Eggs: one of the most common breakfast dishes, yet so versatile! Eggs can be prepared fairly quickly, and in multiple ways, providing a delicious source of protein and fat. A pinch of salt and pepper is all you really need to season eggs, but just a dash of hot sauce can really take your eggs to the next level!
In this post I will highlight our top 10 favorite hot sauces for eggs organized by the following four categories:
- The Standard Quartet – Most households will have at least one of these four in their fridges at any time. They are all excellent, affordable, and great with eggs
- The Caribbean Trio – Here at The Spicy Trio we are huge fans of Caribbean hot sauces; they tend to have more complexity and depth of flavor compared to other hot sauces, which is why they pair perfectly with eggs.
- The Super Spicy Duo – These two are hot, like really freaking hot but pair well with eggs. Just be careful how much you use!
- Mystery Surprise – With an oil base, this is not quite a hot sauce, but nevertheless it’s one of our favorite spicy condiments that goes great with eggs. Read on to see what we are talking about!
The Standard Quartet
Tabasco, Tapatío, Cholula, and Sriracha
1. Tabasco Sauce
From Avery Island, Louisiana comes one of the most iconic hot sauces ever made, Tabasco sauce, otherwise known as Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce. Go to any diner in the U.S. and you will most likely find a bottle of this stuff sitting on the table. If not, sometimes you have to “borrow” it from the table next to yours.
Established in 1868, Tabasco has been around for over a century and during that time, nothing has changed ingredients-wise. The key to its flavor is the three-year fermentation process each batch of pepper mash goes through, resting in old bourbon barrels before being diluted with vinegar and bottled. Tabasco’s spice level on the Scoville unit scale measures between 2,500 and 5,000 units.
I love this sauce on eggs. It reminds me of my childhood where I would get scrambled eggs and hash browns and would splash as much of this salty, vinegary pepper sauce I could over them.
What does Tabasco sauce taste like – Tabasco sauce tastes vinegary and salty with some heat and funk. The “funk” folks describe comes from the three-year fermentation process done in old bourbon barrels.
What Ingredients are in Tabasco sauce – Its ingredients are simple, consisting of distilled vinegar, red Tabasco peppers grown on the island, and salt.
Why does Tabasco sauce go well with eggs – Tabasco sauce goes well with eggs because of its salt and vinegar base. It cuts through the fat of the egg yolk making it taste a little lighter and adds that kick of heat to make things a little more interesting.
2. Tapatío
Founded in 1971 by Jose-Luis Saavendra, Sr. Tapatío was started out of a 750 square foot building located in Maywood, California in Los Angeles county. Since then, Tapatío’s hot sauce offerings has remained unchanged, the only thing that has changed is the size of bottle you can get.
Tapatío is an extremely popular, versatile, and affordable hot sauce which works well on many foods. Its spice level is about 3,000 Scoville units and its consistency is thin. It is bright red in color with little specks of black and white.
Although the company does not disclose what type of peppers are used in the sauce, many speculate that they use the Pequin pepper and Chile de Arbol as both are used in Cholula which has a similar flavor profile.
The word Tapatío refers to a person originating from Guadalajara, Mexico.
What does Tapatío taste like – Tapatío hot sauce tastes full body salty, garlicy, and spicy without the strong pungency of many vinegar-based hot sauces.
What Ingredients are in Tapatío – Its ingredients consist of water, red peppers, salt, undisclosed spices, garlic, acetic acid, xanthan gum, and sodium benzoate.
Why does Tapatío hot sauce go well with eggs – Tabasco sauce goes well with eggs because of its full flavor profile, and is a great option for those that find the flavor of Tabasco sauce to be a bit thin. This is a good alternative as the garlic and proprietary spice blend add a bit more boldness to the flavor.
3. Cholula
Cholula is a Mexican hot sauce that was produced by three generations in Chapala, Jalisco. Today it’s owned by L. Catterton a large private equity firm. It was originally introduced into the U.S. market in 1989 in Austin, Texas. It’s a mild hot sauce measuring about 1,000 Scoville units of heat.
Like most hot sauces its branding has a meaning. Cholula was named after a 2,500-year old city in Mexico which is still inhabited today and is the oldest inhabited city in North America. It is beautifully set with the backdrop of two volcanos, Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl.
What does Cholula taste like – Cholula has a great flavor known for its tanginess and full body flavor like Tapatío.
What Ingredients are in Cholula – Its ingredients are water, Arbol and Pequin peppers, salt, vinegar, garlic powder, proprietary spices, and xanthan gum.
Why does Cholula sauce go well with eggs – Cholula hot sauce goes well with eggs because of its tangy, vinegary undertones. It is not as intense as Tabasco, so if you prefer a slightly thicker sauce that is still thin with less vinegar, you’d love Cholula.
4. Sriracha
Today you can go to a grocery store and find many Sriracha-styled hot sauces, but the original green topped version created by Huy Fong is the one we are discussing here. Sriracha is a Thai style hot sauce which has a consistency almost like ketchup.
Sriracha was created by David Tran in 1980 and was originally delivered out of the back of his van all over Chinatown in Los Angeles. Nowadays it can be found all over the U.S. in practically every grocery store. David never copy righted the Sriracha name so that is why you’ll find so many other brands making the same style of hot sauce. So, if you can’t find the original, you are bound to see some copy cat version in your grocery store!
My absolute favorite thing to pair Sriracha with is Pho, the Vietnamese soup noodle dish.
What does Sriracha taste like – Sriracha is known for its full garlic flavor with tangy sweet notes with a spicy burn around 1,000 – 2,500 Scoville units.
What Ingredients are in Sriracha – Ingredients include chili, sugar, salt, garlic, acetic acid, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite (preservatives), and xanthum gum.
Why does Sriracha sauce go well with eggs – For folks who like adding ketchup to their eggs, they will enjoy adding Sriracha since its sweet and garlic flavors enhances the taste of the egg. Just squirt a few lines of Sriracha and you will be good to go!
The Caribbean Trio
Hot Delight Madam-Jeanette Gourmet, Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet and Ginger and Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper
5. Hot Delight Madam-Jeanette Gourmet Hot Sauce
Oh my goodness, if you can find this Madam Gourmet Hot Sauce you are in for a treat! The first time I tried it was at a BBQ joint called Smokey Joe’s Island Grill while I was vacationing in Aruba. This stuff is probably one of my favorite hot sauces of all time and it comes in 160ml all the way up to 1-liter bottles. Even though it has been years since I last tried this hot sauce, I continue to dream of another trip to Aruba just so that I can return with a suitcase full of it!
This hot sauce perfectly encapsulates the complex sweet and salty flavors of the Caribbean. It is excellent on BBQ and fried foods.
Good luck finding it though! I have found a few websites selling it: sometimes it pops up on Amazon and another place I’ve found it is on Tasty Aruba, but it is often out of stock.
What does Hot Delight Madam-Jeanette Gourmet Hot Sauce taste like – Hot Delight’s Madam hot sauce has a salty Caribbean tang with an almost briny flavor which comes from the piccalilli. This hot sauce is HOT! I have not been able to locate the measured Scoville units of the hot sauce, but to give you an idea, the Madam-Jeanette chili peppers measure between 100,000 and 350,000 units.
What Ingredients are in Hot Delight Madam-Jeanette Gourmet Hot Sauce – Ingredients include Madam-Jeannette peppers, salt, onions, piccalilli, mustard, garlic, natural vinegar, herbs extract, and corn oil.
Why does Hot Delight Madam-Jeanette Gourmet Hot Sauce go well with eggs – I love this hot sauce with eggs because of its unique briny flavors which complements the rich egg yolk.
6. Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet and Ginger Hot Sauce
Queen Majesty Hot Sauce came onto the scene in 2013 and has been making hot sauces with high quality fresh ingredients ever since. At this time, they have five hot sauce offerings but their most famous one is the Scotch Bonnet and Ginger hot sauce which was featured on Hot Ones season 4.
My personal favorite is the Scotch Bonnet and Ginger, it never lasts very long in my household I can easily go through a bottle in a few weeks.
If you’re curious about the flavor profile of their hot sauces, and about how to make a hot sauce at home, they have an excellent YouTube video on how to make hot sauce which already has over 2.5 million views.
What does Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet and Ginger Hot Sauce taste like – This hot sauce has incredible flavor and has the familiar Caribbean characteristics that include onion, lemon, and ginger. The hot sauce maker says it is “very loosely based off of a Jamaican jerk recipe”. This hot sauce is known for its ability to taste great with almost any food you put it on.
What Ingredients are in Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet and Ginger Hot Sauce – White vinegar, sweet onions, orange bell peppers, Scotch Bonnet hot peppers, lemon juice, ginger root, olive oil, salt, and spices.
Why does Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet and Ginger Hot Sauce go well with eggs – I love the lemony ginger kick this hot sauce has. Like vinegar, lemon cuts through the fattiness of the egg giving complexity, while adding great flavor to your egg dish.
7. Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce
Based out of Jamaica, Busha Browne’s hot sauces have been becoming more and more popular since its founding in the late 1970s. Busha Browne sources all it is natural ingredients for its sauces in Jamaica. Their Pukka hot sauce uses lots of Scotch Bonnet peppers to give great flavor with lots of heat. The term Pukka (pronounced ‘Puck-kah’) is named after an Indian word that means genuine, excellent, and highly respectable. I agree, this hot sauce is top notch and is well deserving of the name!
What does Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce taste like – Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce has a great tangy flavor which compliments the fiery Scotch Bonnet peppers. The vinegar base is mild, which is probably from using cane vinegar which is less harsh than its distilled counterparts.
What Ingredients are in Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce – Water, Scotch Bonnet peppers, cane vinegar, modified food starch, salt, approved spices, 0.1 percent sodium benzoate (as a preservative).
Why does Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce go well with eggs – It goes great on eggs because of its tangy full flavor which complements the eggs. I usually spread a thin layer on top of an omelet-style egg to get a bit of flavor with every bite.
The Super Spicy Duo
Tropical Pepper Co. Ghost Pepper and the Last Dab Triple X
8. Tropical Pepper Co. Ghost Pepper Sauce
Tropical Pepper Co. makes a line of many hot sauces ranging from mild to extremely hot. The company is based out of Costa Rica and manufactures a lot of hot sauces that are common in grocery stores in the U.S. They are known for their good flavor at an affordable price point.
Their Ghost Pepper Sauce is one of their hotter ones. It is made from the Naga Jolokia pepper that comes from northern India. This stuff is hot and they know it: they put warning labels all over the bottle saying its deadly spicy.
For folks who eat tons of extremely spicy food this will be hot but not overwhelming. For folks who think Tabasco is really hot, use this sauce only sparingly because more than a few drops can put you into a spiral of painful heat.
What does Tropical Pepper Co Ghost Pepper Sauce taste like – This stuff is spicy! It has a subtle ghost pepper flavor with a slightly vinegary and a little smokey flavor profile. It doesn’t have super pronounced flavors on its own, but it complements everything well.
What Ingredients are in Tropical Pepper Co Ghost Pepper Sauce – Naga Jolokia chili pepper, water, salt, acetic (acidity regulator), garlic (sodium erythorbate), cornstarch and xanthan gum (thickeners), and citrus fiber.
Why does Tropical Pepper Co Ghost Pepper Sauce go well with eggs – Nice and salty, this is good for eggs if you are trying to make them really spicy. All you need is a little dab and your eggs are taken to another level!
9. The Last Dab Triple X
The Last Dab Triple X is the third iteration of the Last Dab hot sauce line, which has been a fan favorite of the YouTube show Hot Ones. The hot sauce is named after the tradition of adding an extra dab of spicy hot sauce to the last wing of the line-up of hot wings that guests have to consume, while answering questions from the host of the show, Sean Evans.
The Last Dab Triple X was created through a collaboration between Sean Evans of Hot Ones, Ed Currie of Puckerbutt Pepper Company, and Noah Chaimberg founder of the Heatonist.
It is an extremely spicy hot sauce so a small amount, or dab, goes a long way. It is a hot sauce with a point of no return. Adding a little gives an enjoyable burn but adding too much will ignite your mouth on fire.
If you want to learn more about The Last Dab Triple X, check out our comprehensive review.
What does the Last Dab Triple X taste like – The Last Dab Triple X tastes surprisingly good considering how hot it is. It has strong cumin and ginger flavors, that accompany the heat of its Pepper X chili peppers.
What Ingredients are in the Last Dab Triple X – Pepper X, Chocolate Pepper X, Peach Pepper X, distilled vinegar, ginger root, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and dry mustard.
Why does the Last Dab Triple X go well with eggs – This goes great on eggs because of its spices that are common in Indian cooking. Since my wife and I make a lot of Indian food at home, we do enjoy adding it to our eggs – just a small dab gives the eggs a Masala kick along with already spicy chili peppers.
Mystery Surprise
10. Lee KumKee Chiu Chow Chili Oil
The last item to round up our list of top 10 hot sauces that go well with eggs is…. not a hot sauce per se, but a chili oil. It is a condiment that adds heat on anything you add it to, and we enjoy putting it on a whole variety of dishes, from dumplings to, you guessed it, eggs.
There are several brands that sell this type of chili oil, but our personal favorite is the one produce by Lee KumKee. The company was founded back in 1888 in the Guangdong province of China by Lee KumSheung with his invention of oyster sauce. Now over a hundred years old, Lee KumKee has gone beyond the Chinese market and you can find its products in households across the globe. The company has a repertoire of over 200 sauces and condiments with production facilities in China, the U.S. and Malaysia. Its headquarters is based in Hong Kong, S.A.R.
With ingredients such as salted peppers, salt, and soy sauce, this sauce packs a very savory punch. My wife was introduced to it while she was living and studying in Hong Kong, and since then it has been a staple condiment in her parents’ home, and now ours. It goes best with east Asian appetizers, but we tend to go beyond that cuisine, adding it to cheese toasts and soups for a little kick.
What does Chiu Chow Chili Oil taste like – This chili oil is not incredibly spicy but has a slight punch to it. It has strong garlic and salty notes, so it is best added to items that don’t already have strong flavor profiles. It provides bold flavors, but using natural ingredients and not extracts, which many chili oils often include.
What Ingredients are in Chiu Chow Chili Oil – Soybean oil, water, dehydrated garlic, dried chili peppers, salted chili peppers (chili peppers, salt), soy sauce (water, salt, soybeans, wheat flour), salt, sesame oil, sugar, disodium 5′-inosinate and disodium 5′-guanylate as flavor enhancers.
Why does Chiu Chow Chili Oil go well with eggs – Unlike the other sauces mentioned above, this chili oil does not cut the fat of eggs, but rather adds to it! If using this oil, you will not need to add any salt or pepper to your eggs – simply add a few teaspoons of the drenched chili pepper flakes, and your eggs will have ample flavor and a touch if heat. Definitely good for those morning when you want to give yourself an extra treat!
