Hot Honey Is Our New Favorite Condiment. Here's How To Use It

Hot honey is the best-bottled condiment since Sriracha. Yes, we’re stuck on the spicy-sweet combo ever since it hit store shelves, landed on menus, and created a buzz.

There are several New York-made brands, such as Bees Knees Spicy Honey by MixedMade, sourcing chemical-free wildflower honey from the Hudson Valley and then infused, bottled, and packaged in Brooklyn. Also established in Brooklyn, Mike’s Hot Honey is infused with chili peppers, using honey harvested from New York and New Jersey apiaries.

But what do you do with this wonderful, oozing marriage of flavors? So many possibilities await you: Pair it with pizza, chicken, ribs, biscuits, salads, fruits, cheeses— even ice cream.

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Yes, ice cream. I tried it with vanilla ice cream and crushed pistachios, and mmm-mmm. I especially can’t wait to try hot honey drizzled over chocolate ice cream. After all, chili-infused chocolate bars are fabulously right, so naturally spicy honey chocolate ice cream can’t be wrong either.

Chef Debbie Franzese at Bedford Gourmet, a specialty food shop and caterer, uses Mike’s Hot Honey for her spicy honey glazed sesame chicken. She knows how well this condiment works on chicken, and so do other on-trend Westchester chefs.

In Dobbs Ferry, Chef Matt Kay of Cedar Street Grill makes a Sriracha maple glaze for his dirty chicken wings and his blistered shishito peppers with crumbled blue cheese. His buttermilk-fried chicken comes with a gravy boat of Sriracha maple syrup, to either drizzle over the chicken, or to be dunked.

Balducci’s market in Scarsdale carries habanero-infused Glory Bee Honey. Mix the savory honey in sauces, marinades, and vinaigrettes, glaze it on your favorite protein, or drizzle it on some cornbread—which I also tried. A pat of butter and a dash of hot honey totally works on cornbread, especially when accompanying your homemade chili.

Amy’s Hot honey pistachio vanilla ice cream

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At The Parlor in Dobbs Ferry, Chef David DiBari tosses his crispy Brussels sprouts in Sriracha honey, and then lays the sprouts alongside Rice Krispies and Parmigiano cheese. He also created a seasonal “It’s been Real, Obama” Hawaiian pizza pie with pork belly, basil, Stracchino cheese, and spicy pineapple syrup. And crispy fried chicken legs and feet are lacquered with Tabasco honey at The Cookery in Dobbs Ferry, also run by DiBari. Making fruit and nut chutneys with spicy honey isn’t a bad idea either, he says.

So, be like these chefs (and me) and try this at home when you have yourself a bottle of hot honey: Whisk your hot honey into dressings and marinades; paint it on roasted vegetables; glaze it on chicken and pork; drizzle it on pizza and fried chicken; make a sauce with it on fruity desserts; and top it on ice cream.

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