Easy Homemade Hot Honey Sauce (Different than Hot Honey!)

Homemade hot honey sauce is the kind of condiment that quietly sneaks its way onto everything. With its perfect balance of sticky sweetness and fiery (or not fiery!) heat, it’s an easy way to wake up pizza, fried chicken, roasted vegetables, biscuits, and just about anything else that could use a little extra attitude.

And if you really want to take things over the top, I like to use the sauce to whip up a batch of my Whipped Hot Honey Butter. It’s rich, creamy, sweet, spicy, and dangerously good slathered on warm bread, cornbread, pancakes, or you know… straight from the spoon when nobody’s looking. Heehee!

Why You’ll Love This Hot Honey Sauce

This spicy honey sauce is a great alternative to store-bought versions (think Mike’s Hot Honey, but with a twist) that you can make in your own home and control the heat level kick. Because it is made fresh and to your taste, you can easily customize it to the level of hot you are looking for plus with the addition of the extra ingredients, it gives the sauce a different flavor profile than regular hot honey.

The Ingredient List

These simple ingredients can easily be found in your local grocery (or community farmers’ markets)

• Honey: The local honey I like to use is from a beekeeper in my community. It has a very nice, mild floral sweet honey flavor. However, any honey will do as long as it’s not honey that’s been creamed.
• Hot sauce: I prefer the vinegary flavor of Franks Hot Sauce but if you prefer a different brand, it’s important that you use that one. It will add the perfect customized flavor to your hot honey.
• Dried Red Pepper Flakes: I used standard chili flakes, but if you have a favorite, feel free to add those chili peppers – as long as they’re dried!
• Lemon juice (optional) – Bottled juice is fine, and if you have none on hand, apple cider vinegar will work. This adds a bit of sourness to the sauce but is totally optional.

The full recipe is available in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

How to Make the Sauce

 Start by simply mixing everything together in a small saucepan. If you want to make a larger batch than the 1 cup I made here today, you can easily double or triple the ingredients according to how much you want to make.

Bring your pan to a light simmer over medium low heat to help infuse the flavor of the peppers into your honey.

Stain the honey with a fine mesh strainer before storing it if you want a milder flavor. If you want medium heat (or more), and to add a pop of color only strain part of the hot honey or leave it all together and store it without straining.

Ideas For Putting Your Own Twist On The Recipe

If you want to have a hotter spicier kick to this pantry staple, you can do what I did and add more pepper flakes. This can take the flavor up a notch and the longer your honey sits with them the hotter it will get over time.

You can infuse other types of peppers of your choice like Guajillo, or chipotle , or, if you’re feeling brave, try the ultra-hot Carolina Reaper in the pot while you simmer to help bring up the heat quickly for a very hot honey sauce.

What Can I Use Hot Honey Sauce On?

• Some of my favorite ways to add this homemade hot honey sauce recipe are to drizzle on a lot of great foods you already love. It makes an amazing condiment or dipping sauce for fried chicken and biscuits. 
• A drizzle of this can add some intense flavors to savory dishes like roasted chicken or beef and roasted vegetables (like brussels sprouts) that are sure to stand out.
• This can make a great addition to some of your favorite sweet treats too. Try this hot honey drizzled-over vanilla ice cream or a sundae with a chocolate brownie!
• A drizzle of hot honey over some quality cheeses on a cheese plate or charcuterie board would be fantastic to add some wonderful spicy flavors to the mix.
• Try some honey in your tea to give it some kick that is sure to get you warmed up on a cold winter day or stir a spoonful into your hot cocoa for a hit of spice sure to warm you up.
• Add some other things ingredients like lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and oil to make a delicious salad dressing.

Storing Leftovers

For the best results, this hot honey sauce should be stored in an air-tight glass container. This can be an old honey jar or a mason jar. This sweet and spicy condiment can make a great gift, so if you wanted, you can go with some cute jars that can then be reused later by the recipient of the honey.

Because of the antibacterial nature of honey (and its health benefits), this hot honey recipe can be stored for several months, even a year in a secure container, in a dark cupboard. 

If the honey crystallizes while stored you can easily melt it by gently heating it in the microwave or dropping the bottle into some boiling water.

FAQ’s