This hot honey takes honey to new fiery levels – in just minutes, and with 3 simple ingredients, it’s incredible drizzled on biscuits, fried chicken and even waffles! (It also makes a wonderful gift idea, too!)
For several years, I had a huge love affair with making cheese… As an avid advocate of raw milk, I set aside several gallons every week to make a new cheese for my cheese cave (aka – my wine cooler I picked up at Goodwill). 😆
I made so many fun varieties:
- Feta Cheese
- Marinated Feta Cheese
- Halloumi Cheese
- Cotija Cheese
- Hatch Chile Cheddar Cheese
- and believe it or not, even Bacon Beer Soaked Cheese (despite the fact that I don’t even like or drink beer).
Cheesemaking was my thing, a sort of therapy… a cheap form of therapy at that. It helped my kids see the connection from farm to table. Not just that, but it taught my kids patience – cheesemaking doesn’t produce cheese immediately; sometimes patience is required to achieve the end result we hope for. Without that patience, we really don’t have a chance in producing really good cheese.
After a turn of unmentionable (and quite traumatic) events, cheesemaking is for me a long past memory. All I can do these days is stand in front of the fancy cheese section at my local grocery store and dream of having fields of grazing brown cows and endless supplies of raw milk so I can go back to my cheesemaking days.
Fancy Cheese Leads to Hot Honey
Right behind that lovely cheese section at my market are bottles of Mike’s Hot Honey. They’re beautifully lined up, waiting for their next buyer. Now I don’t know Mike… but being that he has his own name on a bottle of honey, he must be pretty important.
You, too, may have eyed Mike’s Hot Honey near your local grocery cheese section. Then, maybe not — it might depend on where you shop. Kroger dominates my area and Mike’s Hot Honey can be found in that tiny little section.
Now, Hot Honey doesn’t peak my interest as much as it does my heat-loving, fire-breathing daughter. She loves all things spicy and is so quick to point out that I’m just a wimp who can’t tolerate the slightest bit of heat. So when she saw this Hot Honey her first instinct was to tell me we “must” buy it.
Being the creative soul that I am, with a fondness for the kitchen and all things random, I quickly told her that I would rather not buy it. That I didn’t have $9.99 to buy it. (To which she did her typical “sigh”…)
Actually I may have fudged… I did have $9.99. But not for honey. 😉
I quickly told her I’d rather make it myself. (and this is when the “sigh” turned to an “eye roll”).. 😉
If you haven’t heard of hot honey, it really is a thing. It’s great on fried chicken, waffles, drizzled on fresh biscuits (try these Hatch Chile Biscuits!), pancakes, or even added to your tea. Honey is great when you’re losing your voice, and the heat from the peppers can kick a cold all the way back to Timbuktu.
Tips for Making Hot Honey
Use dry ingredients. Honey infused with fresh ingredients has a tendency to spoil. Honey does have a traditionally low moisture content (17-18%) – however, when you use fresh ingredients, you’re introducing more moisture. More moisture = more opportunity to spoil. As tempting as it might be to use fresh peppers, please stick with dry ingredients.
Do not boil the honey! When you combine the peppers with the honey on the stove top, place on the lowest heat and allow the peppers to infuse for 15-20 minutes. Strain, add your apple cider vinegar and store in a covered jar.
Can I use any dry peppers? Certainly! I used crushed Chile seeds ($.99 for a huge bag at my market), but you can use dry Thai chiles, Chiles de Arbol, Guajillo Chiles, or even New Mexico Red Chiles. Mix it up!
Store your honey at room temperature to prevent crystallization. Provided you use dry ingredients, and don’t add any water, this honey should last indefinitely.
Hot Honey Recipe
Equipment
- medium saucepan
- pint canning jar with ring and lid (for storage)
Ingredients
- 12 oz honey
- 3 tsp red pepper flakes** or your choice of dry chiles, see notes far below
- 1.5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine honey with red pepper flakes. Slowly heat to a simmer for 12-15 minutes to infuse the chiles in the honey.
- Remove from heat; strain out chiles. Add apple cider vinegar and stir to combine.
- Transfer to a glass jar with lid or your choice of storage container and store at room temperature. Serve alongside your favorite biscuits, fried chicken, waffles, tea and more.
Notes
Reduce the size of the recipe for a smaller quantity:
- 8 oz honey
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Tell me — did you make this Hot Honey? Did you make any changes – hotter? Milder? How did it turn out? Please RATE the recipe and leave a comment to share your thoughts. I’d love to know.
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