Wide Open Foods Nashville Hot Chicken Sauce - Vegan - Enhances Recipe Flavor with Health Benefits - Different Levels of Spiciness - Perfect For Home & Kitchen (Heat Level 2 - Almost Way Hot, 1 Pack)

This was amazing! I've long been curious about the Nashville hot craze and decided to try it. I used it on baked chicken leg quarters and later,chicken tenders. Both delicious! My only complaint is the bottle is now empty. I guess that means I need to order some more.

I've tried a lot of hot sauces, and I've made Nashville-style fried chicken from scratch, which is what I was trying to get in a sauce, particularly when this stuff was recommended to me by Reddit's /r/Spicy sub. They're generally pretty picky about their sauces, so I hoped I was getting something good when I ordered this stuff. By itself, it tastes like a weak chain restaurant salad dressing. On any food that isn't plain rice, its flavor is overpowered. I even tried it with sharp cheddar, and that managed to overpower it, too.When it came in the mail, it had almost completely separated, revealing the fact that about a third of it is canola oil. To be fair, lots of hot sauces have oil in them, but when there's that much oil in it, it isn't enhancing the mouth feel or the flavor, it's a filler ingredient. I'm waiting for it to separate again so I can pour it off and try it again without as much oil, but the flavor itself isn't great or memorable, so I don't have much hope.As for the "health benefits" called out in the product title, it's mostly canola oil, which is one of the worst types of food-grade oils for you. It's the first ingredient. The recommended serving size is two teaspoons, which contain 10% of your daily recommended doses of saturated fat, 10% of your sodium and 18% if your fat. That isn't healthy. I expected some sugar, since that's usually one of the main ingredients of Nashville-style fried chicken sauce, but apparently there isn't any in this stuff. Other than that, there's water, vinegar, cayenne pepper, "spices" and salt. As cayenne pepper goes, it's a lazy person's approach to hot sauce but many other hot sauce makers make it better than Nashville Hot Chicken does. In retrospect, I should have read the ingredients and determined how good it would be before I bought it, but I didn't, so that's on me.I imagine the Hot version of it is spicier, but I can't imagine the flavor is any better.

I'm sure there a many interpretations of Nashville Hot Chicken sauce. I tasted the Wide Open Food sauces (Not Way Hot, Almost Way Hot, and Way Hot version) sauces vs the Gillie Chester’s version and Joey Chestnut version. My flavor comparison baseline was the sauces I've tasted at restaurants such as Howlin' Ray's in LA or the Red Robin chain (I know, not necessarily authentic, but given its national presence, you could argue that this is a "standard" Nashville Hot flavor profile and spice level). I've found these restaurant sauces to have a strong red pepper/dried red pepper flavor with little sweetness (as found in BBQ sauce) vinegary-ness (as found in Buffalo Sauce).The Wide Open Foods sauces had my desired flavor profile, although their hottest version, “Way Hot”, still wasn’t as hot at the Red Robin version. However, they has quality control issues with separation. In the bottle, the sauces separated like an Italian vinegar and oil dressing. Shaking the bottle helped briefly “emulsify” the sauce, but the sauce would break on the chicken and plate, leaving splotches of oil. Additionally, the separation created specks of orange and yellow floating in the red sauce.In other words, the flavor was there, but the appearance was unappealing.On a side note, the Gillie Chester’s sauce was much sweeter than the restaurant sauces and other bottled sauces I tasted. Its sweetness approached that some BBQ sauces. And the Joey Chestnut had a strong vinegar presence, although not as strong as a Buffalo sauceMy search continues...

While chicken is good any time, marinating it in this Nashville Hot Sauce takes everything to a whole different level. It's not just the spice that's excellent, it's also the full flavor. Delicious!!

Very nice taste. Doesn't over power the taste of the chicken. I will be trying the hotter one next time.

This is amazing. Full of flavor and not to hot but a little kick to it. Definitely going to order again

Oily and barely had any taste.

Used this as a dip for skewered grilled chicken. Sort of thin, with a mildly pleasant taste; nothing great. Virtually no heat of spice that I could tell. Probably won't use very much, and wouldn't buy it again. Melinda's Peri-Peri sauce is much spicier and much better.