Hot Honey Butter Is the Answer, Whatever the Question
Butter is amazing. We all know that. I don’t need to dive into the handwritten, three-hour lecture on the merits of butter that I keep in my pocket at all times. It’s one of those ingredients (or foods, depending on your lifestyle) that is and always will be perfect. Essential. Simple. Beautiful. Salted. Unsalted. But lilies were made to be gilded, which is why hot honey butter exists. We’re looking at the trifecta of flavor: Sweetness. Fat. Heat. This combination (with the addition of some salt) is the reason a spicy salami pizza drizzled with honey is so damn good. Or why a platter of honey barbecue wings get devoured instantly.
It’s everything your taste buds crave, and it plays a very important role in our 2018 Super Bowl menu of classic beef chili with skillet cornbread. Traditional Southern cornbread isn't sweet and muffiny. There's no sugar added, and there's no flour, only course-ground cornmeal. It's sturdy and dry, so when this hot honey butter is slathered all over it (before being dunked in chili, the flavor wheel is complete.
The best thing about this little miracle (I sound like the cooing parent of a newborn) is that it only takes four ingredients and 132 seconds (a rough approximation) to make. Take 1 stick of room-temperature butter, and chop it into smaller pieces. Throw those in a bowl, and add 3 Tbsp. honey, 1 Tbsp. hot sauce and a generous pinch of kosher salt. Then, you whisk the hell out of it, until it becomes on smooth, creamy piece of art. Blammo. Done.
You can personalize this condiment too. While we like Frank’s as an all-purpose hot sauce, you can substitute whatever sauce strikes your fancy. Just make sure that you use a hot sauce focusing on flavor, not heat. We don’t want our butter to burn holes in whatever we choose to put it on.
And that’s the final question. What do we put it on? How about that cornbread you’re going to eat with your chili? Or some fresh biscuits? Maybe a slice of hearty sourdough from your local bakery? Hell, you could even melt it and use it to coat some wings, before blasting them under the broiler. It’s up to you. The ball is in your court, or...uh…the butter is on your knife? You get it. Spread the love.
Get the recipe:
Hot Honey Butter
