You need just 3 everyday ingredients and 5 minutes to make this sweet and spicy hot honey sauce, destined to become a kitchen staple. Once you learn how easy it is to make, you’ll be drizzling it on everything and anything!
Hot honey (hot as in spice, not temperature!) is one of the best, quick flavour enhancers around. It genuinely takes all of five minutes to make and keeps for months, although you’ll likely get through it a lot quicker than that.
It’s as simple as simmering honey with chilli flakes and a little lemon juice for a few minutes. That’s it! So easy and it just delivers so much flavour for so little effort.
Once you have a jar in your cupboard you might be surprised how often you can use it. Drizzle it over pizza (try it on spicy Hawaiian pizza or peach, blue cheese and sweet chilli pizza), fried chicken, whipped feta dip, creamy gochujang pasta, pancakes or toast, use it as a topper for poke bowls and salmon sushi bake or as a dipping sauce for halloumi fries and bites, crispy oven fries, loaded wedges or garlic naan. Honestly, the options are endless.
Ingredients
You only need THREE easy-to-find ingredients here.
- Honey. Try to use high-quality honey if you can! I love using Mānuka honey because it has such a gorgeous, strong and unique flavour. The honey is the main element of this sauce so you want it to be a good one.
- Chilli flakes. Use your favourite here – I often love using Korean gochugaru red pepper flakes because they’re pretty mild and give a gorgeous red colour to the honey. I also add a few whole dried chillies for extra flavour, but you can leave those out if you like. If you’re worried the honey will be a little TOO hot for your liking, just reduce the amount of chilli flakes you add. And if you love things spicy, add a little more. It’s a flexible sauce and you can make it your own based on how much you enjoy heat.
- Lemon juice. This balances out the sweetness of the honey and cuts through just a little, so it’s not too sweet. You could also use apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar or lime juice.
How to make it
Add the honey, chilli flakes, lemon juice and whole dried chillies (if you’re using them) to a small saucepan and pop it over medium heat. The honey will bubble up and become runnier in consistency. Simmer, stirring, for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat.
That’s it! It’s now ready to use, or you can transfer it into a clean glass jar to store it.
REMEMBER: Glass reacts to extreme temperature changes, so let the hot honey cool a little before pouring it into a glass jar. If very hot liquid hits the cold glass, it can shatter.
8 ways to use hot honey
- Elevate your favourite pizza with a generous drizzle once it’s finished cooking. Try it with my spicy Hawaiian pizza, peach and blue cheese pizza or my spinach, ricotta and sausage pizza.
- Dollop it onto loaded rice bowls, like this grilled chicken poke bowl, salmon sushi rice bowl or top salmon sushi bake with a good drizzle.
- Swap out sweet chilli for hot honey in this sweet chilli glazed halloumi recipe.
- Pour it over fried chicken in a hot honey fried chicken sandwich.
- Finish this pan con tomate with burrata with a decent spoonful.
- Spoon it on top of salted butter on a delicious butter board.
- Use it as a dipping sauce for halloumi fries, halloumi bites, crispy oven fries or drizzle it over loaded wedges.
- Spread it on a 2 ingredient dough bagel with a smear of cream cheese.
Got a question?
Very simply, it’s made of honey and chillies (either dried or fresh). I’m using dried in the recipe below because they’re cheaper and easier to work with. You can play around with the type of chilli flakes – I love to include a few whole dried chillies for an extra kick, but that’s optional.
It will last for at least six months (if not more!) and you can keep it at room temperature in a glass jar.
I love to use high-quality honey because honey really is the star of the show, so you want a good one if you can. Mānuka honey is always my go-to – but you can use whatever honey you find or have to hand.
Like this recipe? Here are some other quick sauces you might enjoy
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave me a comment below.
Print
How to Make Hot Honey Sauce
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
You need just 3 everyday ingredients and 5 minutes to make this sweet and spicy hot honey sauce, destined to become a kitchen staple. Once you learn how easy it is to make, you’ll be drizzling it on everything and anything!
Ingredients
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon chilli flakes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 whole dried chillies (optional)
Instructions
- Make the hot honey sauce. Get a small saucepan over medium heat, then add all the ingredients to the pan. Stir the honey as it starts to bubble up and become runnier in consistency for about 4 minutes. And that’s it, you’ve made hot honey!
- Store or serve. It’s now ready to be used, or you can transfer it to sterilised glass jars to store at room temperature, otherwise, store it in the fridge.
Notes
INGREDIENT NOTES: Try to use good quality honey if you can – it’s the star ingredient so you want it to shine. I love using Mānuka honey. You can vary the level of heat here depending on what you prefer. Add more chilli if you like things spicy, or reduce the amount if you’re worried about it being too spicy. Honey is sweet so it can take a good amount of spice, and I promise this version isn’t super spicy. Replace the lemon juice with apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar or lime juice and you can make it vegan by using maple syrup in place of honey.
STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS: The hot honey will keep for months in sterilised jars (here’s how to sterilise glass jars easily), stored at room temperature and it makes a wonderful gift (perfect for the holidays!). Once open, store it in the fridge. Make sure you always use a clean spoon when using it to avoid cross-contamination (this will make the honey last longer). If you don’t have sterilised jars, store it in the fridge.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS: There are SO many ways you can use hot honey. Drizzle it over pan-fried halloumi (you could use it in my honey and harissa glazed halloumi or sweet chilli halloumi), make hot honey fried chicken sandwiches, drizzle it over baked feta, pizza, poke bowls, grilled cheese or pancakes…the possibilities are genuinely endless and it’s a very versatile sauce to have on hand.
- Prep Time: 1
- Cook Time: 4
- Category: sauces
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: american
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
Keywords: spicy honey, honey sauce, hot honey, chilli honey sauce
0 Comments