Hotheads, this one’s for you: 15x our favorite spicy recipes
If the warm weather refuses to show up, we’ll just bring the hot temperatures to us. How? By cooking deliciously spicy food, of course! For those who don’t get hot under the collar easily (or do), we’ve put together this list. 15 of our favorite spicy dishes, especially for you. Glass of milk at the ready, tissues for the sweat and the fan on full blast in your face: this is going to be delicious.
Spice up your life!
1. Fiery Korean chicken with cheese
Chicken, cheese and a generous portion of heat. Sounds like the ideal ingredients for your new favorite dish? I thought so. This fiery Korean chicken with cheese may well be the spiciest dish we’ve ever made. It contains Korean chili flakes and chili paste: together, they’re a real explosion in your mouth. A very delicious one, though.
2. Easy spicy chicken satay
Chicken satay: who doesn’t love it? Vegetarians, perhaps, but if you do eat meat, I’d bet that a tasty skewer with tender pieces of chicken would go down well with you. You marinate this chicken satay in sambal and sriracha, among other things. Those are exactly the ingredients that earn it the ‘spicy’ label. Bonus: it’s super easy to make. Now let’s hope the weather finally improves a little, so the barbecue can come out of the shed. They taste even better that way.
3. Homemade katjang pedis
Katjang pedis are spicy Indonesian peanuts. Those super crunchy, super spicy nuts that you can’t stop eating for a second once they’re in front of you. You can of course buy them, but making them yourself is even more fun. With this katjang pedis recipe, you can make them in no time. Is it drinks-and-snacks time at your place tonight?
4. Sticky spicy eggplant fries
Berenjas con miel, or fried eggplant with honey, is my favorite Spanish tapas dish. But secretly, I like these sticky spicy eggplant fries just a little bit better. There’s nothing Spanish about them—in fact, the recipe comes from Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking. Korean, then. Why not make it a Korean tapas night?
5. Thai salad with spicy calamari
Want to put something surprising on the table? A spicy surprise, in this case? Then this Thai salad with spicy calamari is perfect. The dressing in particular makes this salad deliciously spicy. It contains half a red chili, along with fish sauce, lime, garlic and palm sugar. The calamari in this dish makes it a little tropical. Yep, with this dish you’ll mentally transport the whole table to a tropical Thai beach.
6. Homemade spicy nut mix
Another winner for drinks and snacks: homemade spicy nut mix. Absolutely not difficult to make; you just need to know which spice mix to use. The cayenne pepper gives the nut mix in this recipe plenty of heat. And you know how it works: the more cayenne pepper, the spicier it is.
7. Donna Hay’s pasta with Bloody Mary sauce
Pasta, Bloody Mary and Donna Hay. This can only be a winning recipe, right? Donna’s pasta with Bloody Mary sauce certainly is. As the name of the dish suggests, it contains ingredients you also find in a Bloody Mary, such as vodka, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and celery. What you’re going to drink with this dish is, of course, an obvious choice.
8. Homemade Bajan Hot pepper sauce
Bajan Hot pepper sauce is a popular sauce in Caribbean cuisine. It’s used often and generously in cooking there. Chili peppers, turmeric, mustard powder and orange give the sauce an incredible amount of flavor. True spicy-food lovers will want to keep a jar of this sauce in their fridge as standard. You too? This is the recipe for the chili pepper sauce by Lelani Lewis from her book Code Noir. And I can tell you: it’s fingerlickin’ good, .
9. Sambal goreng tempeh from the Airfryer
This sambal goreng tempeh is crispy thanks to the Airfryer, spicy thanks to the red chilies and flavorful thanks to the boemboe. It’s one of Emma de Thouars’ favorite quick recipes. Little work and few groceries, but loads of flavor: that’s exactly how we always want our food!
10. Spicy meatballs in chili sauce by Donna Hay
Another Donna Hay recipe, I know. But what else can you expect from such an iconic repertoire? These Donna Hay meatballs are high on our ‘Donna favorites’ list. They come from her book One Pot Perfect. We made a sticky chili sauce to go with them, giving them an extra kick. Whether they’re the showstopper in your rice dish or on the snack table, Donna’s meatballs are a crowdpleaser either way.
11. Spicy shrimp with chorizo from the Airfryer
You can keep the Airfryer humming for a little while longer! These shrimp with chorizo are the next thing you’ll put in the—as FavorFlav’s Sharon calls it—air fryer. Chorizo is naturally packed with flavor, of course, but the marinade of cayenne pepper, onion powder and paprika gives them even more flair. And that also means: heat. Your snack board is getting nicely filled out already.
12. Braised chicken in spicy coconut milk
Chicken and spice simply go well together. Take this chicken in spicy coconut milk. You braise the chicken for a very long time in a rich, fatty sauce with boemboe, coconut milk, shrimp paste and chili peppers, among other ingredients. This allows the flavors and heat to really soak into the chicken. If you do it right, the meat will practically fall off the bone. That’s exactly what you want.
13. Fettuccine with spicy cherry tomato sauce
A spicy pasta naturally can’t be missing from the favorites list. This pasta with spicy cherry tomato sauce comes from Ottolenghi’s book Simple. It certainly is simple: once it’s on the stove, you don’t really have to do much else. Let the sauce simmer well so the flavors can develop. You need an hour of patience, but then… I’d bet you’ll want to keep the spicy cherry tomato sauce on stand-by in your fridge at all times.
14. Sweet and spicy crispy chicken wings
More hot chicks! These spicy crispy chicken wings are fried twice, making them extra crunchy. The heat? That comes from the chili peppers mixed into the marinade. The sweet touch of honey brings the whole thing into better balance. Your party guests probably won’t think too deeply about these snacks—but that’s probably a good sign.
15. Spicy cucumber salad from Din Tai Fung
A wonderfully refreshing side dish that also warms you up at the same time. That’s this spicy cucumber salad from the Asian chain Din Tai Fung. The chain’s customers rave about this salad, and we understand why: the spicy marinade with soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili oil and peppers is a real knockout.
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