recipes

29 Spicy Recipes to Make You Sweat

Salsa-grilled chicken, chili crisp salmon, kimchi udon, and more.
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Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich

As a kid, I couldn’t handle a drop of heat. Chicken wings, hot pickles, tomato sauce with even a pinch of red pepper flakes—I wouldn’t touch any spicy recipe with a ten-foot pole. Then I learned that spice tolerance isn’t inflexible. Quite the opposite, it’s more like a muscle that wants to be exercised in order to grow strong. (Parents have known this all along.)

I started slow, then worked my way up to actually hot hot sauce. Now I’m emptying a jar of homemade chile crisp on my eggs in the morning and adding mashed-up chiles to my fruit salad. So, if spice isn’t your thing yet, be patient. Start with these cozy sweet potatoes with hot honey. Move onto pico de gallo, with fresh jalapeños (relatively mild as far as hot peppers go). From there, you’ll be ready to make your own pickled chiles and harissa, to top all sorts of dishes.

And if you came here because you already have hot sauce in your bag (actually, three types)—well, you came to the right place. Here are our 29 favorite tongue-tingling, capsaicin-laden recipes.

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  • Spicy Noodle Soup topped with fresh herbs.
    Photograph by Shawn Michael Jones, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca
    1/29

    Spicy Beef Noodle Soup With Mushrooms

    We love any spicy recipe that leaves us with leftovers of a condiment to wake up our scrambled eggs and avocado toast the next morning. Such is the case with this noodle soup, which gets its heat from a chile condiment made from two cups of dried bird chiles.

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  • Photograph by Shawn Michael Jones, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca
    2/29

    Salsa-Grilled Chicken Thighs

    When it’s grilling season, we want to keep the recipes simple and let the grill do most of the work. A quick salsa made with guajillo chiles acts as both the marinade and the sauce for serving in this recipe. Serve with any number of our favorite grilling sides.

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  • Photograph by Shawn Michael Jones, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca
    3/29

    Sri Lankan–Style Black Pork Curry

    This spicy recipe gets its heat from earthy black peppercorns. While this ingredient doesn’t contain the capsaicin associated with hot peppers, it does have a compound called piperine, which builds in intensity as you chow down.

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  • Photograph by Shawn Michael Jones, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca
    4/29

    Hot-and-Sour Fruit Salad

    Our favorite summer salad recipes utilize all the produce we can get our hands on. Here, we’re tossing a rainbow of fresh fruit in a fish-sauce-forward dressing with Fresno chiles. Using fresh chiles kicks up the heat since they’re holding on to all of their fiery oils. Muddle them with a mortar and pestle to release the heat and don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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  • Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Emilie Fosnocht
    5/29

    Spicy Salmon Roll Bowl

    Once you try this spicy salmon bowl, it will instantly become a part of your weekly meal rotation. The dish comes together in under an hour and you can cater to your spice preference with extra chile crisp on top.

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
    6/29

    Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

    The concentrated heat from the garlicky sambal oelek finds harmony with rice and crisp lettuce, both of which help cool off your tongue between bites.

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  • Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Liberty Fennell, Prop Styling by Suzie Myers
    7/29

    Slicked and Spicy Lamb Noodles

    For those building up their spice tolerance, start with this weeknight pasta recipe. The heat comes from crushed red pepper flakes, which bloom in the hot oil with cumin and paprika.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Sue Li, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski
    8/29

    Spicy Mushroom Larb

    Slice your chile and keep the seeds in the mix if you want to really feel the burn. Not sure if you can handle the heat? Slice your chile in half lengthwise and remove the ribs and seeds for a more subtle hit of heat.

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  • Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou
    9/29

    Spicy Braised Tofu

    Gochujang is the condiment that keeps on giving. It’ll punch you in the face with flavor and heat, then hand you an ice pack to keep the swelling down. The sweetness in the sauce is the key to that unique good cop, bad cop quality. It also helps the sauce reduce to a sticky, caramelized consistency.

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  • Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
    10/29

    Pico de Gallo

    Everyone needs a few back pocket snack recipes for when friends arrive at your door unannounced. Like many salsa recipes, this one is perfect for those occasions, or for when you don’t know what to do with all the tomatoes overrunning your garden.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Susie Theodorou, Prop Styling by Ayesha Patel
    13/29

    Crunchy Gochujang Fennel

    You can never have too many banchan recipes. We love this sauce paired with sweet fennel, but you can also use it on daikon radish, wild mushrooms, or whatever else turned up in your CSA box this week.

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  • Alex Lau
    14/29

    Kimchi Udon With Scallions

    This noodle dinner is quick enough to make on a weeknight, but tastes like it took way longer to put together. Kimchi comes in a range of spice levels, so those looking for a real punishment should opt for super spicy kimchi.

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  • Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Sean Dooley, Prop Styling by Gerri K Williams
    15/29

    Chipotle-Roasted Cauliflower Tacos

    Cauliflower is having a moment, and we’re here for it. This pale brassica caramelizes like a dream when roasted and holds on to the smokey, concentrated chipotle flavor like a sponge thanks to its tight florets.

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  • Photograph by Cody Guilfoyle, Prop Styling by Nicole Louie, Food Styling by Thu Buser
    16/29

    Spicy Kimchi Sujebi

    Making your own noodles doesn’t need to be arduous. Sujebi is a great noodle for beginners since the dough is torn, not shaped, and it gets tossed into bubbling soup—in this case, a spicy-tangy broth thanks to kimchi and gochujang.

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  • Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by Micah Morton, prop styling by Elizabeth Jaime
    17/29

    Spicy Braised Eggplant Noodles

    Lean on common pantry staples like gochujang, tomato paste, and miso to get this vegetarian pasta dinner on your table tonight.

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  • Alex Lau
    18/29

    Weeknight Mapo Tofu with Ground Pork

    For those who have never been introduced to the numbing spice of Sichuan peppercorns, this recipe will make you fast friends. For anyone seeking more layers of spice, do like one commenter recommends and add a few red Thai chiles to the mix.

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  • Alex Lau
    19/29

    Homemade Harissa

    This deep crimson condiment calls for three chiles—guajillo, ancho, and chile de árbol—each of which provides their own flavor profile. Guajillo is fruity, ancho has a rich chocolate-like flavor, and chile de árbol is smoky. Together they act like different instruments in a band that harmonize to create one bold sound.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski
    20/29

    Pickled Hot Chiles

    Keep a jar of these pickled hot chiles in your fridge to toss on your Italian hoagie, sheet-tray nachos, or any kind of taco you’re making this Tuesday.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, , Food Styling by Sue Li
    21/29

    Shrimp and Basil Stir-Fry

    Don’t let the sweet basil fool you—this shrimp means business. The sauce, which comes together after a whirl in the blender, turns a deep brick red in the pan and clings to the shrimp like wallpaper. Serve this stir-fry with rice if you need a reprieve from the heat, or use more fresh chiles if you don’t!

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  • Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Aneta Florczyk
    22/29

    Hot Honey Wings

    For those of you who like a little punishment with your game day snacks. But between the Thai chiles, chile crisp, and cayenne pepper, you probably won’t be able to focus on anything happening on your screen.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Chris Morocco, prop styling by Emily Eisen
    23/29

    Spicy Pork Bowl With Greens and Carrots

    This spicy recipe also happens to be a weeknight dinner hero. By leaning on inexpensive pork tenderloin and store-bought sambal oelek and gochujang as your spice elements, you’ll have dinner ready in the time it takes to cook your rice.

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  • Photo by Jeremy Leibman
    24/29

    Nashville-Style Hot Chicken

    No doubt about it, 6 Tbsp. ground cayenne is a lot, but that’s what Hattie B’s considers “medium.” For a milder heat, decrease to 2 Tbsp.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau
    25/29

    Twice-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hot Honey

    No more boring sweet potatoes—this recipe is simple to make but tastes way more complex thanks to everyone’s favorite condiment: hot honey.

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  • Eva Kolenko
    26/29

    Fresh-Chile Hot Sauce

    Once you have the basic method down, experiment in the kitchen with the chiles and flavors you love the most. Habanero and mango, anyone? Make a few bottles and give them as host gifts to guarantee future invites to parties.

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