Brian Nagele
If you’re a spicy food lover, you’re familiar with the hot, tingly sensation that overtakes your mouth and throat and leaves your lips stinging long after the meal is over.
Hot sauce is especially popular in tropical climates, as capsaicin is a well-known anti-bacterial agent. However, hot sauce has gained popularity cross-culturally, making it an excellent garnish for tacos, chips, eggs, and potatoes.
Another great candidate for heat is pizza. Its creamy, savory cheese, dense dough, and sweet tomato sauce need a spicy kick.
If you’re looking for the best hot sauce to put on pizza, check out my list of hot sauce brands below.
These hot sauces taste great on pizza – try them and find out for yourself!
Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce
Founded by chef and world traveler Scott Moritz in Portland in 2004, Secret Aardvark offers a diverse line of hot sauces inspired by Moritz’s travels.
Once a popular Portland farmer’s market stand, Secret Aardvark is now a household brand from coast to coast.
Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce is a tasty combination of Caribbean and Tex-Mex culinary traditions.
The mouth-numbing heat of habanero peppers gets a sweet complement thanks to roasted tomato sauce.
One of the recommended uses for Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce is as a marinade for pork or chicken.
Therefore, it would taste great over a pizza with grilled chicken or Italian sausage.
Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
With over 100 years in the hot sauce business, Frank’s RedHot sauce is an iconic Louisiana Cayenne pepper-based sauce that’s singlehandedly responsible for the invention of buffalo wings over 40 years later.
Today, Frank’s RedHot is one of the world’s most famous hot sauce brands, sold in 20 countries and counting.
Since Buffalo wings are typical appetizers at most pizza joints and fast-food restaurants, it’s logical that Frank’s RedHot could easily be a great hot sauce to put on pizza.
The Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce hasn’t changed since it first appeared on shelves in 1920, containing aged cayenne peppers and garlic for a spicy kick with a tangy vinegar base.
Cholula Original Hot Sauce
Another century-old company, Cholula, is a Mexican hot sauce producer that uses ancient family recipes.
They use native Mexican peppers like chile de arbol and piquin peppers with Mexican flavors like cumin and lime juice.
I always recognize their bottles by the signature wooden caps, which give them an air of old-fashioned authenticity.
Cholula Original Hot Sauce is on every table at Mexican pizzerias, adding a pure chili kick that leaves in the heat. It has a tangy nose with a hot finish that lingers on your tongue.
I love drizzling Cholula over a pizza with Mexican toppings like chorizo, jalapenos, and corn kernels.
Tapatio Hot Sauce
Another Mexican-style hot sauce, Tapatio, is the product of the American dream.
Invented by Mexican immigrant Jose-Luis Saavedra in 1971 in California, Tapatio Hot Sauce remains the most common staple for Mexican American families.
Tapatio uses garlic, red peppers, and Mexican spices to elaborate a mild hot sauce that is more flavorful than spicy.
I’d recommend Tapatio for more timid palates that may have reservations about dousing their slice with a hotter alternative.
I like putting Tapatio hot sauce over a white pizza. It brings out the garlic and roasted red pepper without searing your tongue.
Melinda’s Pizza Hot Sauce
A newer, trendier hot sauce company, Melinda’s has a whopping 32 flavors of hot sauces to choose from.
Whether you want Mexican, Thai, or Indian, Melinda’s hot sauces represent every spicy culture.
Their hot sauces also represent every level of hotness, using the most varieties of chili peppers as any hot sauce company on my list.
Melinda’s Pizza Hot Sauce is on the mild end of the spicy spectrum, using a mixture of sweet roasted red peppers with dried cayenne peppers.
It has garlic in three iterations, so you’ll get a flavorful spice from the garlic plus a hot spice from the cayenne.
Considering Melinda’s made a hot sauce specifically for pizza, they get my vote of confidence.
Red Clay Original Hot Sauce
Named for the red clay fields of Georgia, where founder and chef Geoff Rhyne grew up, Red Clay hot sauce started in an oyster house kitchen.
Chef Rhyne invented a proprietary oyster dish using a new concoction of Fresno chilies and aged vinegar.
The sauce was so popular that Rhyne decided to leave the restaurant kitchen behind to dedicate his efforts to creating the tastiest line of artisanal hot sauces.
While there are now numerous varieties of Red Clay hot sauces, the original reigns supreme.
For me, the barrel-aged vinegar gives it a distinct sweet tang. You get all the flavor of the chilies without any of the heat.
Not only would I add a dash of Red Clay hot sauce to my pizza, but I would even use it as a base instead of tomato sauce.
SLAP YA MAMA All Natural Louisiana Style Hot Sauce
If names were the deciding factor for hot sauces, Slap Ya Mama has my unequivocal vote.
Founded in 2001 by the Walker family, Slap Ya Mama All Natural Louisiana style hot sauce is an authentic taste of Southern Louisiana Cajun cuisine.
The secret family recipe doesn’t divulge what peppers supply the heat, but you can count on a Cajun flavor profile using all-natural ingredients and no MSG.
It’s a vinegar-based hot sauce with plenty of black pepper and garlic.
Just as Cholula is on every pizzeria’s table in Mexico, Slap Ya Mama is as ubiquitous as red pepper flakes and parmesan shakers at Louisiana pizza joints.
I love putting it on pizza with shrimp, bell peppers, and caramelized onions.
