Hot Ones Challenge
If you’re like me, you enjoy torturing yourself and going through the gauntlet just for the experience of trying something spicy. However, for me, it’s always a much more pleasant experience if the flavor is enjoyable too. There’s plenty of hot sauces out there that are extraordinarily hot but taste like garbage. The tricky part is having something that will burn your entire mouth, drain your sinuses, have you in tears and sweating profusely, but keep you coming back for more because it tastes so good. The spice can be addicting. Maybe I’m just a little insane, but I know I’m not alone. The cravings still persist.
On the search for spice, my journey has led me to YouTube on several occasions. YouTube can be and has been an amazing resource for anything food related and beyond. I think everyone knows that already. The amount of food shows and food related content that I’ve consumed on YouTube is never ending. I’m always looking for inspiration, ideas, new cooking methods and techniques, and foods that I’ve never even heard of. And good commentary to go with it is always a plus.
This led me to the YouTube channel called First We Feast, which has a show called Hot Ones hosted by Sean Evans, which debuted in 2015. The famous tagline of “The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings” characterizes the show’s layout where Sean interviews celebrities while they eat increasingly hotter wings. They have a 10 wing lineup that’s been pre-tossed in the individual sauces. Sean and his guest(s) eat the wings simultaneously, while Sean conducts a full on in-depth interview. It’s great. And it’s wildly entertaining seeing how different celebrities respond to each sauce.
Over the years and seasons, the sauces have rotated and changed and Sean and his team have even partnered with people now to create their own sauces. This is where the challenge comes in. They’ve developed 3 signature sauces. A mild, a medium, and an insanely hot. They’re called The Classic Hot Sauce (mild), Los Calientes (medium), and The Last Dab (xtra hot!). The Classic is usually the first sauce in the Hot Ones lineup, the Los Calientes is 4th or 5th, and The Last Dab is obviously last, with tradition being host and guest, although the guest doesn’t have to if they don’t want to, adding an additional dab or two to the last wing before eating it. The best part is watching what happens next and the chaos that typically ensues after the guest consumes that final wing. For me, instead of watching it and wanting to shy away from ever eating anything that hot, it instead makes me that much more intrigued to test out those sauces for myself. That dream became reality for me when the Hot Ones crew rolled out their chicken bites with the sauces included, available at Walmart. So naturally, I had to rush in, pick up a package, and test them out myself. I was not disappointed.
The package gives air fryer, baking, and microwave instructions, but I decided to deep fry mine. I know not everyone has a deep fryer and they can be dangerous and whatnot but invest in one. Just do it. Don’t hesitate. You’ll love it. Just be safe and don’t blame me for anything you do wrong.
Regardless of how you decide to cook the wings, they’re most likely going to be delicious. The quality of these wings is impressive for store-bought, processed wings. Even without the sauce, I’d still buy the wings. But the sauce is what brought me to the table in the first place. So allow me to describe my experience. In preface to this, I have to say that historically I haven’t been a huge fan of hot sauce just for hot sauce’s sake. But as I’ve gotten older, I do tend to use different hot sauces depending on what I’m cooking or eating. The Hot Ones Classic hot sauce, the mild sauce, was my least favorite of the three simply because it tasted too much like a Tabasco sauce. Not to say that’s a bad thing for everyone else because Tabasco has been a staple in American households for generations, so obviously people enjoy it. I’m just unusual compared to the masses here. The spice level that Hot Ones rates this sauce is 2/10. I’d say that’s pretty accurate, maybe even a 2.5-3. So nothing crazy, just enough of a kick to let you know there’s something there. The Los Calientes, the medium sauce, I found absolutely delicious. It was definitely my favorite of the three sauces. The heat level they label it as is 5/10. I’d rate it closer to 6 or low 6’s. The flavor, in combination with the heat, however, makes this sauce spectacular. The heat it provides is nice and hot, clearly making you aware that it’s got some spice to it, but not overwhelming. Even with the heat level, this sauce keeps you coming back for more. Then comes the Last Dab sauce, made with the Apollo pepper, which was actually engineered and created in collaboration with the Hot Ones crew in conjunction some pepper growers they brought in specifically to help them create a pepper for their sauce brand. From the second you bite into the wing coated in this sauce, you feel it. It’s an immediate punch of heat, but the surprisingly delicious flavor of the sauce keeps you from hating what you just did to yourself. The heat level they give for this sauce is 11/10 and that might be a conservative number. 12.5 is more like it in regards to a heat rating. My nose was running like a faucet, all the while I’m starting to sweat and my outer lips seem to go numb as well. This lasted close to a half an hour. The craziest part to me was that while I was cleaning out the bowl that I used to toss those wings, the spices seemed to waft into the air and caused my nose to run again and I got choked up and started coughing. I felt like I was going through the experience of eating the wings all over again. So be aware of that second wave of spice when you go to clean up. But, nevertheless, don’t use that as an excuse not to give this challenge a go. If you crave spice or just want to see if you could handle it or see what all the fuss is about, try these wings. I will definitely be trying these again and probably trying the wings from the package with other sauces as well, just because the quality of this chicken is much better than most of the alternatives. So I hope you go out and get a package of these wings to try for yourself! Just take the appropriate precautions, enjoy, and live a little!
(Left to right): The Classic Hot Sauce, Los Calientes, and The Last Dab