Repurpose Chile Seeds For Easy Homemade Hot Honey

Whether you want to try hot honey for the first time or are already in love with the spicy-sweet condiment and can't get enough of it, making some at home might be the best option for you. Should you have already enjoyed the versatile condiment, you likely know it can be used to elevate many different kinds of dishes — from a fried chicken sandwich to a savory artisan pizza topped with prosciutto and goat cheese. You can even blend it into a vinaigrette for a unique salad dressing.

While the traditional way to make homemade hot honey is to use peppers, you can also repurpose the seeds you scraped out of your chile. These are often removed from the peppers as you make another recipe or when you want to tame the heat for the sake of someone who is adverse to spice. Don't let them go to waste. Instead, mix them with honey for a condiment you can make as spicy as your taste buds can handle. 

To make homemade hot honey with pepper seeds, start by grabbing a bottle of honey from the cupboard (it can even be a partially filled used jar). Any kind of spicy pepper and its seeds will work, although Fresno chiles, Thai chiles, habaneros, and jalapeños work especially well. The seeds don't even need to be fresh. They could have been previously removed and dried for future use.

How many pepper seeds you add to the honey really depends on personal taste. You can use the typical ratio for a regular hot honey as a guide: one cup of honey to two teaspoons of red pepper flakes or two fresh or dried chiles. Of course, the more seeds you add, the spicier the condiment will be. If it becomes too spicy, simply add more honey until the taste is what you want. Conversely, if you don't have enough pepper seeds left to make the honey as hot as you'd like, pour in some hot sauce to up the heat.

Next time you are scraping out the inside of your peppers, set those seeds aside to be transformed into a sensational hot honey that's perfect for any meal of the day.