AVERY ISLAND, La. – More US consumers are adding heat to their meat at home. The NPD Group, Port Washington, NY, reported that 56 percent of US households have hot sauce on hand in their kitchens. Now more than ever, consumers’ desire for spice has left the kitchen, with more culinary professionals turning to hot sauce to add complexity to their dishes.
To help chefs achieve this flavor fusion, the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand hot sauces, partnered with Farmington Foods to create a line of new barbecue meats paired with Tabasco pepper sauce flavors. The new line features baby back pork ribs, boneless pork ribs and chicken drumsticks.
“Barbecue and Tabasco brand Original Red Sauce are two iconic American foods that naturally complement each other,” Judson McLester, corporate chef of McIlhenny Company, said in a news release. “We were thrilled to work with Farmington Foods to develop this line of barbecue pork ribs and chicken drumsticks, new to the foodservice space. We used our dry industrial ingredients to develop the rub, as well as our Original Red and Chipotle Pepper Sauces to create two distinct barbecue sauces. We’ve also worked with them to create a chicken drumstick using the Tabasco brand Green Jalapeño Pepper Sauce.”
The meats are fully cooked and only require reheating before serving. The product was designed to make traditional barbecue convenient and easy for culinary professionals to prepare.
“We wanted to make barbecue accessible for chefs and operators who don’t have the time or access to the right equipment to smoke barbecue back of house,” Anthony Baker of Farmington Foods said. “Tabasco brand has a great reputation and we knew it would be a great fit, especially as spices and heat become more popular.”
