The Key To A Hot Sauce Marinade With Balanced Flavor Starts With The Ingredients

Using a marinade is an easy way to give meat more flavor and tenderness with just a handful of ingredients. Most marinades include aromatics, seasonings, something for acidity like lemon juice or wine, a touch of sweetness, and a neutral oil to bring it all together. Sometimes, you might want to add hot sauce to the mixture in order to elevate a dish like grilled chicken with something spicy, but how much hot sauce is key to balanced flavors? It varies by your heat tolerance, but there's an ideal way to start, says Noah Chaimberg, founder & CEO of Heatonist, a popular hot sauce brand featured on "Hot Ones."

"It's a tricky balance to strike, but when you use high quality ingredients they will hold their flavor better," Chaimberg explains. "A good general rule of thumb is to start small and taste as you go (before adding the meat)." Pay attention to that last part about only tasting the marinade for heat levels before you add the meat because it will be raw and could pose health risks — you want to focus on creating a delicious marinade as opposed to getting sick later.

If you don't have a go-to marinade, we have some options that will sing with hot sauce. For red meat, try our tenderizing steak marinade recipe with umami-rich ingredients like soy sauce and minced garlic. If chicken is on tonight's menu, add hot sauce to our expertly marinated baked chicken recipe that could be applied to any other dish with poultry.

You'll also want to match your hot sauce to everyone's spice preferences, maybe with one of Heatonist's hot sauces that launched in grocery stores nationwide earlier this year. If you have a low heat tolerance, consider mild hot sauces from brands like Siete, Louisiana Hot Sauce, and Texas Pete. To really turn up the heat, use hot sauces like Dragon in the Clouds and Mad Dog, which contain peppers that rank higher on the Scoville scale. For more options, we've got you covered with our ranking of the best store-bought hot sauces, including this serrano and green habanero option from Secret Aardvark.

When it's time to add the hot sauce, remember to start slow. Like Noah Chaimberg says, "You can always add more hot sauce!" But in the beginning go with a few dashes of your chosen sauce and gradually add more to taste so you don't overwhelm the marinade. For a more accurate suggestion, use 3 tablespoons of hot sauce for every ½ cup of oil in the bowl, or start with 1 tablespoon for marinades that include other spicy ingredients like cayenne pepper or red chili flakes.