The Best Hot Honey Sauce Recipe

Hot honey sauce is a versatile, spicy condiment that's a perfect combination of rich butter, tangy hot sauce, and sweet honey. It's delicious on chicken wings, toast, roasted vegetables, and more! 

Why You'll Love This Spicy Honey Sauce Recipe

This hot honey sauce strikes a delicious balance between salty, rich, sweet, and spicy.  

You can adjust the spiciness to your liking. If you prefer a lower spice level, use one tablespoon of hot sauce (or start with even less). If you're a hot sauce lover like myself, feel free to add two tablespoons. 

One of the best things about this sauce is how versatile it is. You can use it to spice up any dish, from fried chicken and roasted meats to biscuits and cornbread. My personal favorite use is as a hot honey wing sauce!

It's also fantastic on roasted vegetables or added to salad dressing. Drizzle a little over vanilla ice cream for a delicious dessert.

It's also incredibly easy and quick to make, so you can whip it up anytime you're in the mood for a little extra flavor. 

What You'll Need

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• Honey Any brand of honey is fine here. Raw honey and local honey can be especially lovely, but any grocery store brand will do.
• Butter I recommend using unsalted butter and then adding salt until you reach your desired level of saltiness. However, you can also just use salted butter and leave out the salt below.
• Hot Sauce I recommend using a vinegar-based hot sauce like Tabasco or Crystal for this recipe. The acidity cuts the richness of the butter to create a really delicious condiment. If your favorite hot sauce isn't very acidic, you can add a bit of vinegar or lemon to the sauce to balance it out.
• Salt Kosher salt is what I always recommend for cooking. It's less salty per teaspoon than other varieties of salt, making it easier to taste as you go, and harder to oversalt your food.

How to Make Hot Honey Drizzle

Recommended Equipment

Cutting Board

Kitchen Knife

Saucepot

Wooden Spoon

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Variations

Cayenne Swap the hot sauce for a bit of cayenne pepper and replace the acidity from the hot sauce with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

Chili Flakes In place of the hot sauce, you can use red pepper flakes. This isn't my favorite option because the chili flake can add a bit of unwanted texture to the sauce.

Infused with Chili Peppers You can also swap in some fresh chilis or dried chili peppers in place of the hot sauce. Let them simmer in and infuse their heat into the hot and butter mixture for about 5 minutes before straining. 

How to Store Spicy Honey Sauce

Fridge This sauce can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container, preferably a glass jar with a lid. It should last for up to a week.

Freezer I don't recommend freezing this sauce as the texture will become a little odd when defrosted.

Reheating You can let this sauce come to room temperature or add it to a small saucepan over low heat to warm it through.

You can also reheat it in the microwave, but be careful of splatter! I love these splatter guards that I then put in the dishwasher.

Expert Tips

• Find the balance that works best for your tastes. If you find the level of spiciness is too low, add more hot sauce. If you find it's a bit too spicy or acidic, add more honey. 
• Don't worry if your honey has crystallized. When you add it to the pan with the remaining ingredients, the heat will melt the crystallized honey and return it to a liquid state.
• If you don't have hot sauce on hand and decide to use dried chili flakes, you can strain them out of the sauce before you serve it to avoid any unpleasant crunchy bits.
• To make measuring honey easier, put a bit of olive oil or pan spray in your measuring spoon before pouring the honey in. It will pour out easily!

Ways to Use Spicy Hot Honey Sauce

There are so many uses for this homemade hot honey recipe. Check out some of the suggestions below!

Baked Goods This is delicious drizzled on cornbread, this amazing honey cake, or just your morning toast.

Chicken is definitely one of my favorite ways to use this sauce. You can use it to toss hot honey chicken wings or drizzle it over simply prepared chicken like these Cast Iron Chicken Thighs.

Appetizer This would be very good added to a cheese plate or charcuterie board for guests.

Roasted Vegetables Hot honey is so tasty paired with roasted vegetables. They'd be great with Roasted Baby Broccoli, with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, or on some Asparagus and Brussels Sprouts.

Potatoes Hot honey is wonderful paired with potatoes, like these Air Fryer Fingerling Potatoes, or some classic, crispy french fries.

Dessert Try this as a drizzle over ice cream or over a fruit salad. You can use it in place of regular honey for this mini baklava. It's also amazing as a dipping sauce for fresh fruit, like apples or pears.

Drinks Add a spoonful of this versatile condiment to a mug of tea or a hot toddy!

More Condiments to Try

📖 Recipe