I believe that hot sauces ought not to be measured in mere Scoville units, but in how they pair with food and company. After chasing heartburn through my 20s, I try to keep the heat reasonable, unlike enthusiasts with fridges overflowing with tongue-in-cheek names designed to scare, Radioactive Emission or Beezlebub’s Stomach Evacuator or Da Bomb Beyond Insanity (only that last one is real). I keep my rotation slim, local and versatile, maxing out at around habanero and Scotch bonnet spice levels with an occasional foray into ghost peppers.
In Chicago, small-batch makers are producing some of my favorite sauces right now — I bring them out when I host and I frequently end up sending guests home with a spare bottle and the sauce’s story.
Chi-racha was the first to mark my Chicago sauce era, a clever take on a versatile red sauce.
“Chi-racha is an homage to some of the ingredients that are in a Chicago-style hot dog,” said Mike Bancroft, founder of Co-Op Sauce, which produces Chi-racha at Sauce and Bread Kitchen. “It’s like Chicago and Sriracha and the hot dog had a baby.”
If you can believe it, it’s somehow more than the sum of its parts. The core taste comes from fermented, locally grown red jalapeno peppers, which, having aged more, are both sweeter and spicier than their green counterparts.
Originally, Bancroft was in education, running after-school programs; the peppers came from community gardens.
“My culinary background is that I was running arts programs with the kids and the kids were eating garbage,” Bancroft said. “I could only talk so much trash about that before offering other food items.”
That work led him down the path to Co-Op Sauce, which eventually took over his life. It’s now been operational for over 20 years and has a number of other sauces worth trying as well, with Chi-racha having been around for over a decade.
Many Chicago sauce makers fell into the craft by accident or necessity. Brian Greene, the eponymous Pickled Prince, was a chef with reduced work hours due to the pandemic; his nascent mobile pickle business with partner Alex Skrzypczyk soon expanded to hot sauces using seasonal produce and ingredients. In addition to sauces, Pickled Prince sells pickles, giardiniera and kimchi at farmers markets, alongside a funky-looking pickle mascot.
“I just love the idea of preservation out of season,” Greene said. “When we get to those cold, dreary January through February and March months, (it allows you to) enjoy the season’s bounty that you pickled, preserved or hot-sauced.”
Green sauces often feel same-samey, but Greene’s sauce in particular pickled my fancy. Using their own cucumber pickles, fresh dill and hot serranos, it tastes like how you’d hope a pickle hot sauce would. But perhaps his most genius sauce is the seasonal kumquat habanero. The kumquats are sourced from San Gabriel Ranch in California. Unlike most fruity orange sauces, the Pickled Prince version isn’t sugar-forward — kumquats have the perfect mixture of sweet punch and pucker to complement the habanero.
“It’s bright, spicy and zippy,” Greene said. The whole pith and skin contribute heartily.
For something earthier and with inspiration far from the Midwest, there’s Tasting India’s Bombay Chili Crunch, which brings Indian cooking into conversation with Chinese chili oils.
Jean Banchet-nominated chef Jasmine Sheth adopted Chicago as a new home in 2017, but her native Mumbai inspired many of the tasting menus and meals she made.
“I really wanted to pay homage to the place I grew up in, the city that was bursting with flavors no matter where you ate,” Sheth said. At first, this meant meal kits that highlighted regional Indian food. Bombay Chili Crunch originated as one of Sheth’s sauces during her recipe development.
It’s a clever take that avoids many pitfalls I’ve encountered with other “Indian-inspired” hot sauces. South Asian food may be hot, but hot sauces are not all too common. However, using hot oil to bloom spices is a foundational culinary technique across regions. To make a condiment that could function like a chili oil but had the flavors of India just required some thoughtful edits.
Sheth uses three famous varietals of dried chilis sourced from India — Kashmiri, Byadgi and Sivathei — as well as crispy garlic and shallots. She said the “hero” of the crisp may be the curry leaf, which is unmistakably desi. And the crunch brings to mind the crispy, chatpata street and packaged snacks of Mumbai. I use it anywhere I would chili crisp, and might add it to my next batch of popcorn.
For other Chicago-made takes on spicy, oil-based condiments, Chilee oil from couple James Lee and Sufei Zhang uses Korean red chilis and sesame seeds for a smoky, textured sauce that combines Chinese and Korean flavors. It’s a natural combination with steamed short-grain rice. Tierra Negra, made by Pilsen’s Ivan Gutierrez, is robust and sensually dark, made in the style of salsa macha but without the nuts. Pasilla, guajillo and arbol chilis are sauteed and blended to produce a richness that is easily enjoyed on chips and chilaquiles, but might also work well as a basis for pasta sauce, a burger topping and much more. Finally, I’ve looked long and hard for a giardiniera that might be a staple recommendation for those looking for the popular Italian beef condiment. What I settled on was an idea so self-evident, so convenient and so flexible that it feels like it should have existed for years. And that’s Giardonnaise. It’s mayo and giardiniera mixed together in one squeezy tube. It’s as good as it sounds; and if you’re trying to hook your out-of-town folks on Chicago flavors, it’s a very charming introduction.
7 Chicago sauces worth trying
(Prices and availability may vary)
A versatile red sauce: Co-Op Chi-racha
Where to buy: Sauce and Bread Kitchen, coopsauce.com
Price: $5 (5 oz.)
Can be used like: Sriracha, Valentina, Crystal
A quirky green sauce: Pickled Prince Serrano Dill Pickle Hot Sauce
Where to buy: Pickled Prince pop-ups weekends at Lincoln Park High School and Wicker Park Farmers Market, The Eco Flamingo, pickledprince.com
Price: $10 (5 oz.)
Can be used like: El Yucateco Green, Small Axe Peppers Bronx Sauce
A truly singular take on chili crisp: Tasting India’s Bombay Chili Crunch
Where to buy: Agora Marketplace, shoptastingindia.com
Can be used like: Fly by Jing Chili Crisp
Price: $7.99 (about 4 oz.)
A fruit-forward sauce that isn’t candy: Pickled Prince Habanero Kumquat
Where to buy: Pickled Prince pop-ups weekends at Lincoln Park High School and Wicker Park Farmers Market, The Eco Flamingo, pickledprince.com
Price: $10 (5 oz.)
Can be used like: Queen Majesty’s Habanero Sauce, Caribbean-style sauces
A smoky chili oil with a lot of sesame seeds: Chilee Oil
Where to buy: chileeoil.com
Price: $15 (8 oz., vegetable oil), $20 (8 oz., avocado oil)
Can be used like: Lao Gan Ma
A wild card sauce: Tierra Negra black salsa
Where to buy: Andale Market, tierranegrasalsa.com
Price: $15 (8 oz.)
Can be used like: Salsa macha
A giardinnovation: Giardonnaise
Where to buy: Andale Market, giardonnaise.com
Price: $30 (2 12-oz. bottles, available in mild, medium or hot)
Can be used like: Kewpie mayo, spicy mayo, giardiniera and mayo
