Hot sauce is one of my favorite foods. It brings so much to the table. It can add salt and acid and just overall flavor to your food. We have a whole list of the best hot sauce you can buy at the store, but this list is about the hot sauces I think you need to try before you die.
That’s right! These are the best hot sauce brands for your hot sauce bucket list. They might not be your everyday hot sauce, but they are the best hot sauces to buy if you want to say you have truly lived.
1. Nando’s Medium Spice PERi-PERi Hot Sauce and Marinade
Nando’s is a popular chain restaurant that was started in Johannesburg, South Africa. They make delicious rotisserie-style chicken, sandwiches, and more. Everything on the menu comes doused in their famous peri-peri sauce. It’s made with African Bird’s Eye chiles (aka peri-peri peppers), salt, garlic, lemon, onion, oil, and vinegar. This stuff is a little hot, tangy, citrusy, garlicky, and just plain delicious. It is great on literally everything. I promise.
2. Humble House Habanero & Aji Amarillo Sauce
This hot sauce strikes the perfect balance of sweet and heat. The sweetness (and beautiful color) comes from ingredients like dried mango. papaya, and golden raisins. The heat comes from the habanero and aji amarillo peppers. There’s a hint of sourness from apple cider vinegar. This stuff would be awesome on a fish taco, an al pastor torta, or a black bean quesadilla. What am I talking about? This would be good on anything!
3. Melinda’s Habanero Honey Mustard, Pepper Sauce and Condiment
This sells itself as “honey mustard” but it is absolutely a hot sauce. We tried it as part of our honey mustard taste test and it totally blew out our palates because it’s so spicy and we simply weren’t expecting it. That being said, as a hot sauce, it’s great! And it does actually have notes of honey and mustard. It is really hot, but it’s also well rounded. This would be wild on a hot dog.
4. Picamas Hot Sauce
My family has been putting this green hot sauce on everything since before I was born. We’re addicted. It’s one of the first foods I remember eating. And I still love it to this day. Not only is it tasty, it’s also unique. It almost tastes like spicy, tart, green ketchup. It’s thick and great for dipping. Mix this stuff with mayo for an incredible dipping sauce for fries.
5. Natural Plus Green Classic Sichuan Chili Crisp
I know, I know. This is chili crisp and not a hot sauce, but this is my list so I’m including it! This stuff is so bonkers and I had never tried it before our chili crisp taste test. It gives you a great numbing and tingling sensation in your mouth. It’s hot, but still complex. The oil tastes fresh. This plus dumplings? Heaven.
