Season Homemade Potato Chips With Hot Honey And Thank Us Later

Potato chips are considered by some folks to be the perfect snack, whether you munch on them as you watch your favorite reality TV shows or you use them as a side for a sandwich at lunch or dinner. Although most people pick up a bag of these munchies at the supermarket, you can easily make them at home. Making homemade potato chips gives you the benefit of being able to get creative with your seasonings.

One such creative seasoning to try out is hot honey. Hot honey is a mix of honey, hot pepper flakes, and an optional dash of hot sauce or vinegar that's heated on the stove. The combination of honey and hot pepper adds both a spicy kick and a light touch of sweetness to your dishes, so you don't get the hot, burning sensation you would from eating potato chips seasoned with only hot sauce.

But how exactly do you add this intriguing seasoning to your potato chips, and are there any tips to keep in mind when you do? Knowing the answers to these questions is the key to making a deliciously sweet, salty, and spicy homemade snack.

When you make a batch of hot honey, first choose your honey. Any kind works; store-bought or local. Most honey sold in stores is clover, which is light and grassy with a subtle sweetness that can mellow the hot without dominating it. Orange blossom, lavender, and wildflower honey are made from flower nectar, which gives aromatic, citrusy, floral notes to hot honey. Darker honeys, like buckwheat or Manuka, will punch up hot honey with their robust earthiness.

Once you've got your honey sorted out, it's time to pick your pepper. You can use whole dried or fresh peppers, but flakes are usually the easiest to find. If you aren't sure of your heat tolerance, consider starting with a milder pepper, such as red chili, and working your way up to a more incendiary type, like a ghost pepper. Adjust the amount to taste.

Making hot honey is easy: Add the honey, pepper flakes, and an optional dash of hot sauce to a saucepan, thoroughly warm but do not boil, then remove from the heat and let it all marry together for a few minutes. Seasoning your potato chips is equally simple. If you make your chips, drizzle them with the honey once they are out of the oil. If you're not into making chips from scratch, you can spread store-bought chips on a baking tray, sprinkle hot honey over them, and then bake them in the oven to get a similar sweet and spicy result.

Potato chips aren't the only thing that can benefit from a pairing with hot honey. Cornbread slathered with hot honey instead of regular honey is amazing. Use hot honey at the start of a meal in cocktails and as a sauce for appetizers. Glaze fish or ribs, or drizzle on top of pizza. Then finish your hot honey-inspired spread with a drizzle over a dessert such as cheesecake, brownies, or even ice cream. 

If hot honey's sweet and spicy combo has your mouth watering for more potato chip flavors that incorporate those same elements, you can use spicy honey butter to add a pop of flavor to your chips. This also has the added benefit of extra fat to pack on a rich taste. Another is to mix sriracha with brown and white sugar in a saucepan and warm until it makes a sauce, and pour the sweet and spicy sauce over potato chips for a flavorful snack. Make sweet and spicy chamoy to sprinkle over chips, or use a spicy barbecue or a sweet chili sauce for a similar effect. 

When the choice is hot honey sauce, the results are spectacular. This simple-to-make sauce gives potato chips an unexpected kick of flavor that you can share at your next game day party — or decide to keep all to yourself.