Hot Honey

Dried chilies steeped in gently warmed raw honey until it turns deep amber and slow-burning. Fifteen minutes of work, one hour of patience, and a jar that outlasts anything you'd buy.

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Prep Time 10 mins

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Cook Time 15 mins (plus 1 hr to steep)

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Servings Makes about 1¼ cups

October 12, 2026

Ingredients

The Chilies

3 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes, Aleppo pepper, or gochugaru
2 whole dried chiles de árbol, stemmed and broken in half (optional, for real heat)

Pantry

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

From the Hive

1½ cups (about 510 g) Go Honey 100% Pure & Raw Honey, divided

Instructions

Toast the Chilies

Set a dry skillet over medium-low heat and add the pepper flakes and árbol chiles. Shake the pan for 60 to 90 seconds, until they smell warm and nutty, then slide them onto a plate immediately. Chilies go from toasted to burnt in about ten seconds, and burnt chili makes bitter honey.

Warm the Honey Gently

Pour 1¼ cups of the honey into a small saucepan and set it over the lowest heat your burner will hold. Bring it to 150°F (65°C) and take it off — never let it climb past 160°F (71°C). Use a thermometer here; past that point you scorch the sugars, flatten the floral aroma, and cook away the raw character the whole infusion is built on.

Steep Off the Heat

Stir the toasted chilies and the salt into the warm honey, cover the pan, and leave it on the counter. Give it 30 minutes for a gentle warmth, 1 hour for the sweet spot, or up to 2 hours if you want it to bite. The honey keeps pulling color and heat the whole time it cools.

Strain It

Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and pour the honey through, pressing lightly on the solids with the back of a spoon. Don't force every drop — hard pressing pushes fine sediment through and clouds the jar.

Finish with Raw Honey

Once the strained honey drops below 105°F (41°C), stir in the vinegar and the remaining ¼ cup of raw honey. The vinegar cuts the sweetness and keeps the pour loose; the reserved honey goes in untouched, so the finished jar still tastes like the hive it came from.

Bottle and Store

Funnel into a spotlessly clean, bone-dry jar or squeeze bottle and cap it, then keep it in a cool cupboard, not the refrigerator, and use it within 3 months. If it crystallizes, stand the closed jar in a bowl of warm tap water for 10 to 15 minutes, then open and stir. Like all raw honey, it is not for babies under one year old.

Pro Tip: Use fully dried chilies only. The tablespoon of vinegar is too little to matter in this much honey, but a fresh pepper is not — fresh peppers carry real water, and water is what turns a shelf-stable jar into a fermenting one, so you'll see bubbles, a lifted lid, and a sour smell within a couple of weeks. If you do want fresh chilies for their brighter flavor, that jar goes straight into the refrigerator from the moment you make it, never onto the counter, and gets used inside two weeks.