Hot And Dirty Martini Recipe
The dirty martini, a drink that dates back to the turn of the 20th century, takes the traditional olive garnish and incorporates it into the drink in the form of brine from the olive jar. This spicy spin on the cocktail, however, adds a new element: a chili-flavored salt rim, along with a splash of hot sauce. These ingredients, according to recipe developer Deniz Vergara, "kick this cocktail up a notch." And with a garnish of cheese-stuffed olives — she prefers feta or blue — Vergara says this hot and dirty martini "is like an appetizer in a glass."
While Vergara uses homemade hot sauce, she recommends adding whichever variety is your favorite. That means choosing a Louisiana-style hot sauce like Frank's RedHot for a vinegary tang, or going with Tabasco for something more peppery. A habanero-based sauce would really bring the heat and a slightly fruity flavor, or you could go all-out with one of the world's hottest hot sauces made with scorpion, ghost, and other extremely incendiary peppers.
Collect the ingredients for this hot and dirty martini
Rather than gin, you'll need to stir up some vodka for this particular martini recipe. You're also going to need a jar of cheese-stuffed olives (complete with brine), plus some chili-flavored salt and hot sauce.
Rim the glass
If you have a drink rimmer, get it out now, as well as a martini glass. If you don't have the rimmer, two shallow dishes will do, and really any kind of glass you have on hand can stand in for the martini type.
Once you have the equipment on hand, pour the olive brine into one dish and the salt into the other. Dip the glass first into the brine and then into the salt, rolling it around until a sufficient amount of garnish adheres to the rim.
Mix the martini
Unless you're making this martini for 007, you won't really need a cocktail shaker to mix it, although by all means feel free to use one if you do. If not, any tall glass will be just perfect. Pour the hot sauce, olive brine, and vodka into this vessel along with a handful of ice, then stir the drink until it feels cold.
Garnish the martini, and enjoy
Strain the drink into the rimmed glass, then thread 3 olives onto a skewer or toothpick and rest it over the glass. Your martini is now ready to sip, so cheers, bottoms up, here's looking at you, et cetera.
- For the spicy rim
- 1 tablespoon olive brine
- 1 tablespoon chili-flavored salt (such as Tajin)
- For the martini
- ·2 ounces vodka·
- ¼ teaspoon hot sauce
- ½ ounce brine from a jar of olives
- For the garnish
- 3 feta- or blue cheese-stuffed olives
- Make the spicy rim by pouring 1 tablespoon olive brine into a wide, shallow dish. Add the chili-flavored salt to another wide, shallow dish.
- Dip the rim of a martini glass into the olive brine and then into the salt to coat.
- In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the vodka, hot sauce, and ½ ounce olive brine. Stir until chilled.
- Strain the drink into the salt-rimmed glass.
- Thread 3 cheese-stuffed olives onto a skewer to garnish the drink before serving.