Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts

Sweet, spicy and so very simple, you'll love these crispy honey sriracha brussels sprouts as an easy side dish or an addicting app to share around the table.

This was our best year ever for growing Brussels sprouts. Don't ask me what we did right this time around, I'm just going to chalk it up to a good location that had the right balance of nutrients.

It was fun to gift a few friends the enormous stalks with all of the sprouts still on them. We traveled to Connecticut a few weeks ago and loaded them up in the back of the car, which was pretty funny. Although, as my wife noted, Brussels sprouts do have a bit of an odor - something you don't really notice until you're stuck in a confined space with them for several hours. Now you know.

With all of our Brussels sprouts, I've had the chance to try out some different recipes. What I found is that it's actually a little challenging to roast them to that perfect crispy state without overcooking. No one likes a mushy Brussels sprout!

I have a few tips about how to avoid that below. Hey, even if they're a little overdone, no one will care when you toss them in this addicting sweet and spicy sauce.

Jump to:

• 🍯 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Helpful Tips
• 🥓 Variations
• 🥡 Storage and Reheating
• 🍴 Other easy side dishes to try
• 📖 Recipe

🍯 Ingredients

• Brussels sprouts
• honey
• sriracha
• olive oil
• kosher salt

See the recipe card below for quantities.

I believe Brussels sprouts are truly best enjoyed when kept simple (unlike this), so that's what I did here with these honey sriracha sprouts. Just a few ingredients and no surprises. If you're worried these might be too spicy for you, I think the honey really cuts the heat and they end up well balanced. But feel free to reduce the amount of sriracha to your liking.

On another note, I find that one pound of Brussels sprouts is only enough to serve two people as a standard meal's side dish. In other words, that's ½ pound of Brussels sprouts per person. But if this is part of a bigger meal, like a Thanksgiving dinner, I think you could go down to ⅓ pound per person or even ¼ pound. Don't forget, Brussels sprouts are one of the least liked vegetables in America, so not everyone will eat them.

🔪 Instructions

Before you get your sprouts in the oven or start mixing that sweet and spicy honey sriracha sauce, you need to clean, trim, and halve the Brussels sprouts.

This is important for two reasons. First, and this should be reason enough alone, sometimes you can find small worms in Brussels sprouts. I know, that's gross, but it's also the reality of eating food grown without chemical pesticides. Luckily, with a good rinse, you can get any bugs off without a problem.

Second, you want to make sure your sprouts are all about the same size so that they cook in the same amount of time. As I was reminded when taking my sprouts off of the stalks, you can get some massive ones towards the bottom of the plant and significantly smaller ones towards the top. So by trimming and halving larger sprouts, you can make them much closer in size. Don't forget to slice off the very bottoms of the sprouts, as they're a bit tough.

Once they're trimmed and halved, spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't crowd your pan, though. If needed, use two pans.

When the oven is preheated, coat the sprouts in olive oil and salt and get them in there to roast for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, you whisk the honey and sriracha together in a bowl.

After 15 minutes, take the sheets out of the oven and drizzle the Brussels sprouts with the honey sriracha mixture. Toss them around and bake for another 15 minutes or until crispy but not mushy. Just give one a try to see if what you think.

💭 Helpful Tips

As I said, the key here is to prevent mushy Brussels sprouts and achieve that nice crispy, crunchy, and just slightly charred balance. So here are a few thoughts on how to make that happen.

1. Don't crowd the pan. When items are placed too closely together they tend to steam and the heat can't get all around them to create those nice crispy bits.
2. I think 425 degrees F is the ideal temperature and you should stick to it. In my tests, 400 was good but left some of the sprouts underdone. While at 450, even at a reduced cooking time, they were overdone and yup, you guessed it, mushy.
3. I didn't do a comparison, but I've read that those silicone mats don't allow for crisping of vegetables very well. So I played it safe and used parchment paper.
4. As I explained in the instructions section, its important to halve those bigger sprouts for them to cook in about the same time as smaller ones.

🥓 Variations

A few thoughts on how you can change up this recipe.

• Spicier or Sweeter - Add another tablespoon of sriracha for more spice, reduce the amount of sriracha for less (and hence, more sweetness).
• Maple - Try using an equal amount of maple syrup in place of the honey.
• Garlic - Add a teaspoon of garlic powder when you're mixing the honey and sriracha.
• Bacon - I think some crumbled bacon over top of the sprouts sounds wonderful. Yeah, I'm going to have to try this ASAP.

🥡 Storage and Reheating

Enjoy these honey sriracha Brussels sprouts within 2-3 days. They will become soft after being stored in the fridge, so they really are best the day they're made. For reheating, I'd use the oven or a pan on the stove instead of the microwave.

🍴 Other easy side dishes to try

• Walnut Cranberry Stuffing
• Maple Glazed Carrots
• Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange

Print

📖 Recipe