Give Burger King Whoppers A Spicy Upgrade With One Classic Sauce

The Whopper might be the most-customizable burger in fast food, with Burger King confirming that there are over 200,000 ways customers can make the sandwich their own. And while many of these involve loading the Whopper up with tons of ingredients, this hack gives BK's flagship burger a spicy upgrade by adding one classic sauce — Sriracha. 

Sriracha is a hot sauce with Thai roots that stole American hearts, and it's the perfect addition to your Whopper. The new-and-improved Burger King Whopper comes with a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, and sliced onions. Sriracha adds heat to the mix without overpowering your taste buds, since it packs more flavor than heat (measured on the Scoville scale, the hottest Sriracha sauce will only be as spicy as the mildest bottle of tabasco). This means you can enjoy your spicy Whopper, rather than battle your way through it.

This is a tried-and-tested combination at Burger King. In Portugal, the fast food chain has a Spicy Whopper on its menu, which uses Sriracha sauce on top of the other traditional ingredients. In Estonia, it sells a Sriracha Chili dip. Unfortunately, there's no Sriracha available at American Burger Kings right now, which means this is a DIY upgrade — so either carry your bottle to a Burger King outlet near you, or order in and eat your spicy Whopper in the comfort of your home.

Sriracha sauce is a versatile condiment that can be used in many creative ways, and it's no surprise that Burger King has experimented with using it in its American outlets. Burger King sold an Extra Long Sriracha Cheeseburger over a decade ago. According to a Fox News report from 2015, the sandwich was served on a toasted hoagie bun, and came with two flame-grilled patties, melted American cheese, lettuce, and onions, topped with a spicy Sriracha flavored sauce.

It got mixed reviews. "It was light on flavor with a decent stinging heat and a fermented vinegary tang that reminded me more of Korean gochujang than Sriracha," Brand Eating wrote. The Cap Times said that without the hot sauce, this was just another fast food hamburger, adding: "Burger King needed to add something else into the mix to make it truly unique." The reviewer on The Endorsement on YouTube was more impressed. "That Sriracha definitely has a kick to it. I will not lie," he said, quickly noting that the sandwich was well balanced overall: "It's spicy enough, but it doesn't take away from anything else."

Back to the Whopper. If you're keen to try the spicy variant, but not so keen on bringing your own bottle of Sriracha, you can also upgrade the classic with Burger King's Zesty sauce, which has a horseradish kick that tastes great with onion rings and is even better on a burger.