey Butter: Mix whipped hot honey with softened butter for a spicy twist on my original Whipped Honey Butter recipe.
- Hot Honey Cocktail: Create a signature cocktail using hot honey as a sweetener. It goes really well with bourbon, whiskey, or tequila-based drinks.
- Hot Honey BBQ Sauce: Add some of this sweet hot honey to my Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce recipe to create a unique baste for ribs or chicken.
- Hot Honey Vinaigrette: Whisk together hot honey, olive oil, vinegar, and Dijon mustard to create a spicy-sweet vinaigrette for salads or grain bowls.
- Hot Honey Drizzle for Ice Cream: Warm up hot honey slightly & drizzle it over vanilla ice cream for an indulgent dessert.
- Hot Honey Glazed Bacon: Brush hot honey onto strips of bacon before baking for a caramelized and spicy twist on a breakfast favorite.
- Hot Honey Dip for Spring Rolls: Mix hot honey with soy sauce, lime juice, and sesame oil to create a flavorful dipping sauce for spring rolls.
- Hot Honey Popcorn: Drizzle hot honey over freshly popped popcorn for a sweet and spicy snack.
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Equipment
- 1 Sauce Pan, (medium)
- 1 Strainer
Ingredients
- 2 cups Raw Unfiltered Honey
- 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Jalapeno Peppers, (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup Habanero Peppers, (thinly sliced, optional)
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
How To Make Homemade Hot Honey
- Start by adding your honey, sliced jalapenos, vinegar and cayenne pepper into a medium sauce pan.
- Heat the sauce pan over low heat until the honey comes to a light simmer, stirring every minute or so. (Do not let it come to a boil.)
- As soon as it reaches a light simmer, turn off the heat and remove from the stove immediately.
- Pro Tip: As your honey simmers, it'll lose a bit of moisture. This might make your honey a bit thicker and less pourable. Some prefer this, but if you'd like a more flowing hot honey, add in 1 additional teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 2 teaspoons of water. Mix well.
- Let it sit until the honey cools to room temperature (which gives it more time to infuse the spicy flavor into the honey).
- Then strain the honey into a jar and your homemade hot honey is ready to use!
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is just an estimate derived by an online calculation tool.
FAQ
What is Hot Honey made from?
It’s usually made from honey, vinegar and a spicy essence, like peppers or cayenne.
What is Hot Honey?
Hot honey is pure honey infused with vinegar and hot essence to give it a sweet, tangy sauce with a little bit of heat.
What do I do when hot honey thickens too much?
If you’d like a more flowing hot honey, add in 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 2 teaspoons of water. Mix well.
Jamie
This hot honey is so good! We drizzled some over pizza and everyone loved it. It has just the right amount of heat and tang. Delicious!
Harriet Young
I love hot honey and had no idea until now that it was so easy to make at home. Will be making all the time now! Thank you
Amy Liu Dong
I have a lot of honey in here and i dont know what to do with them and i’m glad that i come across this, maybe a little bit of SPICE is all i need!
Carrie Robinson
I just love the sweet & spicy flavors happening here! I had no idea that it was so easy to make hot honey. 🙂
Paula
This hot honey was SO GOOD! The combination sweet and spicy was just perfection
Kristine
This hot honey is literally AMAZING! My husband said it’s the best he’s ever had!