Summer Grilling Sauces: What to Put on Everything

Hot sauce on the grill is a different thing than hot sauce at the table. Heat behaves differently when it's cooked into food, the capsaicin mellows, the sugars caramelize, and the flavours meld with smoke and char. A sauce that's intensely hot straight from the bottle becomes something rounder and more complex after 10 minutes over charcoal. Here's how we use our sauces at every stage of the grilling process.

Marinades

A good grilling marinade needs acid, fat, salt, and flavour. Hot sauce covers the acid and flavour portions handily. Here's our all-purpose grilling marinade:

• 3 tbsp hot sauce (Smoky Chipotle for red meat and pork, Original Habanero for chicken and fish)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• Juice of one lime

Whisk together and pour over your protein in a zip-lock bag or shallow dish. Marinate chicken for 2 to 4 hours, pork for 4 to 8 hours, and beef for 1 to 2 hours (beef doesn't need as long because the muscle fibres are different). Don't marinate fish for more than 30 minutes or the acid will start to "cook" the flesh and make it mushy.

Basting

Basting with hot sauce during grilling builds layers of flavour and creates a gorgeous, lacquered exterior. Mix your chosen sauce 1:1 with melted butter for a baste that clings to meat and doesn't drip off immediately. Start basting in the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking. Earlier than that and the sugars in the sauce will burn before the meat is done.

For chicken pieces, baste every 3 minutes, turning each time, for the final 10 minutes. The result is a sticky, caramelized bark with building heat from the repeated sauce applications. Each layer bakes into the one before it.

Chicken

Bone-in, skin-on thighs are the best grilling chicken. They're nearly impossible to overcook, the skin crisps beautifully, and the fat keeps everything juicy. Marinate overnight in the habanero marinade above, then grill over medium-high indirect heat for 25 to 30 minutes. Finish with the butter-hot sauce baste over direct heat for the last 5 minutes. The habanero's fruity heat caramelizes into something incredible against the charred skin.

Ribs

Low and slow is the rule. We smoke ribs at 250 degrees for 4 to 5 hours using a charcoal-and-wood setup (post oak or hickory). No sauce until the last hour. Then brush with a mixture of equal parts our Smoky Chipotle and your favourite BBQ sauce, applying three coats over the final 45 minutes. The chipotle adds a pepper heat that commercial BBQ sauces lack, and the smoke in the sauce amplifies the smoke from the grill.

Vegetables

Don't overlook grilled vegetables with hot sauce. Corn on the cob, brushed with butter and our Garlic Serrano, is one of the best things we make all summer. Zucchini, bell peppers, and portobello mushrooms tossed with olive oil and a splash of Smoky Chipotle before grilling turn into something you'll eat before the meat is even ready. Grilled romaine lettuce (halved lengthwise, 2 minutes per side over high heat) with a drizzle of Caribbean Scotch Bonnet and crumbled queso fresco is a side dish that steals the show.

The Finishing Drizzle

Every plate that comes off the grill benefits from a final hit of sauce at the table. This is where you taste the sauce in its purest form, uncooked, bright, and punchy against the mellowed, smoky flavour of grilled food. Keep all four bottles on the table and let people choose their own heat level. Grilling is communal. The hot sauce should be too.