Learning how to cook with hot sauce will help you build big bold flavors. It’s all about knowing how and when to use it. Let us show you how.
Traditionally, and most commonly, hot sauce is mostly used to top or sprinkle to add some heat to your favorite dishes. However when used correctly, we like to use hot sauce as a part of our recipes. When done correctly, hot sauce can really add a lot of depth and flavor to your dish. Hot sauce isn’t just about the heat. It’s a way to compliment the flavors that are already a part of the dish.
When adding hot sauce to your recipe, it is important to look at the flavoring. This means you don’t want to add a hot sauce with a fruit flavoring that could clash with the rest of the ingredients. Use a sauce that will bring harmony to the flavors already involved.
Next, you want to be sure that you are balancing the hot sauce in the recipe. Cooking is all about finding a balance amongst your ingredients. If you are using an extremely spicy sauce, it is important to balance it with a sweet or acid to cut it. To help take some of the kick out of the sauce. Adding to much spice to a dish isn’t good because it will take over and be the only thing that you can taste.
When is it a Good Time to Add Hot Sauce to Your Recipe
When you are building a sofrito with onion, garlic and peppers it’s a perfect time to add hot sauce. Think of it in the same way you add sazon or other spices to a dish. When you add the hot sauce, at the beginning, the flavor of the hot sauce becomes a part of the dish and not just an after thought.
Hot sauce has always been part of dishes like Rabo Encendido, because obviously spicy is the “encendido” portion of the recipe. However hot sauce can be added to other recipes to help build out its flavor. For example, Carne Con Papas, Ropa Vieja, Gumbo, Camarones Enchilados and Black Beans. It actually goes perfectly thrown into Black Beans because the heat helps balance out some of the sugar, and makes for a delicious bite. Find our Black Beans Recipe Here
There are however dishes, where you do not want to add hot sauce early. Sometimes, it’s just best to use hot sauce in its purest form, a dash on top. This is especially true with dishes that are cold like Shrimp Salad, Tuna, Salsa, and Guacamole (find them below).
We Have Collaborated with Barbaro Mojo
We love hot sauce! Both of us are constantly on the search for new ones to try out on different recipes. We instantly fell in love with Barbaro Mojo. They have so many delicious flavors, and you can really use it to elevate your meal. We thought this would be the perfect time to show you how to use hot sauce for more than just a little spice on top.
We have been working with our locally made favorite hot sauce, Barbaro Mojo. Barbaro Mojo, founded Hot sauce is also perfect added to sauces and marinades.by Mario Cruz, local Miamian, in his search for the perfect hot sauce to help kick up lechon. Mario hosts Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) every year, and they do a big pig roast for friends and family. In 2015, his son Kevin wanted to add more heat to their meal, and thought to add a little spice to the traditional mojo sauce. That same day, while the pig cooked in the caja china, the duo began cooking up what would be the first unofficial batch of Bárabro Mojo Cuban Hot Sauce, and the rest was history.
Most of the Barbaro Mojo hot sauces have a mojo base so they are a natural fit to add to our Mojo Marinade or Mojo Criollo. Just imagine a chicken that has been marinaded in our mojo spiked with this hot sauce! It is guaranteed delicious!
We hand picked all our favorite recipes that go perfectly with the game and all of our favorite Barbaro Mojo sauces. However we wanted to highlight our Black Bean Chili Recipe because it is the ultimate recipe to showcase how amazing Barbaro Mojo Hot Sauce can be. Each different flavor hits different, so you can really change up the flavor profile depending on your day and mood.
Best Day Ever Hot Sauce:
Honestly this sauce is the dream. You can pair it with almost anything. The mixture of mango, habanero and mojo make for a great base, that freshens up your dish with the heat.
Orange Chimichurri Recipe – Abuela’s Cuban Counter
El Havanero Hot Sauce:
This sauce is the most traditional hot sauce with tomato as the base and spicy habanero pepper to compliment. We like this one paired with some of our hearty stews like Camarones Enchilados, Rabo Encendido or Carne con Papas.
Sazon Rubbed Wings Recipe – Abuela’s Cuban Counter
Pinazo Hot Sauce:
This is the only hot sauce that doesn’t have a mojo base so it’s perfect on things you want to add heat from the fresno chilies and hot carolina reaper. We can imagine this hot sauce with our Peruvian Fried rice. The pineapple in this one really helps balance the heat.
Jalabao Hot Sauce:
This hot sauce gets it’s heat from jalapenos and is balanced out with vinegar and mojo. We love to throw it on something a little heavier or with big flavor because it cuts through and really brings a beautiful balance that makes the sauce shine.
