The New $2.99 Trader Joe’s Find I’m Putting on Everything

Calling my husband a hot sauce enthusiast would be an understatement. They take up a serious amount of real estate in our fridge and pantry, and I’ve become resigned to watching the collection continue to grow.

When I spotted Spicy Dynamite Sauce on the end cap of new items at Trader Joe’s last week, I knew it would end up in my house the minute Brendan saw it in the store. 

Why I Love Trader Joe’s Spicy Dynamite Sauce

I’m not a huge spice head myself. I can handle about a “medium” level of heat, while Brendan often goes for the spiciest item on the menu. So it came as a surprise that we’re both happy with the heat level of this sauce.

Upon cracking open the bottle and taking a taste, his eyebrows went up, a telltale sign that I might be in for more spice than I like. However, it was more of a “spicy for Trader Joe’s” sort of reaction. The sauce has a kick, more than my preschool-aged kids would enjoy, but not enough to send smoke pouring out of your ears.

The Spicy Dynamite Sauce’s flavor is Asian-inspired and tastes like a cross between eel sauce and sriracha mayo. It has a nice kick of heat, rounded out with nutty sweetness from toasted sesame oil. I’ve used it as a dip for kimbap and drizzled it on top of okonomiyaki, which were both good flavor combos. You could certainly squeeze it onto a sushi roll or poke bowl, and it’d be delicious.

For me, the only place this sauce falters is in its texture. Being a vegan sauce, it relies on modified tapioca starch and xanthan gum for thickening. After refrigerating, it congeals into a much thicker texture that becomes a bit challenging to squeeze out of the bottle.

However, we’ll use up this whole bottle of tasty sauce, just not as a dip. My favorite way to enjoy it so far is as a glaze for lightly-breaded chicken pieces. After air frying a couple of servings, I tossed them in a bowl with about a tablespoon of the sauce until all of the pieces were evenly coated with a glossy layer of delicious, spicy flavor. They disappeared in seconds.

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