17 Innovative Ways to Utilize Hot Honey

There are a lot of foods out there that get a ton of hype for seemingly no reason. Dubai chocolate is grossly overrated, olive oil on ice cream is a waste of time (and of high-quality olive oil), and hot honey … well, actually, hot honey can stick around as long as it likes.

This spicy-sweet condiment is deserving of every ounce of praise it’s ever been given — and then some. While it’s sold by numerous brands, including the ever-popular Mike’s, you can also make homemade hot honey by combining chiles, aromatics (optional, but highly recommended), and the honey itself. The result is a condiment that’s punchy yet restrained, and exuberant yet approachable.

If you’re just getting into the world of hot honey, or were a fan of it before it became popular, we have some good news. We’ve curated a list of ways to put this tasty condiment to use in your kitchen — for sweet, savory, and everything in between.

There are several reasons why marinating your meat is worthwhile. Not only can it infuse a ton of flavor into your protein, but depending on the ingredients you use, it can also tenderize it, making it easier to cook and yielding a better texture. The next time your marinade is looking otherwise uninspired, consider adding a sweet-and-spicy twist to your marinade with hot honey.

Hot honey is a great alternative to conventional sweeteners like brown or white sugar in a marinade because it adds a unique, spicy twist and bolsters any other piquant notes in your sauce. Try adding up to ¼ cup of hot honey to your marinade; it’s compatible with everything from Asian-inspired condiments like soy sauce and mirin to classic Southern marinades made with vinegar and barbecue sauce. It’s excellent with pork, as the sweetness pairs well with its fatty flavor, though it can also be used for seafood and poultry. Try drizzling it on your grilled salmon to expedite the caramelization and complement the savory taste of the fish.

Listen up, mixologists: Hot honey is the ingredient you need to stock in your bar cart. If you’re just learning the ropes of how to add hot honey to cocktails, a good place to start is with a legendary old fashioned. The honey is no stranger to the oaky and vanilla undertones of the bourbon, while the burn of the chiles meshes well with same sensation offered by the spirit. Try swapping your simple syrup for this honey, adding a little water as needed to thin the viscous sweetener.

Another cocktail worth pairing hot honey with is the spicy margarita. This cocktail is no stranger to a little bit of heat, and the sweetness will help mellow out the herbaceous components of the drink, including the muddled jalapeños. Use it as a substitute for a simple syrup or agave, or simply stir in a little extra to taste.

While breakfast sandwiches can be versatile — given how many different combinations of meats, eggs, and greens you can add to them — they can get a little stale. If you need something to perk up your taste buds early in the morning, reach for that jar of hot honey. This condiment is an especially delicious pairing for fatty breakfast meats, including sausage and bacon, because the honey cuts through the salt, and the spice makes the greasiness a little more bearable. It’s the light touch that an especially heavy breakfast sandwich needs.

There are many ways to add hot honey to your sandwich. For one, you can drizzle it straight onto the bread to get a little bit of that sweet brightness in every bite. Or, if you’re adding bacon to your sando, consider candying the protein in hot honey.

Bruschetta is the perfect summery appetizer, though it can quickly be ruined by low-quality or out-of-season tomatoes. Hot honey can come to the rescue by helping reintroduce some freshness and flavor to your tomato bruschetta. The sweet drizzle has beautiful floral undertones, that complement the sweetness of the tomatoes. Meanwhile, the hot component leaves a residual sting on your palate and draws attention to the other aromatics at play, like garlic.

You don’t want to add so much hot honey that you drown out the flavors of the bruschetta entirely, though. A quick drizzle should suffice, especially because an integral part of the bruschetta eating experience is the crispness of the bread against the softness of the tomato. There’s no room for soggy bread.

If you have yet to try fried plantains, take this as your sign to do so. While these starchy bites can be enjoyed with a range of sides, from yogurt to ice cream, one of the best ones to try is hot honey. Plantains have a bit of natural sweetness, so adding hot honey to them will boost this flavor. Meanwhile, the sharp bite of the chile will make the plantains taste a little less starchy. You can drizzle the honey on while they’re still warm, or serve the condiment as a dipping sauce.

Bananas, which are in the same botanical family, are also worthy of a hot honey upgrade and may be more approachable for folks who have yet to work with plantains. Try adding a drizzle of hot honey to your banana split or give your bananas Foster a fiery twist by adding a drizzle before serving.

Grilled cheese is one of the most well-known and comforting American sandwiches. While we won’t argue with the merits of two slices of cheap white bread and a couple of Kraft Singles, there are also tons of opportunities to dress this sandwich up and give it a new, grown-up lease on life. And hot honey is a great way to do that.

Hot honey is an elite ingredient that will upgrade your grilled cheese, along with an array of cheeses and other fillings that will complement its sweetness. While American and cheddar are good places to start, you could also drizzle hot honey on a sandwich made with creamy gouda or decadent Gruyère. The honey is the perfect pairing for the fatty cheeses, helping take your rich cheese of choice to the next level. Try stuffing in some crispy bacon or ham, apple slices, and/or arugula to create the perfect symphony of flavors — the hot honey is just the maestro.

We’d argue that cranberry sauce is the literal and figurative glue that holds your Thanksgiving dinner together. Dry turkey is nothing without it, and the pop of color it brings to your plate is reason enough to include it on the celebration’s menu. Hot honey is a great ingredient to add to your homemade or store-bought cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce tends to lean tart, meaning both sweetness and heat can help right the ship.

Although it might seem unconventional to add a hot condiment to an otherwise sweet, fruity sauce, it all makes sense when you consider what else is on your plate. The cranberry sauce can be a vector for flavor, and when enjoyed with a relatively bland piece of turkey and starchy mashed potatoes, it can make the perfect bite. Swap out some of the sugar in your cranberry sauce with hot honey and watch the condiment’s floral notes play off the punchy and slightly sour berries.

Chicken Milanese? You mean adult chicken nuggets? While this Italian dish is typically served in a tangy, lemony sauce with capers, a hot honey twist with your chicken Milanese might just the surprise that your cutlets need. Honey is a common topping for fried chicken, so adding it to this version of the preparation isn’t too far off.

There are two different ways to bring hot honey and chicken Milanese together. For starters, you can drizzle it over the cutlet right after it has cooled and serve it as is. Or, you can try cooking the spicy condiment with a bit of melted butter so that it sticks to the cutlet more readily. The hot honey is flavorful enough to elevate the bland chicken, and the sweetness is the perfect match for the crispy and slightly greasy breadcrumbs.

Homemade hummus is easier to make than you may think. For starters, all you need are chickpeas (canned are okay), oil, and your flavoring of choice. While roasted garlic and beet hummus are certainly delicious, why not try a fun and spicy variation using hot honey? When you drizzle regular honey on your hummus, you get the perfect savory-sweet mashup that highlights both the flavors of the honey and the earthiness of the chickpeas — or whatever beans you use in your recipe. Hot honey does the same thing — just with a spicy kick.

Although your mind might go to a savory hummus, like one made with roasted red peppers, garlic, and hot honey, we’d also recommend exploring dessert hummuses too. For a play on Mexican chocolate, try pairing your hot honey hummus with cocoa powder or melted chocolate. The sweetness of the honey paired with the piquant, peppery kick of the chiles would be a delectable, unconventional, and memorable dessert pairing.

There are so many sauces you can put on burgers, from simple ketchup and classic mustard to souped-up aiolis and herbaceous green sauces. Hot honey is a worthy pairing for a vast array of patties, whether you’re opting for something all-beef or going for a lighter chicken, turkey, or even salmon burger.

Hot honey is in good company with “sweet-curious” toppings. For example, caramelized onions and crispy fried onions both have an innate sweetness that welcomes the brightness and supplemental sugariness of the honey. Burgers that you would adorn with barbecue sauce are also great pairings for the hot honey, seeing as how the sweetness can mesh with the smoky notes. The hot component of the sauce is just an added bonus, and it can add an edge to an especially bland patty or a sandwich that goes light on the toppings.

Hot honey and pizza may be one of the best pairings ever created — especially if your pizza is decked out to the nines with meat. Hot honey can single-handedly save your mediocre frozen pizza, as it gives a ho-hum crust just enough flavor and helps balance out the flavors of the rich cheese, sauce, and toppings. You can drizzle the hot honey atop your pie (emphasis on “drizzle” — not soak), or dip your slice into a ramekin of it to capitalize on those spicy notes. We prefer the drizzle method because it ensures a slow burn on the taste buds, rather than an overwhelming blast of heat and sugar.

Not only can it upgrade a basic cheese or pepperoni pie, but it can also be a handy ingredient to have in your pizza toolkit when it comes to more sophisticated flavors. Prosciutto, for example, would offer the perfect fatty complement to the sweet honey, while sharp, bitter arugula stands in as the perfect foil to the hot honey and decadent cured meat. Get some goat cheese involved, and you have the perfect pie to serve at an upscale pizza party.

Of course, hot honey doesn’t just offer sweetness. It also has beautiful woodsy and floral notes that can vary depending on the type of honey it’s made from. These complex flavors are the perfect match for similar flavors in roasted vegetables.

Take, for example, Brussels sprouts, which are a boring vegetable until they’re enhanced with a punchy condiment like hot honey. The sugar in the honey will encourage the Brussels sprouts to caramelize and helps develop a delectable char on their exterior. If you’re after the perfect savory-sweet-spicy mashup, try mixing the honey with a little bit of olive oil and basic seasonings, like salt, pepper, and thyme. Serve the charred sprouts with a sprinkle of feta or goat cheese to soften the spicy blow, or toss in some bacon and cranberries to make a whole side dish out of it.

Brussels sprouts aren’t the only vegetables that can benefit from a hot honey upgrade. Carrots and sweet potatoes are two inherently sweet vegetables that would make an excellent pairing for the sweet honey drizzle and the sharp sting of the chile.

An affogato is a coffee lover’s dessert of choice (that, and tiramisu). The affogato is traditionally made by pouring hot espresso over a cup of cold gelato. It’s bitter but also a sweet, rich delight. And with hot honey, this Italian coffee-dessert hybrid can taste even better.

To try this combination at home, layer your cold gelato (or ice cream) in a heat-safe cup and add a drizzle of hot honey on top. Then, slowly pour your espresso shot over the frozen dessert, watching as the torrent of coffee cascades down the sides and melts away the cream in its wake. The sweet flavor will remain paramount in every spoonful, while the heaviness and subtle bitterness of the espresso will be cut by the spicy undertones of the condiment. If you’re okay with throwing “tradition” to the wayside (you did top it with hot honey, may we remind you), try swapping out the standard vanilla gelato for chocolate, which plays on the chile notes well, or nutty pistachio, which works well with the floral notes of the honey.

Move over Chick-fil-A sauce — there’s a new sheriff in town. While we won’t discount the storied history of french fries and ketchup and chicken tenders and honey mustard, we will propose that hot honey deserves a place in your dipping repertoire just as much as these other condiments. Hot honey has the perfect remix of sweet and heat, which brightens up your palate as you make your way through dense and heavy fried favorites, including fries, chicken nuggets, onion rings, and even mozzarella sticks. Plus, it’s not uncommon to deploy hot sauce to make your dipper of choice more flavorful — hot honey just feeds two birds with one scone.

You don’t just have to dip the food straight into the hot honey, either. If you are a big fan of honey mustard, try DIYing your own by mixing standard yellow mustard and hot honey. The sinus-tickling undertones of the mustard are highlighted by the chile’s flavor.

Homemade salad dressing is so much better than the stuff you get from the grocery store. When you whip one up in your own kitchen, you have greater control over the flavors at play. So if you’re big on sweetness, and even bigger on heat, you may want to try adding hot honey to your next vinaigrette.

You don’t need to add a lot of hot honey to your dressing to taste the difference. In fact, you want the hot honey to complement — rather than overpower — the flavor nuances of your other ingredients, like mustard, vinegar, and olive oil. However, if you’d like the hot flavor to dominate, try using equal parts hot honey and oil in your recipe. A hot honey dressing would be excellent on cruciferous veggies, like kale or arugula. You could also repurpose it for your roasted veggies.

For all of its merits, hot honey is not always the easiest condiment to work with. If you want to infuse that flavor into other foods, it might be easier to make it into a compound butter. Don’t let the name intimidate you; compound butters are incredibly easy to make yourself. Simply whip your butter with your desired amount of flavoring until it’s well incorporated before spooning it into wax paper and chilling it in your fridge until it solidifies. A good place to start is with a few tablespoons of hot honey for every stick of butter.

Your hot honey butter can go with so many different foods. It can be the bright, spicy twist that your corn on the cob needs, or you can melt it down and drizzle it on popcorn for a movie night treat you won’t forget. You can also spread it on toast or drop a piece of it onto a cut of meat to infuse it with an extra piquant and sweet flavor.

We’re impartial to sweet-meets-savory, but the sweet and spicy dichotomy is another one that has a soft spot in our hearts. Hot honey is a seriously bold ice cream topping that can upgrade almost any flavor, but it’s an especially good match for anything chocolate. The prickly spice from the condiment will bring out those chocolate notes, while the honey will turn the sweetness factor up a notch. However, it’s not like you’re dumping a load of sugar onto an already sweet dessert; the spice acts as the perfect check and prevents it from being too cloying.

You aren’t relegated to just chocolate and vanilla territory, either. Butter pecan, for example, is just rich enough to benefit from that punch of spice, and its oaky, buttery notes will play up the floral honey. You could also go the savory route with salted caramel ice cream; the addition of hot honey would make it the perfect assemblage of salty, sweet, and spicy flavors in every bite.