How to Survive a Hot Sauce Challenge
One of my favorite things about food is that it can always surprise you. Sure, if you want cold ham sandwiches at every meal, you can choose that. You can choose to never let food surprise you. But if you really love food, it offers the endless possibility to taste, to experience, to learn. And… to be challenged.
Enter one of my favorite food activities: the hot sauce challenge. If you’ve never seen the YouTube show Hot Ones (“the show with hot questions, and even hotter wings”), you should correct that unfortunate oversight. Maybe start with fan favorite guests Gordon Ramsay and Paul Rudd.
The premise: host, Sean Evans, expertly interviews celebrity guests as they trudge through a grueling course of ten progressively hotter chicken wings (or veggie nuggets or cauliflower if they prefer). Sean’s well-researched questions also increase in intensity, mirroring the rising Scoville units of the hot sauces. In the current lineup for their 17th season, the first sauce comes in at 1800 units, and the tenth is over 2 million. You can order the full set (as well as individual bottles) here to do the challenge yourself. I’ve done it several times, with different groups of people, and it’s always fun, even when it hurts a little.
To survive it, I recommend stocking up on cooling accoutrements to tame the heat, including dairy-based, starchy, veggie and sweet options:
Ranch and Blue Cheese Dressing
Milk
Ice Cream (milkshakes, smoothies and Dole Whips are nice too)
Bread, Rice, Crackers or French Fries
Crunchy and Creamy Veggies (carrots, celery and avocado)
Sweet Fruit (tart is less helpful, since sugar is what will do battle against those high-Scoville sauces)
Pickle-Brined Spicy Chicken Wings
Serves 4 (10 wings each, plus a few extra)
Ingredients
2 cups milk
1/2 cup juice from bread and butter pickles or dill pickles
4 lbs chicken wings (a mix of flats and drums)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 to 4 quarts peanut or canola oil
10 hot sauces, ranging in spiciness from mild to downright painful
Directions
Combine milk and pickle juice (if using dill pickle juice, add 1 TB granulated or brown sugar to balance the acidity) in 13x9-inch baking dish. Add wings, turn to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours and up to eight, turning wings at least once.
Place flour in pie plate or shallow dish. Heat oil to 375°F in deep fryer or large Dutch oven. Thoroughly drain wings in large colander, then dredge wings one at a time in the flour, being careful to coat evenly. Fry chicken in batches, 10 to 15 minutes per batch, until cooked through (at least 165°F in center of thickest part of the wing). Drain wings on paper towels, then either toss in desired hot sauce or serve with the sauce for dipping.
To keep warm, place cooked wings on a rack over a rimmed sheet pan in a 200° oven for up to an hour.
Good luck, and remember the most important key to survival: wash your hands before touching your eyes, nose or privates!