Hot Honey Is The Only Ingredient You Need To Upgrade Your Next Bowl Of Popcorn

If you're someone who likes things a little sweet and spicy, then hot honey is probably your go-to condiment. After all, it can be used in a number of ways — drizzled over pizza, spread over biscuits or other pastries, or integrated into salad dressings or marinades. But beyond the obvious, there are plenty of unexpected ways to use up your favorite condiment — including on popcorn. Popcorn is delicious just as it is, but add a little hot honey, and suddenly the snack gets a whole lot more exciting. 

Plus, it is also a simple addition. You can either make the popcorn from scratch (heating kernels in hot oil on the stove) or use a pre-prepared microwaveable popcorn bag. After the popcorn is properly popped, simply pour the hot honey over the top and stir to make sure the popcorn batch is evenly coated. You can choose exactly how much of that spicy sweetness you want by the amount of hot honey you decide to mix in. Or for a more subtle add-in, you can simply drizzle over the top instead of mixing it throughout.

You can easily buy hot honey from the store, but it's also super easy to make at home. Plus, if you make it yourself, you can control the level of spiciness to match your preferences.

There are a few different ways to make hot honey, all of which are super easy and involve just a few ingredients. Tasting Table has a recipe for spicy Calabrian chile honey, which infuses just two ingredients — dried chiles and honey — to make a mouth-watering, delicious condiment. Of course, you don't have to stick to just Calabrian chiles — you can use any chile of your choice, such as chiles de arbol, chipotle chiles, or guajillo chiles. You'll just want to be aware of the flavors of each so you know how it'll impact the overall taste of your hot honey (chipotles, for example, have a smokier flavor than some of the others).

If you don't want to work with chiles directly, you can simply mix honey with your choice of hot sauce — such as Tabasco or even sriracha — to whip up the condiment. Start with the ratio of a half cup of honey to 4 teaspoons of hot sauce and adjust from there based on how spicy you want your hot honey to be.