Tabasco Brand Chipotle Pepper Smoked Sauce Review

While looking for additional variations of the Tabasco Brand product line to describe, I discovered this mild smoke-flavored Tabasco Brand Chipotle Pepper Sauce. I’ve never seen this sauce prior to a couple months ago, but have used it to beef up the smokehouse flavor of pork roasts in the crock pot. Until now, I’ve not stocked it very often. But I’ll start now, as I’ve discovered that this warm sauce is a highly convenient means to get delicious smoked flavors into my meats, much as they do with Slm Jim beef sticks and Jack Link’s beef jerky. The chipotle pepper essence is mild, perhaps because it splits the total taste with the smokehouse flavor. The flavor of smoke, more than heat, dominates this pepper sauce.

I thought to procure a 5-ounce bottle of this chipotle Tabasco sauce for review. Indeed, I like the predominantly smoky yet gently hot taste, thinner appearance, glass bottling, and low price of this product from McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, LA. This sauce is mild enough that you can use it as a steak sauce without fear of destroying the natural flavores of your more expensive cuts of beef.

I’ve applied Tabasco chipotle pepper sauce to hamburgers and steaks, with highly pleasing results. I’ve even dripped it onto packaged beef sticks when I felt that they lacked sufficient smoke flavor. Excellent flavor booster.

Keep in mind that while you may rightly refer to this product as a hot sauce, it’s actually quite different. The smokehouse flavor and the fact that this sauce incorporates a disimilar pepper (chipotle pepper) from the Louisiana-style hot sauces (red pepper), make it differ so from traditional hot sauces. So this chipotle sauce works best on different foods from the red pepper hot sauces. I like it on beef and pork meats, but would not put it on seafood. The aroma of this product is also not much like red hot sauce, as it smells mostly of hicory smoke. Pleasant to be sure. But this scent makes it unsuitable for certain foods in my view.

Benefits, Pros, Advantages, and Features

The smoky flavor of this USA-made product accents the taste of so many pork- and beef-based dishes. As this is a mildly-spiced sauce, it generally will not completely obscure the base meat flavor of whatever you add it to. This smoke sauce does not as-easily fatigue the tongue as hotter sauces can. But still, don’t over-apply it unless you really love smokehouse flavor.
It’s a thinner sauce. So it pours easily. The shaker-top bottle prevents accidental over-application of this product.
Information from the included box: This product contains smoked red jalapenos, and favorably flavors burgers, baked beans, and ribs. I’m eager to put this on a Sheetz pork sub next time I get lunch there.
This product need not be refrigerated after opening (no refrigerate instruction appears on the label). So just store it in a cool, dry, and dark place for maximum smokey-pepper flavor preservation.
This sauce adds little heat flavor, and virtually no calories or carbs. This makes it a low-risk flavoring for expensive cuts of meat. However, while you may not taste it so much on your tongue, it does heat the throat on the way down. So keep a glass of your favorite beverage nearby just in case those throat-flames get out of hand.
The little bit of heat there is here, is easily washed down with your favorite glass of something.
I’d describe this hot sauce though, as exceptionally mild; So I’d apply it liberally to any party recipes that call for lots of the smokehouse flavor.
The glass-bottle packaging is good for best flavor preservation.
This product has no added food colors or preservatives. Yet it stores well for at least two years.
Further, Tabasco contains almost no calories, carbs, or fat.
There’s little sweet taste to become addicted to here, which is wonderful. Even the small amount there is, is masked by the smokehouse taste.
This mild hot sauce is fairly easy to find in most bigger grocery stores.

Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns

I found no best-when-used-by date anywhere on the bottle. However, I think this product would keep a long time since it contains no dary or meat ingredients. I’ll update this as I gain more experience with stock-piling this smoke sauce.
How about some recipes printed right on the bottle?
The sodium in this product is moderate, at 130 milligrams per teaspoon. Indeed, the label reveals added salt as well as sugar.
Do away with the outer box, and put the box information right on the bottle label, in order to lower product cost a bit more, and cut down on the rubbish that ends up in our landfills and incinerators.
This product can separate, so shaking well before each application is necessary to get the most flavorsul spurts of sauce from it.

Ingredients

Chipotle pepper, distilled vinegar, water, salt, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, spices, natural flavor, TABASCO Brand Pepper Pulp (distilled vinegar, red pepper, salt).

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1 teaspoon (5 milliliters). Servings per 5-ounce container: about 30.
Calories: 0.
Total fat: 0 grams, 0% DV.
Saturated fat: 0 grams, 0 DV.
Trans fat: 0 grams.
Sodium: 130 milligrams, 5% DV.
Total carb: <1 gram, 0% DV.
Sugars: 0 grams.
Protein: 0 grams, 0% DV.

Product Rating

All-in-all, this daintally-flavored chipotle pepper sauce is a beef- or pork-cook’s friend for ramping up foods with somkehouse taste. The mildness here should offend few if any guests. In moderation, this Tabasco hot sauce a healthy flavoring, as it contains no fats. Just watch the sodium. So I recommend it be included as a condiment in your pantry. I’d rate Tabasco Brand Chipotle Pepper Sauce at 92 out of 100.

Where To Buy Tabasco Brand Chipotle Pepper Smoked Sauce

Look for this pepper sauce in the clear glass bottle (that displays the brown-orange hot sauce inside) with the white, fading brown, red, and green, label at the larger grocery stores.

References

Revision History

2015-02-23: Adjusted category and tag assignments, fixed typos, and added whitespace.
2012-05-21: Originally published.