I was asked to try out a couple of the new limited edition Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauces; the Jack Daniel’s Extra Hot Habanero and the Jack Daniel’s Hot Pepper Steak Sauce. I decided to celebrate a sunny weekend by having a barbecue at home with friends and family.
I don’t know about your home town but where I live in Manchester, a decent percentage of new restaurants opening are serving American style barbecue; food inspired by programmes like Man V Food and Diners, Drive ins & Dives. It’s tempting, especially during the summer barbecue season to try to recreate some of those Deep South tastes at home.
We picked up some ribeye steaks from our local butchers, and marinaded them in the Jack Daniel’s Hot Pepper Steak Sauce for an hour or so before they went on the barbecue. The sauce is blended with jalapeño peppers and is supposed to be a sweet but spicy sauce. We tried it before the steak was cooked and it was both very sweet and very spicy.
Once the steaks were cooked to perfection the boys rigorously taste tested both the sauce (and steaks). The husband loved the sauce and said the barbecue had burnt off a lot of the heat and helped enhance the smokey sweetness of the sauce, my Dad who had the second steak, found it a bit on the hot side for him, but both steaks were polished off quickly and efficiently.
I rather brazenly drizzled a large amount of the Jack Daniel’s Extra Hot Habanero sauce on my veggie burger. It was a bold move given the spice level, but I managed to eat it and enjoy it. Yes, it was most definitely at the hottest end of my tolerance scale, but I still enjoyed the smokey undertones and the hint of barbecue sweetness in the sauce.
These sauces are not for the faint hearted. They make a fairly large range of Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauces, and some aren’t face meltingly hot. Some are spicy, some are sweet and some are smokey; so it’s worth having a look and seeing what might float your boat if you’re after buying a barbecue sauce. The Jack Daniel’s Smooth Original Barbecue sauce and the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Barbecue Glaze have both been a standard condiment in our fridge. I tend to smother almost anything with them, but they are for those who don’t want a sauce that will blow their head off.
Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauces are available from most major supermarkets. More information is available on their website.