Hot Honey Salmon

Hot Honey Salmon: Sweet First, Then the Chile Shows Up

Atlantic salmon cured with brown sugar, pure cane sugar, and honey, then finished with crushed chile and Birdseye pepper. The first bite is rich and lightly sweet; the heat comes a second later and stays just long enough to cut through the salmon’s fat. Natural fruitwood smoke sits underneath it all. Sweet, smoky, spicy — but still unmistakably salmon.

What Makes It Different

• Real honey. Not just sugar dressed up as “hot honey.” Honey is part of the cure and gives the salmon a rounder, softer sweetness.
• Two kinds of chile. Crushed chile peppers bring warmth; Birdseye chile adds the sharper finish that keeps the sweetness in check.
• Brown sugar and pure cane sugar. They balance the salt and help build that sweet-savory edge without turning the fish into candy.
• Natural fruitwood smoke. Enough smoke to give the salmon depth without burying the honey and chile.
• 12g of protein per serving. A 2 oz serving is 110 calories, with 6g of fat and 1.1g of omega-3 fatty acids.

How to Eat It

Give it fifteen to twenty minutes out of the fridge before serving. The salmon gets softer, the fat opens up, and both the honey and chile come through more clearly.

• On toasted sourdough with cream cheese. Cool, tangy cream cheese takes the edge off the chile and lets the honey come forward.
• With avocado. Toast, avocado, Hot Honey Salmon, squeeze of lime. Breakfast handled.
• On its own. Fold a slice, eat it with your fingers, go back for another. This is probably the easiest way to understand the point of it.
• With eggs. Add it after cooking — scrambled eggs, omelet, or a soft-boiled egg all work. Do not cook the salmon with them.
• On a snack board. Cucumbers, crackers, soft cheese, pickles. The sweet heat gives you more to work with than traditional smoked salmon.
• To drink. Cold lager, dry sparkling wine, or something citrusy and unsweetened.

Keeping It

Keep refrigerated at 38°F or below. Once opened, keep the package tightly sealed and eat it while the slices are still moist and glossy. For the best texture and flavor, take out only what you are serving and return the rest to the refrigerator.

Common Questions

Is it very spicy? It has a noticeable chile finish, but this is not heat for the sake of heat. Honey and brown sugar soften the Birdseye pepper, and the richness of the salmon does the rest.

Is it very sweet? No. Honey, brown sugar, and cane sugar are all in the cure, but the salmon has less than 1g of total sugar per 2 oz serving. The sweetness reads more as a glaze-like note than a dessert flavor.

What kind of salmon is it? Farm-raised Atlantic salmon.

What gives it the heat? Crushed chile peppers and Birdseye chile pepper. Birdseye is the one responsible for the cleaner, sharper heat at the end.

What is it smoked with? Natural fruitwood smoke, which gives it a softer smoke profile that works especially well with honey and chile.

Does it contain a lot of sugar? A 2 oz serving contains less than 1g of total sugar and less than 1g of added sugar.

Anything I should know about the honey? Yes. Because this product contains honey, it should not be fed to infants under one year of age.

Allergens? Contains fish (Atlantic salmon).