Update: Click here to read our McDonald’s Hot Habanero Sauce review
According to Justin over at An Immovable Feast…well, actually, according to Justin’s brother, McDonald’s has released a new spicy habanero sauce for you to dip your McNuggets, McBites, Chicken Selects, or if you’re daring, your tongue in.
Update: Click here to read a review
Habanero chili peppers are rated 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale, making them more than ten times hotter than a jalapeño pepper and something you might see contestants eat on Fear Factor now that it’s back again.
This isn’t the first time a major fast food chain has tried to incorporate habanero into their menu. Last year, Carl’s Jr. tested a burger with habanero sauce. I’m not sure if McDonald’s is testing the sauce or is planning a nationwide rollout, but Southern California, where these sauces have been found, is one of areas where McDonald’s tests new menu items.
If you’ve tried the new McDonald’s Hot Habanero Sauce, let us know how frightened our mouths should be in the comments below. Also, where you found them.
Update: Pictures of the sauce in the comments below.
I tasted the new Habanero dipping sauce from McDonalds with the new Chicken McBites. The chicken mcbites are good with any sauce, however the habanero sauce is like a buttermilk ranch with a hint of habanero oils. This sauce has an acquired taste for some people. It tasted like a ranch dressing with specks of habanero.
When I first dipped into my chicken mcbites, it always pops with spicy hot flavor on the front of my tongue, and then it mellows as you chew the chicken. So it doesn’t blend well the flavors between these two.
I didn’t like it. Some people say that it is good and something different. So it really depends if you like it or not.
McDonald’s is so mainstream, bland and boring, there is no way they’d release a sauce that is literally as spicy as habanero. I’d expect about what JM said it was – ranch dressing with a hint of habanero flavor, but almost none of the heat.
Sort of like their “chipotle” barbecue sauce, that had almost no chipotle flavor or heat, and was loaded with sugar.
(Click my “website” to see a hosted picture of the sauce.)
Just tried the habanero sauce today with the McBites. The lid on the sauce reminds me of something that would have been affiliated with the ’90s-era Ninja Turtles cartoon: it’s got a thick black border with a lime green center (which fades to black on the top left corner), with “HOT habanero sauce” written on a diagonal in reddish-orange bubble letters.
But the sauce.
JM was right to say it seems to have a ranch base (and, looking at the first few ingredients, that seems to be exactly what it it is: soybean oil, water, corn syrup solids, distilled vinegar, buttermilk powder, egg yolks).
The sauce was creamy, but a little tangier than I expected. It has some heat–pretty good for a fast food sauce–but not enough that I needed a swig of water. (Granted, I order my Thai food hot, so maybe my evaluation is off.) I’d say it’s roughly as hot as the “Inferno” hot sauce from Del Taco; it’s definitely hotter than anything at Taco Bell.
Honestly, I really liked the sauce! I’m a sucker for anything spicy, and the flavor on this was pretty solid. Went well with the McBites too (and I seemed to have gotten lucky with lots of meaty Bites, and almost no batter-only pieces, which some other people have complained about).
Image of the Ninja Turtles sauce top: http://i51.tinypic.com/291z3ly.jpg
Sauce closeup: http://i55.tinypic.com/vwzlsw.jpg
Thanks for the images!
I have had hotter, but I admit it is adicting. I recently made a sandwich at home and used it. It was grest. Love it for the Mcbites. I love stuff so hot it makes me cry. This didn’t.
I tried the Habanero sauce while traveling through Raleigh NC recently. I loved it. Unfortunately, I have been in about 10 other major markets since and they do not have it. I hate when McD’s does that.
I tried it today with the McBites, and I loved them both. I also got pretty lucky with the larger pieces of chicken as opposed to mostly batter ones. The sauce was creamy and tangy, with a bit of spice. I really liked it. Then again, I like my sauce to be spicy, but not spicy to the point where I have to take a sip between bites. It’s certainly not as good as BBW’s Mango Habanero, but it was great for a fast food sauce.
I found it in Fayetteville North Carolina.
I love the habanero sauce I put it on my fries, chicken sandwitch , and take it home and use! I get it from McD’s in Wilmington, North Carolina!
i tried this sauce with the nuggets. it is insanely hot! burning my mouth after only one dip/one bite. had to stop and drink milk and eat some cooling yogurt. it is 40 minutes later and after 6 dipped nuggets my mouth is still stinging. why would anyone want to torture themselves like this. i will stick with the other sauce choices from now on.
oh, cornelius north carolina
l love this burger!. Best thing mcdonalds offers. bring on bonless, skinless wings!
Tried, and loved the new Habanero Ranch sauce. Not as hot as a “real habanero pepper” but for a sauce quite satisfying to the taste. From now on, I will only get the Habanero sauce when I eat my nuggets at MacDonalds, and if I can get the sauce on their hamburgers I definitely will use them as well (assuming the store allows me to get the sauce for that).
I have try the Habanero Ranch Sauce today from McDonalds my Husband and I love it.
I have built a tolerance to it for I no longer feel the heat still like it though
The Habanero Ranch Sauce is good but needs to be much more spicy, coming from a guy who is addicted to spicy food.
McDonalds is discontinuing the habanero ranch dipcups in California, I’m not sure about the rest of the country. Sad for me because it’s my favorite sauce for the ever so boring egg white delight morning sandwich.
McDonald’s habanero sauce is exactly what you’d expect it to be… Wimpy, pseudo-sauce that boasts little-to-no real heat and instead goes the cheap route by overwhelming the tastebuds with a noxious, over-vinegary flavor. It’s for the sort of people who never made it past cheap, flavorless Tabasco sauce growing up and don’t know what constitutes a real, quality hot sauce or dip.
Yep, heard the Habanera ranch, my favorite sauce for my McNuggets, has bit the dust here in Cleveland Ohio area! I am very disappointed! Best dipping sauce the offered, so now I am on the hunt for some store bought brand! Thanks McD’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are upping prices!! And dummy downing your menu choices!!! You will be losing your #1 Fast Food spot very soon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love it so much, I literally just finished eating some wings that I made with the sauce. I can handle spicy stuff, it’s actually a tad spicy and pretty yummy. 10/10 haha. I want a full bottle of it.