Candied Extra Hot Honey Bacon.

Let’s be honest, bacon is queen. There’s really nothing like the smell of someone cooking bacon. And if you aren’t cooking yours in the oven yet, start: it’s hands-off, it cooks evenly, and the cleanup is one piece of foil in the trash. If you’re a meat-free human, this works great with facon too, same glaze, just watch it closer because it crisps faster.

Bacon is also the perfect place for Extra Hot. It’s salty and fatty and it can take a real punch, so the heat that’s too much on a piece of toast lands just right here.

Fair warning on the name. This one is called Extra Hot for a reason. If you’re heat-cautious, use the regular Hot Honey and you’ll still get something great.

Candied Extra Hot Honey Bacon

Makes 1 lb · 30 minutes, mostly hands off

You will need:

• 1 lb thick-cut bacon (or your favorite facon)
• 3 tbsp Spice Witch Extra Hot Honey, plus more for finishing
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp Spice Witch Original Chili Crisp (optional, for the last few minutes)

What you do:

1. Oven to 375. Line a sheet pan with foil and set a wire rack on top. The rack matters, without it the bacon sits in its own fat and steams instead of crisping.
2. Lay it out in one layer, no overlapping.
3. Bake 15 minutes. It won’t look done yet. That’s fine.
4. Stir the extra hot honey, brown sugar, and black pepper together. Brush it over the bacon.
5. Back in for 8–12 minutes, until the edges are dark and the glaze is bubbling. Watch it at the end, sugar goes from perfect to burnt in about ninety seconds.
6. If you’re using chili crisp, scatter it over in the last 3 minutes so the solids toast a little.
7. Let it cool on the rack for 5 minutes. It crisps as it cools. One more drizzle of extra hot honey before it hits the plate.

A few things I’ve figured out

Thick-cut only. Regular bacon burns before the glaze sets.

Don’t glaze it at the start. The sugar will be black by the time the bacon renders.

Facon: cut the first bake to about 8 minutes, then glaze and give it 5 or 6 more. It has no fat to render so it gets there much faster, and it goes from crisp to brittle quickly.

It gets sticky sitting out, so serve it within an hour and keep it on the rack, not stacked on a plate.

What to do with it

Cheese board, brunch, chopped over a salad, on a burger. Crumbled over the whipped brie is a very good idea I’m not going to talk you out of.

But the real answer is a bloody mary. My favorite. A thick candied slice standing up out of the glass, hot honey still tacky on it, and by the time you get to it the celery has already lost. If you want to go all the way, rim the glass and put a spoon of chili crisp in the mix too.

Why this works

Extra Hot on its own is a lot, that’s the point of it. Bacon fat and brown sugar give the chili somewhere to go, so instead of just burning it turns into that sweet-salty-hot thing that makes people take a second piece before they’ve finished the first.