The simplest description of sriracha is that it’s a hot sauce. It has its origins in southeast Asia and it’s typically made with chile peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sugar. It’s spicy, but it has a great flavor that pairs well with so many different foods. Sriracha sauces from different countries have slightly different ingredients, textures, and viscosity—you can choose your favorite brand for this recipe.

Traditionally, sriracha is used as a dipping sauce rather than a condiment. It’s been used as flavoring in everything from potato chips to lollipops and it’s typically served with seafood, eggs, sandwiches, soup… you name it. But let’s be real… Midwesterners have less spice tolerance than a lot of the other cultures of the world!

That’s where other ingredients come in. For example, making a sriracha-mayo sauce is one way to tame the spice a little bit, and it’s also delicious. It’s the creamy, tangy flavor and the rich fats in mayonnaise that temper the intensity of the chili peppers. That’s the same effect you get adding it to butter—but don’t be fooled, this one does still have a kick!

Once you’ve made a batch of my Easy Sriracha Lime Butter, get creative. You don’t have to stop at corn—try it on some beer-marinated grilled steak, Argentine grilled skirt steak chimichurri, fresh-baked cornbread, grilled vegetables, or a baked potato. It would also be good on shrimp, grilled cheese, or some spicy noodles.