Black Eyed Susan Spice Co’s Death by Chocolate hot sauce line packs a solid punch. It’s centered around the chocolate habanero, with apple, peach, garlic, and cocoa all playing a part in a flavor profile that’s sweet and sour with a subtle chocolate tone to it. What is not is a weak little sauce line for snowflake people with manbuns who can’t stop saying, “It’s about the journey, not the destination” while sipping a green maca crappaccino extra whip, whose phones are much smarter than they are.
That’s oldguyspeak for “Death by Chocolate has a good flavor but its heat isn’t for the timid.” If you’re entertaining a group of people whose general idea of spicy falls on the milder side, Death by Chocolate may be a bit of a shock for them; the mild version of the sauce has a medium-sized kick because the chocolate habanero pepper, while not a Ghost or Reaper, still isn’t anybody’s bitch. What these sauces are is a blend of sweet and sour with a touch of cocoa followed by a good dose of heat. After I tasted it, I thought I’d try it out on something the local fast fooderies around here have been pimping for a while in a watered-down form: the hot chicken sandwich.
I made up a batch of fried chicken and coated it with a blend of honey and Death by Chocolate for stickiness, then tried each one as a sandwich with mayo and pickles on it. The sauce goes quite well with honey and each successively hotter sandwich had a hotter kick, as you’d expect. I was pretty happy with the results but I think I’d have been even more pleased had I tossed fried or grilled wings with the honey/sauce blend. But that’s on me. The recipe is below. You can pick up a bottle or two or three from Black Eyed Susan right here.
- 1 lb smoked chicken breast cut into chicken tenders 1.5-inch wide
- 12 cups vegetable oil or 2 of bacon grease if you're not a wuss
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp Blacke Eyed Susan's hot sauce
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp Blacke Eyed Susan's hot sauce
- 2 hamburger buns
- 8 slices spicy dill pickles
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise or aioli
- Coat the chicken in your favorite spice rub. Refrigerate it for two hours.
- Heat the oil/bacon grease to 350 F in a pan with sides high enough to contain the splash from frying. Layout a plate with paper towels on it for the finished fried chicken. If you used the bacon grease, flip halfway through to brown both sides.
- Whisk the buttermilk, 1 tbsp hot sauce, and the eggs in a shallow bowl. Put the flour in a second bowl and season it with some salt and pepper. Dunk the chicken first in the buttermilk mixture, then dredge it in the seasoned flour and coat it thoroughly.
- Gently drop the chicken into the oil one piece at a time. Fry it until golden brown (about ten minutes). Transfer the cooked chicken to the paper towels and pat off excess oil. Or don't. It's your heart, not mine.
- Stir the honey with remaining two tablespoons of hot sauce.
- Toast the buns. Split the mayo and pickle slices over the top halves. Paint or toss the chicken tenders in the honey and hot sauce mixture. Place the chicken pieces on the sandwiches and serve with chips or fries.
Black Eyed Susan's comes in three heat levels.
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