What Make's Dave's Hot Chicken Sauce So Unique?

For a franchise that began with nothing but a portable fryer and a few folding tables in a parking lot less than a decade ago, Dave's Hot Chicken has become something of a phenomenon. This can be attributed to numerous factors, from the quality of the chicken itself to the range of spice levels it offers, but one unique thing you'll find at Dave's Hot Chicken is the chain's sauce.

Dave's sauce is, as the name would suggest, a signature sauce — it's unique because you won't find it anywhere else. Immediately recognizable thanks to its distinctive orange hue, it has been compared to a mixture of Chick-fi-A sauce and the Zax sauce from Zaxby's, and praised for how well it complements pretty much any item on the Dave's Hot Chicken menu. Those who haven't tried it can expect the condiment to be creamy, tangy, peppery, and flavorful.

Depending on what you order, there are some cases where Dave's sauce is not just a pleasant addition to your meal, but a vital component. The chain has a spice scale of seven levels, with no spice being the lowest and the highest containing Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world until 2023. Dave's sauce will not only bring richness and flavor to your food, but will cut the heat and slow the burn you will experience if your order is on the hotter side. This makes it essential if you're brave enough to tackle the upper end of the spice scale. 

Comparing the signature sauces of Raising Cane's and Dave's Hot Chicken, Tasting Table's critic highlighted the sweetness, smokiness, and vinegary notes of its flavor, as well as the condiment's sheer thickness, writing: "This sauce globs onto just about anything you dip into it." If you have an especially sweet tooth, one hack that makes Dave's sauce even better is mixing in some of the honey that is available in packets from the franchise. Should the signature sauce not be to your taste, Dave's Hot Chicken also offers ranch, reaper ranch, Mike's hot honey, spicy BBQ, spicy buffalo, and cheese sauce.

As with many products unique to specific fast food chains, you will find a wealth of copycat recipes for Dave's sauce online, if you'd like to trying whipping up a batch at home. Common ingredients in these recipes include mayonnaise, chipotle sauce, and honey. Be warned, however, that as these recipes are unofficial, they may not fully recreate the authentic taste you can only find at the restaurant itself. If you decide to go straight to the source, be sure to consult our recommendations for which Dave's Hot Chicken menu items to order, and which to skip.