STOP JUST PUTTING IT ON TOP: 5 WAYS TO COOK WITH HOT SAUCE
Your hot sauce has more to offer than a last-minute drizzle.
Here’s how to put it to work before dinner ever hits the plate!
We need to talk about the bottle of hot sauce in your fridge.
You pull it out for taco night. You splash it on your eggs. Maybe pizza gets a few aggressive shakes. All excellent decisions. No notes.
But hot sauce doesn’t have to wait around until the food is finished. A good, flavor-packed hot sauce can work just like any other ingredient in your kitchen—bringing heat, acid, sweetness, spice and a whole lot of personality to whatever you’re cooking.
So open the bottle before dinner hits the table. Here are five places to start.
MARINATE IT:
Easy, no thinking dinner.
Why wait until the food is cooked to bring in the flavor? A good marinade lets Aardvark get in there early.
Drunken Jerk makes this one especially easy. It’s already packed with habanero heat, soy sauce, island rum and Caribbean-inspired spices, so you can get a whole lot of flavor without pulling half the spice cabinet out. Toss it with chicken and veggies, give it some time to hang out, then load up your skewers and hit the grill.
TURN IT INTO A NEW SAUCE
Weird. In the best Possible Way.
Aardvark plays well with others. Mustard, honey, butter, BBQ sauce—start mixing and suddenly that bottle in your fridge is the beginning of something completely new.
Case in point: our Serrabanero Mustard BBQ Sauce. Serrabanero gets mixed with yellow mustard, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, butter and Worcestershire for a tangy, slightly sweet BBQ sauce with plenty of bright green chile flavor.
Brush it onto chicken while it’s on the grill or anything else that could use a little sticky, tangy goodness.
MAKE A KILLER DIPPING SAUCE
Our Drunken Fry Sauce takes Drunken Jerk Jamaican Marinade in a creamy, tangy direction that’s ready for fries, tots, burgers and whatever else you’re dunking.
Or go savory with Drunken Dumpling Sauce, where Drunken Garlic Black Bean brings the garlicky, umami goodness. Dumplings are the obvious move, but we’re not here to tell you what you can and can’t dip.
STIR IT INTO DINNER
If there’s a pot on the stove, there’s probably room for Aardvark in it.
Chili, soups, beans, pasta sauce, mac & cheese—adding Aardvark while you cook lets the flavor work its way into the whole dish instead of waiting around for the finishing drizzle.
Our Red Scorpion Jambalaya puts that idea to work in one big, hearty pot. Aardvark cooks right alongside the meat, veggies, rice and spices, bringing its own heat and flavor to every bite.
And really, that’s the move: don’t wait until dinner’s done. Get Aardvark in there while the good stuff is happening.
With our Red Scorpion get ready to burn with a flavor-loaded fever that makes sriracha look like ketchup. Fermented scorpion peppers, roasted tomatoes, and that signature Aardvark umami. This Scorpion stings first and asks questions later.
LAYER IT
This is where Aardvark really gets to show off: use it more than once in the same recipe.
Our Smoky Aardvark Meatloaf doesn’t make you choose between cooking with your sauce or putting it on top.n Smoky Chipotle-Hab gets mixed right into the meatloaf, then shows up again in the glaze on top.
The result? Smoky, savory flavor running through the whole thing, with another hit right where you want it.
Because sometimes the answer to “When should I add the Aardvark?” is simply: yes.
GO FORTH AND GET WEIRD
That’s the point: your bottle of Aardvark doesn’t need to sit around waiting for the tacos to show up.
Marinate with it. Mix it into something. Stir it into dinner. Turn it into a sauce. Use it twice because why the hell not.
There aren’t really rules here. Start with a little, taste as you go and see what happens.
That bottle in your fridge is your secret ingredient. Put it to work.
