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Hot Honey: What It Is and How to Make It

Straight to the recipe card ↓

Hot honey is runny honey infused with chilli — a pourable condiment, sweet at the front and hot behind, poured over pizza, fried chicken and cheese rather than eaten by the spoon. It is made by steeping chilli in gently warmed honey, then straining it out or leaving it in; some versions carry a splash of vinegar too.

One point of law first. Schedule 1 of the Honey (England) Regulations 2015 allows honey no additions — “no food ingredient has been added, including any food additive”. Chilli in the jar therefore makes it a preparation containing honey rather than honey, which is why it sells as a condiment or a sauce.

Plate I · IllustrationRecord

Botanical plate of the chilli: a branching stem with white flowers and ripe red fruit, with the fruit drawn in section and its seeds separately.
The infusion's other half: Capsicum annuum, from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen. The section drawing shows where the heat actually sits — in the pale placenta the seeds are attached to, not in the seeds themselves.Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, 1887–1898 (public domain)

Where did hot honey come from?

From a pizzeria in Brazil, by way of Brooklyn. In November 2003, studying abroad, Mike Kurtz found jars of chilli-infused honey on the tables of a small Brazilian pizzeria and began making his own. It became a menu item at Paulie Gee’s, the Brooklyn pizzeria where he worked; the company Mike’s Hot Honey was established in 2010; and hot honey now reaches 7.7% of US restaurant menus.

Is hot honey spicy?

Sweet first, hot behind, and mild by chilli standards unless you make it otherwise — you set the level.

Heat comes from capsaicinoids: more than 22 are known, capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in the highest concentrations. In a mild chilli the vesicles that hold them sit on the placenta alone — the pale membrane inside the pod that the seeds attach to; in the superhot varieties they spread into the wall of the pod as well.

Fig. I · Where the heat sitsDiagram

A schematic of the anatomy described on this page — not a botanical key, and not to scale. The pod is a generic chilli, not a named cultivar. The drawing says where the heat sits, not how much: the cultivar figures stay in the text, and Scoville Heat Units count dilutions rather than concentration. The vesicles are drawn as beads so they can be seen; their number and size here mean nothing.

Four things set a jar’s heat: which chilli, how much, how long it steeps, and whether the placenta goes in with the flesh. Variety does most of the work — one comparison of seven cultivars measured capsaicin at 0.98 mg/kg dry weight in Anaheim, 16.44 in jalapeño, 1,069 in serrano and 4,778 mg/kg in habanero, roughly 290 times the jalapeño figure. The same paper found dry-pepper extractions yielded several times more capsaicin than wet ones, so a fresh pod does not carry those numbers as bought. Scoville Heat Units count dilutions rather than concentration.

Even then the packet is only a guide: New Mexico State University’s extension service notes that heat is the product of genetics and environment together, so a mild cultivar grown under stress runs hotter than its name suggests.

Plate II · IllustrationRecord

Japanese woodblock surimono of straw hives with flying insects above a patterned box fitted with a slender spoon for honey.
Honey, cased like lacquerware: Kubo Shunman’s surimono of hives and a fitted honey box with its own spoon, printed in Edo Japan. The Met’s title gives the insects as wasps; the respect for the contents is unmistakable either way.Kubo Shunman, surimono, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (CC0)

Plate III · Generated imageRecord

A small glass bottle of chilli-infused honey, dried chillies suspended in the amber, a spoon trailing a honey thread onto a dark board.
The infusion, finished: chillies suspended in the amber, the thread off the spoon unbroken — heat you can see before you taste it. A generated image, commissioned by the house to the recipe’s own description — standing in until the house photographs the dish itself.Generated image (OpenAI), commissioned by the house, 2026

Which honey should you use?

A runny one, mild enough that the chilli has room. Set honey is not wrong, only solid — warmed until it runs thin it behaves identically, and the difference is physical state, not quality, as our set vs runny honey guide explains. A strongly aromatic varietal honey and a hot chilli both want the front of the palate; a milder blossom honey leaves the chilli more space.

How do you make hot honey?

Gently, and mostly off the heat.

Pour 340g of runny honey into a small pan and warm it over the lowest heat until it is hand-warm and runs thin — about 40 °C, and no hotter. A thermometer is the reliable check; do not let it bubble. Take the pan off the heat and stir in 2 tsp of dried chilli flakes, or four small dried red chillies, torn.

Cover the pan and leave it at room temperature for at least an hour, tasting on a teaspoon at 30 minutes and again at the hour. Once the honey is cool, stir in 1 tsp of cider vinegar if you want it: the tang cuts the sweetness. Then strain through a fine sieve into a clean jar to fix the heat where you like it, or leave the chilli in and let it keep working. Seal and store it cool and dark; if it sets in the jar, stand the jar in a bowl of water no hotter than about 40 °C until it runs again.

Fig. II · The reading at 40 °CDiagram

An instrument reading, not a warning. The scale carries one graduation because this page states one temperature — about 40 °C, and no hotter; everything above it is drawn dashed and unnumbered rather than guessed at. Pan, flakes and thermometer are schematic and nothing is to scale: the drawing marks where the working line sits, not what a pan looks like.

Why 40 °C is the ceiling

The regulations bar honey “heated in such a way that the natural enzymes have been either destroyed or significantly inactivated”, and 40 °C is where the working line sits: Hungarian rules cap the core temperature of honey at 40 °C during processing, and a spectroscopic study of unifloral honeys found measurable change even at that temperature. Heat drives hydroxymethylfurfural up and diastase down — the markers UK law bounds at 40 mg/kg and 8 Schade units. A simmer infuses faster and costs you what a carefully handled honey was bought for.

Should the chilli be fresh or dried?

Dried, for a jar you mean to keep. Honey holds very little free water: its water activity sits between about 0.5 and 0.65, osmotolerant yeasts need roughly 0.6 to develop, and aw under 0.6 is the usual safety line. UK law caps moisture at 20% for most honeys, 23% for heather. A fresh chilli is mostly water and raises the water activity around it; dried flakes bring heat and almost none. Fresh chilli should be strained out, the jar refrigerated and used quickly.

How long does it keep?

A dried-chilli infusion, strained and sealed, keeps in a cool dark cupboard — one published UK recipe gives up to two months, or a week in the fridge if citrus zest has gone in too. Honey alone is steadier still, as our guide to whether honey goes off sets out; an infusion is only as stable as the wettest thing in it.

What do you put it on?

Pizza first, by history: a drizzle over a hot, salty slice is where the condiment made its name. Then fried chicken, and cheese — hard sheep’s and goat’s cheeses take it well, and one UK recipe suggests pecorino, Manchego or a robust Cheddar. Honey with cheese is a far older pairing, covered at honey and cheese. It finishes roasted roots too — parsnips or carrots.

One factual note for any honey, infused or not: honey is not suitable for infants under 12 months. Occasionally it contains bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby’s intestines, leading to infant botulism, and NHS guidance is to give none before a child is one year old.

Where THYMELIA stands

THYMELIA is a UK house of Greek foods working two harvests — raw thyme honey from Chania in western Crete, and early-harvest olive oil from the hills above Kalamata, where the wild thyme flowers from May to July. We make no hot honey; this page is here because a chilli infusion is one of the few kitchen uses where the handling behind a jar shows. There is no shop yet. How we source is at sourcing, what we will test and publish is at testing, and the studies behind bee products are worked through at evidence.

Recipe · Hot Honey: What It Is and How to Make ItCard

Prep
5 min
Cook
5 min
Total
1 hr 10 min
Makes
Makes about 340g, one jar

Ingredients

  • 340g runny honey, mild in flavour
  • 2 tsp dried chilli flakes, or 4 small dried red chillies, torn
  • 1 tsp cider vinegar (optional)

Method

  1. Warm the honey

    Pour the honey into a small pan and warm it over the lowest heat until it is hand-warm and runs thin — about 40 °C, and no hotter. A thermometer is the reliable check. Do not let it bubble or simmer.

  2. Add the chilli

    Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chilli flakes, or the torn dried chillies, until they are evenly suspended through the honey.

  3. Steep

    Cover the pan and leave it to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Taste it on a teaspoon after 30 minutes and again at the hour — the heat climbs for as long as the chilli sits in the honey.

  4. Balance it, if you want to

    Once the honey is cool, stir in the cider vinegar. It adds a tang that cuts the sweetness. Leave it out for a plainer, sweeter hot honey.

  5. Strain or leave

    Strain the honey through a fine sieve into a clean jar to fix the heat where you like it, or pour it in unstrained and let the chilli keep working. Fresh chilli, if you used it, must be strained out.

  6. Store

    Seal the jar and keep it in a cool, dark cupboard. If it crystallises, stand the jar in a bowl of water no hotter than about 40 °C until it runs again.

Asked, answered.

What is hot honey?

Runny honey infused with chilli, poured as a condiment rather than eaten by the spoon. Commercial jars are honey steeped with chilli and often a little vinegar; homemade versions are the same few things. In UK law it is not honey once the chilli goes in — Schedule 1 of the Honey (England) Regulations 2015 requires that no food ingredient has been added — so it sells as a condiment or a sauce.

Is hot honey spicy?

Sweet first, hot behind, and mild by chilli standards unless you make it otherwise. Four things set the level: the chilli variety, how much goes in, how long it steeps, and whether the placenta goes in with the flesh. Variety dominates — measured capsaicin runs from about 1 mg/kg dry weight in an Anaheim to nearly 4,800 mg/kg in a habanero.

How do you make hot honey sauce?

The same way as hot honey — the two names describe one thing. Warm 340g of runny honey to about 40 °C, no hotter, stir in 2 tsp of dried chilli flakes off the heat, cover and steep for at least an hour, then strain or leave the chilli in. A teaspoon of cider vinegar stirred in once cool loosens it slightly and cuts the sweetness.

Should you use fresh or dried chillies?

Dried, for a jar you mean to keep. Honey's water activity sits around 0.5 to 0.65 and osmotolerant yeasts need roughly 0.6 to grow, so aw under 0.6 is the usual safety line; UK law caps moisture at 20% for most honeys, 23% for heather. A fresh chilli is mostly water and raises the water activity around it. Fresh chilli should be strained out and the jar kept in the fridge.

How long does homemade hot honey keep?

A dried-chilli infusion, strained and sealed, keeps in a cool dark cupboard — one published UK recipe gives up to two months, or a week in the fridge if citrus zest has gone in as well. Fresh chilli shortens that sharply. The honey may crystallise as it stands, which is a physical change rather than spoilage.

Sources