The Everything Bagel Hot Sauce You’ll Want to Put on, Well, Everything (Plus 7 More Editor-Favorite Picks)

Try as we might, we don’t always have enough time on our hands to whip up a complex meal. Speaking for myself, as much as I enjoy cooking and trying new things when I have the energy, I usually save the time-consuming dishes for the weekend. I fall back on low-effort dishes most weekdays, and I cycle through them over and over again, prioritizing how filling it is over flavor. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I considered a simple way to liven things up: hot sauce.

I’ve been working up my heat tolerance this past year, and finally decided that it was time to give the spicy condiment a try. Now, I understand why people love it so much that they carry it around in their purses. In the words of actress Florence Pugh, hot sauce is, after all, “the saving grace to any s**t meal.” If you’re looking to take your meals up a notch but aren’t sure where to start, I’ve got you covered with eight options — including one that tastes just like an everything bagel! — that our editors add to everything.

1. Secret Handshake Food Co | Everything Bagel Hot Sauce

   Despite not being a huge hot sauce user, Commerce SEO editor Sarah is an avid everything bagel lover, so she knew she had to give this unique condiment a try. Now she’s “a full-blown convert.” “It’s spicy, it has so many uses (I use it to marinate meat or as a dip), and yes, it tastes exactly like your favorite bagel,” she said. “Trust me, you’re going to want to keep a bottle of this sauce on hand from now on.”

   $7.98 at Walmart

2. Jalapeño Lime Hot Sauce

   Despite growing up in Texas, I never considered myself a spice lover until I tried Truff’s latest condiment. True to its name, their new hot sauce offers their trademark hint of black winter truffle, as well as punchy green jalapeño pepper and lime. “At first, I was a little unsure when I heard that truffle was involved — usually, I find it to be a little too intense — but I was happy to find that the flavor was just the right amount of subtle,” my review reads. Now, I regularly add it to everything from tacos to plain eggs.

   $17.98 at TRUFF

3. Frank's RedHot Original Hot Sauce

   Our list wouldn’t be complete without this enormously popular sauce. Contributor Patty swears she’ll stock it in her pantry forever — it’s that good — and the brand even claims it was the secret ingredient of the original Buffalo wings recipe. “Frank’s RedHot sauce might not be the spiciest hot sauce you can buy, but that’s actually a big part of why this sauce is so versatile,” she said, adding that the cayenne pepper sauce’s spice doesn’t overpower the flavor.

   $7.49 at Amazon

4. Yellowbird Serrano Hot Sauce 2-Pack

   Former commerce intern Meredith wasn’t always a fan of eggs until she started adding Yellowbird’s hot sauce on top every time. It’s serrano pepper-based, so there’s “little more heat than jalapeños, but [is] overall similar in flavor. In addition, the sauce is packed with cucumbers, limes, vinegar, and a little bit of sugar to balance out the heat perfectly,” she wrote.

   $24.99 at Amazon

5. Hot N Saucy Sweet Potato & Habanero Hot Sauce

   This sauce came out on top on our 2022 Kitchn Essentials list, so you can be sure that it’ll step up your meals, whether it be a stew, curry, eggs, or tacos. “The bright and bold flavors, like Beet N Fresno and Sweet Potato N Habanero, bring a sweet complexity to breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” our editors determined.

   $10 at Hot N Saucy

6. Hillside Harvest Original Hot Pepper Hot Sauce

   Hillside’s sauce totally won over former writer (and hot sauce connoisseur) Erin, thanks to how it expertly delivers both heat and flavor. “In the ingredient list, you’ll see fruits and citrus in addition to hot peppers and vinegar, all of which come through perfectly in the final product,” she wrote. “Yet unlike other fruity hot sauces that don’t always complement savory food very well, this bottle has paired perfectly with every dish I’ve tried.”

   $10.35 at Amazon

7. Cherry Bomb Hot Sauce

   "Other hot sauces I've tried have been spicy but not very flavorful, though that's not the case with this one,” Nikol, Apartment Therapy’s shopping writer, said of this medium heat, sweet-and-spicy option. “It has a peppery, pleasant flavor — with a kick, of course. I put this sauce on everything: eggs, pasta, avocado toast, you name it. It even made quinoa taste good, which I'd previously thought impossible."

   $8 at Haxan Ferments

8. Burman's Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce

   Aldi shoppers claim that Burman’s offering tastes extremely similar to Frank’s Red Hot, so one of our former editors put both to the test to see if the rumors were true. “Both were tangy, vinegary, and had just the right amount of subtle heat (not so much that I was down for the count, but enough to make my lips tingle and keep me reaching for wing after wing),” she said, adding that it’s a pretty good dupe.

   $12 at Amazon