Hot And Dirty Martini Recipe

The dirty martini, a drink that dates back to the turn of the 20th century, takes the traditional olive garnish and incorporates it into the drink in the form of brine from the olive jar. This spicy spin on the cocktail, however, adds a new element: a chili-flavored salt rim, along with a splash of hot sauce. These ingredients, according to recipe developer Deniz Vergara, "kick this cocktail up a notch." And with a garnish of cheese-stuffed olives — she prefers feta or blue — Vergara says this hot and dirty martini "is like an appetizer in a glass." 

While Vergara uses homemade hot sauce, she recommends adding whichever variety is your favorite. That means choosing a Louisiana-style hot sauce like Frank's RedHot for a vinegary tang, or going with Tabasco for something more peppery. A habanero-based sauce would really bring the heat and a slightly fruity flavor, or you could go all-out with one of the world's hottest hot sauces made with scorpion, ghost, and other extremely incendiary peppers.

Rather than gin, you'll need to stir up some vodka for this particular martini recipe. You're also going to need a jar of cheese-stuffed olives (complete with brine), plus some chili-flavored salt and hot sauce.

If you have a drink rimmer, get it out now, as well as a martini glass. If you don't have the rimmer, two shallow dishes will do, and really any kind of glass you have on hand can stand in for the martini type.

Once you have the equipment on hand, pour the olive brine into one dish and the salt into the other. Dip the glass first into the brine and then into the salt, rolling it around until a sufficient amount of garnish adheres to the rim.

Unless you're making this martini for 007, you won't really need a cocktail shaker to mix it, although by all means feel free to use one if you do. If not, any tall glass will be just perfect. Pour the hot sauce, olive brine, and vodka into this vessel along with a handful of ice, then stir the drink until it feels cold.

Strain the drink into the rimmed glass, then thread 3 olives onto a skewer or toothpick and rest it over the glass. Your martini is now ready to sip, so cheers, bottoms up, here's looking at you, et cetera.