3 Easy Ways To Seriously Spice Up Store-Bought Ranch

After delving into what made Taco Bell's ranch sauce better than the rest, we've honestly never looked at ranch the same again. Adding a spicy kick to ranch will revolutionize the way you approach your sauce game. The subtle hint of heat immediately followed by the cooling properties of the creamy dressing makes this dip perfect for everything from french fries to egg sandwiches. And making your own spicy ranch sauce is a great way to add some depth of flavor and moisture to any crispy, greasy dish.

The best thing about making your own spicy ranch sauce is that it's extremely easy to do. All you need is your hot sauce of choice and your favorite store-bought ranch, and you're ready to go. If you're not brand loyal, check out our store-bought ranch rankings — there were a lot of great options, but Trader Joe's Buttermilk Ranch Dressing took the top spot. Spicy ranch is a good recipe to experiment with, so we recommend trying out different versions of hot sauces until you find the best flavor combination. We listed a few of our winners below, but we highly encourage you to walk your own fiery path to tasty town.

Harissa is a hot chili paste you'll mostly see served alongside Middle Eastern and North African dishes. Think of harissa as a condiment that you'd use for dipping bread, spicing up soups, and even marinating meats. Typically made with red chilies, an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, garlic, and spices native to North Africa and the Middle East like cumin, coriander, and caraway seeds, some people describe harissa as similar to ketchup mixed with sriracha. For comparison, harissa hits between 4,000 – 5,000 on the Scoville scale, while sriracha is on the lower end of the Scoville heat scale at 2,500 – 5,000 units.

If you're interested in combining harissa with your ranch dressing, we recommend starting with 1-2 tablespoons of harissa to ¾ cup of ranch, which will give you a nice balance between the spice and the cream. If you want more spice or smokiness, then add another half-tablespoon until you hit the right amount. Harissa is known for its smoky, garlicky notes, which makes it an excellent dip to serve alongside a roasted veggie dish featuring carrots, broccoli, and potatoes. The peppery notes in the harissa, mixed with the tangy zip of the ranch, bring a whole new depth of flavor to your roasted veggies. Throw your veggies and harissa sauce over rice with some roasted chickpeas and kale, and you've got yourself a unique, tasty, and healthy harissa bowl.

Chipotles in adobo may come in an adorably small can, but they pack a seriously big flavor. Consisting of jalapeno peppers that have been dried, smoked, and preserved in a spicy, tangy, sweet adobo sauce, chipotles in adobo are often found in Mexican dishes. Similar to harissa, this saucy paste brings a smoky flavor but has a much wider variation in spice, sitting between 2,000 – 10,000 units on the Scoville heat scale.

To make your chipotles in adobe ranch sauce, we recommend starting with ⅔ or ¾ cups of ranch as your creamy base. Before adding the chipotles, you will want to break down the peppers with a hand blender or food processor. We recommend just doing the whole can to get all of the flavors and spices, then adding your chipotles in adobo paste a tablespoon at a time to your ranch. Because this is a Tex-Mex-inspired dipping sauce, it goes excellently with Tex-Mex dishes, especially things like breakfast tacos or breakfast burritos; eggs are the perfect base for any of these spicy ranch sauces. Chipotle pairs excellently with chicken, which would make this the perfect topper on homemade chicken nachos.

For this final hot sauce recommendation, we draw from the culinary traditions of the American South, specifically New Iberia, Louisiana, where Frank's Red Hot Sauce was invented. The most prominent tasting note in Frank's RedHot Sauce is vinegar. As a core ingredient that gives Buffalo wings their signature spice, Frank's is made with distilled vinegar, aged cayenne red peppers, paprika, garlic, and some butter-like flavoring. Of all of the spicy sidekicks we've discussed today, Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce has the lowest Scoville rating at just 450 units, but other brand offerings go up to 2,000 units. Like with the others, start out with a tablespoon or two of the hot sauce before upping your quantity to taste.

Frank's flavor-packed and fermented characteristics feel like a match made in heaven with the cool and refreshing properties of buttermilk (or sour cream) and mayo. Frank's even has its own pre-mixed Buffalo Ranch Sauce. When it comes to recipe ideas, this sauce goes with literally everything. If you're new to the spicy ranch game, we recommend using your Frank's RedHot ranch as a drizzle on top of some avocado toast, a french fry dip, or a breakfast sandwich topper.