Cayenne Pepper Uses: Cheese Sauces, Deviled Eggs, Hot Chicken, Rubs and More

Most recipes use cayenne by the pinch or the quarter teaspoon, but Cook’s Country’s Nashville hot chicken blooms a full tablespoon in oil and brushes it on. Reach for it when a dish needs heat and not much else: it’s hot, red and fairly plain in flavor, so it slips into cheese sauces, eggs, rubs and soups without changing what they taste like. Its heat also holds up through cooking, so a pinch you add early is still there at the end. For what cayenne is and how hot it is (sources disagree widely), see the cayenne pepper profile.

At a glance

Every amount here comes straight from that recipe. None of them is a standard. Cayenne’s heat varies from jar to jar, so start at or below these and taste.

Two habits that help

Bloom it in fat when the recipe allows. America’s Test Kitchen explains that many spice flavor compounds are fat-soluble, which is why heating spices in oil or butter draws out more flavor. It also warns that ground spices scorch fairly quickly.⁹ Several recipes below do just this. The mac and cheese and the rarebit whisk cayenne into butter and flour,¹² and the hot chicken cooks it briefly in oil.⁴

Its heat survives cooking. In a 1992 lab study of spices boiled under household conditions, capsaicin losses were only about 0.3%.¹⁰ So cayenne you add early will still be hot at the end. Long cooking won’t tame it, though keep in mind the study measured capsaicin, not how hot the food tasted.

Cheese sauces and macaroni and cheese

America’s Test Kitchen’s classic macaroni and cheese whisks 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne into the butter with the flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons of dry mustard, cooks it for a minute, then adds 5 cups of milk and a pound of Jack and cheddar.¹ At that amount you get warmth more than heat; PepperScale notes that dairy softens cayenne’s heat.¹¹ For the full set of seasonings, see spices for mac and cheese.

The same trick works in other white sauces and cheese soups. Start with a pinch.

Welsh rarebit

Rarebit, cheese sauce poured over toast, uses the same pair of spices. Catherine Lamb’s version for Food52 whisks 1 teaspoon of English mustard powder and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne into a butter-and-flour roux before the stout, Worcestershire and 4 cups of sharp cheddar go in.² See mustard powder uses for the mustard side of the pairing.

Deviled eggs

Yankee Magazine’s classic deviled eggs mix 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne into the filling for 8 eggs, along with mayonnaise and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and finish with an optional dusting of paprika.³ Want them hotter? Dust the tops with cayenne instead of paprika. Just use far less, since cayenne is much hotter than typical mild paprika.¹²

Nashville hot chicken and spiced oil

Brushing the heat on after frying keeps the crust crisp and puts the spice where you taste it first. Cook’s Country’s Nashville hot fried chicken heats 3 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan until shimmering, adds 1 tablespoon of cayenne, cooks it until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then brushes the spicy oil over the fried chicken. The test kitchen says most recipes it found used only a fraction of a teaspoon of cayenne, and its own calls for at least 12 times that. Hot sauce goes in the brine, not on the crust.⁴

The same method gives you a small batch of chile oil for drizzling over eggs, noodles or pizza. Warm the oil, stir in cayenne off the heat or over low heat, and use it the same day. For storing it, Oregon State University Extension’s rule for oil flavored with dried herbs or dried garlic is to refrigerate it and use it within 4 days, or freeze it.¹³ That guidance doesn’t mention chile specifically, but following it is the cautious choice.

Spice blends and rubs

A lot of the cayenne people eat comes inside a blend.

• Louisiana seasoning. USDA’s purchasing specification lists cayenne pepper among the minimum ingredients of Creole seasoning, with salt, paprika, garlic, black pepper, mustard and lemon peel.⁷ A Louisiana tourism writer puts its role plainly: cayenne is part of the pantry, but it’s seasoning, not the main event.¹⁴ See Cajun seasoning and Creole seasoning.
• Barbecue rubs. Texas A&M’s meat science pages note that cayenne or other chiles can add spiciness to rubs built on paprika, sugar, garlic, onion, salt and pepper.⁸ See BBQ spices.
• Other blends. McCormick Science Institute lists red pepper in seasoned salt, chili powder, jerk seasoning, Mexican mole negro and berbere.¹⁵ See chili powder and jerk seasoning.

For a rub, mix the cayenne into the dry blend instead of sprinkling it on separately, so it spreads evenly.

Soups, chowder and chili

A pinch goes a long way in a pot. Ryan Hardy’s New England clam chowder adds a pinch of cayenne with the thyme, bay leaf, Worcestershire, Old Bay and clams.⁵ McCormick Science Institute lists seafood, meats and pickles among red pepper’s uses, along with Italian, Indian, Mexican and Caribbean cooking.¹⁵ In chili, cayenne usually plays backup heat to milder, fruitier chiles; see best spices for chili and clam chowder spices.

Roasted vegetables

Taste of Home’s roasted rosemary sweet potatoes toss the potatoes with 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne and a teaspoon of crushed dried rosemary before roasting.⁶ Heat against sweetness is the whole idea, and squash, carrots and roasted nuts take it the same way. See sweet potato spices.

Sweets and snacks

PepperScale says ground cayenne turns up in more baked desserts than you’d expect, and its cayenne profile points to its own recipes for cayenne-spiced pumpkin pie, spicy candied pecans and spicy apple chips. It’s the same heat-against-sweetness pairing as the sweet potatoes: sweet and hot together make something neither manages alone.¹¹ We haven’t checked the amounts in those recipes, so start with a pinch per batch and taste.

In place of paprika

Cayenne can stand in for hot paprika in small amounts. The Spice House lists cayenne as a substitute for hot or sharp paprikas, not sweet ones,¹⁶ and Chili Pepper Madness notes that cayenne is quite a bit hotter than typical mild paprika.¹² If a dish calls for spoonfuls of sweet paprika, use sweet paprika for the color and add cayenne by the pinch for heat. The full comparison is on paprika vs. cayenne, and other swaps are on cayenne pepper substitutes.

Cayenne tea and the health claims

You’ll often hear that a pinch of cayenne in hot tea or lemon water helps you lose weight. The evidence doesn’t back that up. A 2020 systematic review pooled 11 trials (609 people) of Capsicum annuum supplements against placebo. It found only a marginal effect on body weight that didn’t reach statistical significance, and called for larger, better trials.¹⁷ Those trials tested supplements, not a pinch of cayenne in a drink. If you like cayenne in tea, drink it for the taste. We’re not claiming it treats or prevents anything.

Handling it

Capsaicin irritates skin and eyes. Measure cayenne away from your face and wash your hands afterward. In a pan, keep the heat moderate, since ground spices scorch fairly quickly.⁹

Not yet measured

• How much heat a given jar of cayenne carries. Retail jars rarely say (see the cayenne pepper profile for the published range).
• How fast cayenne-infused oil loses heat or color in storage.

Related

• Cayenne pepper and cayenne pepper substitutes
• Paprika vs. cayenne and black pepper vs. cayenne
• Red pepper flakes, paprika and chili powder
• Mustard powder uses, cayenne’s usual partner in cheese dishes