You may think that you can handle any hot sauce a restaurant gives you, but have you been to Halal Guys? Their hot sauce is so hot that there’s even a food challenge for eating it!
Halal Guys’ hot sauce is one of the spiciest sauces in fast food history. It’s only available at their locations and ranks high on the Scoville scale. It’s hotter than most household sauces and a great way to spice up any meal.
If you’re interested to know why the Halal Guys’ sauce is famous among food reviewers and food challengers alike, read on! We’ll also discuss more broadly about the Halal Guys’ restaurant and their famous red hot sauce. Find out how hot this sauce really is and how you can try it for yourself.
How Does The Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce Rank on the Scoville Scale?
The Halal Guys’ hot sauce registers at 100,000-130,000 heat units on the Scoville scale. This means it’s 40 times spicier than a typical Jalapeño and 100 times hotter than Sriracha hot sauce.
What is the Scoville Scale?
The Scoville scale measures spiciness and is an easy way to compare the spice levels of different kinds of food. Items are given a Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) rating and ranked on a scale from 0 SHUs to 3,000,000+ SHUs.
It’s common for hot peppers, hot sauces, and other food to advertise their Scoville rating to customers, so people have an idea of how hot the food or flavoring is. For example, if you think a Jalapeño is too hot to handle, maybe you should stay away from The Halal Guys’ hot sauce.
Peppers on the Scoville Scale
To give you an idea of how spicy The Halal Guys’ hot sauce is, let’s compare it with some common peppers:
- Bell pepper: 0 – 100 SHUs
- Poblano pepper: 1,000 – 1,500 SHUs
- Jalapeño pepper: 2,500 – 8,000 SHUs
- Cayenne pepper: 30,000 – 50,000 SHUs
- Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce: 100,000-130,000 SHUs
- Carolina Reaper pepper: 1,641,000 – 2,2000,000 SHUs.
The Halal Guys’ hot sauce ranks higher on the scale than most common peppers, so this sauce isn’t for the faint of heart.
Hot Sauces on the Scoville Scale
If you still need convincing, let me tell you about some other hot sauces that you may be familiar with and how the Halal Guys’ hot sauce measures up.
Here are some common hot sauces in the U.S. and their Scoville rankings:
- Louisiana Hot Sauce: 50 SHUs
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce: 450 SHUs
- Cholula Hot Sauce: 1,000 SHUs
- Pain 100% Hot Sauce: 40,600 SHUs
- Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce: 100,000-130,000 SHUs
- Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Sauce: 350,000 SHUs
The Halal Guys’ sauce may not be the hottest sauce available, but it’s not a sauce to take lightly. It’s spicier than typical household hot sauces and is a sure-fire way to spice up any meal!
Who are the Halal Guys?
Halal Guys is an authentic American Halal eatery that serves gyros and platters of beef, chicken, and falafel. It started as a New York City food cart in 1990 and was founded by three Egyptian men. Today, the eatery focuses on traditional halal cuisine and has grown to 400+ restaurants worldwide.
If you aren’t familiar with the Halal Guys, let me give you a brief introduction to their story.
Though it started as a small food cart serving taxi drivers, it’s now a halal cuisine powerhouse, serving customers worldwide, with people lining up around the block to try their delicious food.
As mentioned, the Halal Guys serve chicken and beef gyro and falafel in either a platter or sandwich. But don’t let the limited menu fool you, because there are a lot of flavors packed in these few items.
The food is fantastic and worth the trip alone, but it isn’t a Halal Guys’ meal without their iconic sauces. Customers can choose from three different sauces: White Sauce, BBQ Sauce, and Red Sauce.
Halal Guys’ Sauces
Have you heard the term “the secret is in the sauce”? Well, they might have been talking about the Halal Guys, because many people line up around the block just for that sauce.
White Sauce and BBQ Sauce
Their white sauce is a creamy mixture and an excellent way to balance the heat of the rest of the dish. It’s mayo-based and extremely popular with its customers. You can’t truly experience the Halal Guys’ food without the White Sauce poured on top.
Also, though you may not have heard of it, the Halal Guys also offer a BBQ sauce as an option. It’s a tangy sauce and a great way to sneak even more flavor into your dish.
Red Hot Sauce
If you want a spicy experience like you’ve never had before, you’ll need to try the Halal Guys’ spicy red sauce. This hot sauce is a truly unique sauce with a perfect blend of spices, a high Scoville ranking, and a flavor that keeps the customers coming back for more and more.
The Halal Guys’ spicy red sauce is one of the most famous restaurant hot sauces out there. It’s so popular that news outlets talk about its ingredients, and influencers eat the hot sauce as a challenge. Food bloggers are even racing to make a copycat recipe so you can have the hot sauce for yourself at home.
What is in the Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce?
The ingredients in the Halal Guys’ hot sauce consist of ground red pepper, vinegar, salt, spice blend, and lemon juice. The Halal Guys have kept their recipes simple, and they’ve been straightforward about what’s in their famous sauce.
While the exact recipe and the spice blend are still under lock and key, the Halal Guys have proven that you don’t need a lot of additives and preservatives to make a great sauce. Just a few simple ingredients are enough to keep people coming back for more.
The interesting thing about the Halal Guys’ ingredients list is that they are not surprising and are quite common ingredients in most hot sauces. It must be the unique spice blend and ratios that make their sauce so special, which is why it’s no wonder that they keep those a secret.
Is The Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce Spicy?
The Halal Guys’ hot sauce is extremely spicy, and you should use it with caution. The Executive Chef has even referred to the sauce as “an insane blend of fiery chilis.” Just a few drops will spice up any meal.
This hot sauce is so spicy that even the Halal Guys’ CEO is too scared to try it. He said in a Food Insider YouTube video that it’s because he doesn’t like spicy food:
So, if spicy isn’t your thing, you may want to steer clear.
Can You Buy the Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce? Where Can You Buy It?
You can buy the Halal Guys’ hot sauce at one of their many locations. At this time, they don’t ship their products, so you must buy it in store. Their current rate for a bottle of hot sauce is around $10.
So, if you just can’t get enough of the Halal Guys’ hot sauce, you can buy a bottle to take home with you from any of their locations.
Halal Guys’ Locations
The Halal Guys have grown from a single location in New York City and now have a massive worldwide presence. You can find local Halal Guys all over the U.S. with locations on the west coast in California and down south in Georgia. We’re lucky to live not too far from a location and they are a regular option for us when we want to order in!
You can even find the Halal Guys’ internationally in:
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Indonesia
- South Korea
- Malaysia
What Hot Sauces are Similar to Halal Guys’?
No hot sauce can match the flavor of Halal Guys’ sauce. However, Blair’s Beyond Death Hot Sauce, Da’ Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce, and Melinda’s Naga Jolokia Pepper Sauce are similar in Scoville ranking.
Let’s go over the few sauces to try if you’re craving for the Halal Guys’ sauce but can’t get your hands on one. While they’re not the same in terms of flavor, they have similar SHUs.
- Blair’s Beyond Death Hot Sauce: This hot sauce isn’t quite up to Halal Guys’ ranking, but at 99,760 SHUs, you’ll still feel the heat.
- Da’ Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce: This hot sauce is made with pure habanero pepper and has 119,700 SHUs. Definitely does not match the flavor of Halal Guys’ but has a strong burning sensation.
- Melinda’s Naga Jolokia Pepper Sauce: This hot pepper sauce registers at 128,450 SHUs. It’s a Ghost pepper sauce and is sure to fix your spicy craving.
Remember that if it’s a similar heat as the Halal Guys’ you’re looking for, you’ll need to bypass the typical restaurant hot sauces.
How to Make Halal Guys’ Hot Sauce
The full Halal Guys’ hot sauce recipe isn’t available to the public.
However, to make the Halal Guys’ hot sauce, you have to blend their listed ingredients, which includes the following:
- Ground red pepper
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Spice blend
- Lemon juice
The Halal Guys’ hot sauce is so famous, many people have tried to make a copycat sauce at home.
While buying the official sauce from the restaurant is the best way to go, there are a few homemade recipes you can try.
The Table of Spice Recipe
This copycat recipe claims it tastes exactly like the official sauce, and you can make it at home in just a few minutes. The ingredients that they used are listed below:
- Tomato: 1 small
- Dried red chilis: 5
- Vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Lemon juice: 1 tbsp
- Cayenne pepper powder: 2 tsp
- Garlic powder: 1 tsp
- Salt: ½ tsp
- Sugar: ½ tsp
- Onion powder: ½ tsp
- Black pepper: ½ tsp
A-Yo Kitchen Recipe
The A-Yo Kitchen recipe is a bit more involved than the last one. Before blending anything up, they “crack” open the chilis and let them soak in hot water. Below is their complete list of ingredients:
- Dried red chilis: 30
- Garlic: 8 cloves
- Water (to soak the chilis): 1/3 cup
- Olive oil: ½ cup
- Ground coriander: 1 tsp
- Ground cumin: 1.5 tsp
- Garlic powder: 1.5 tsp
- Paprika: 1.5 tsp
- Black pepper: 1 tsp
- Cherry tomatoes: 1 cup OR one large plum tomato
- White vinegar: ¼ cup
- White sugar: 2 tbsp
- Salt: to taste
Mr. FlavorSavor’s Recipe
This recipe is different from the previous two because it’s the only one that uses lemon juice. Since lemon juice is an official ingredient of the Halal Guys’ hot sauce, this one may be worth a try! Here’s the ingredients list:
- Dry chilis: 5
- Cayenne pepper: 2 tsp
- Minced garlic: 1 tsp
- Salt: ½ tsp
- Sugar: ½ tsp
- Onion powder: ½ tsp
- Black pepper: ½ tsp
- Vinegar: 1 Tbs
- Lemon juice: 1 tbsp
- Chopped tomato: 1 small
Closing Thoughts
If you’re looking for an extremely hot sauce to add to your food, look no further than The Halal Guys’ hot sauce. With 100,000-130,000 Scoville Heat Units, this hot sauce is no joke and should be used with caution.
If you’re interested in trying the sauce but are a little afraid of the heat, you can add the White Sauce to cool the heat down.
There’s something for everyone at the Halal Guys’ restaurant, so what are you waiting for? Visit one of their locations near you and try their famous hot sauce!
