Hot sauce and pizza go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are the perfect combination! Some people put hot sauce on everything, and others can’t stand the heat. We fall somewhere in the middle and like to put hot sauce on our favorite food, pizza.
We personally use Dave’s Gourmet hot sauce and Lao Gan Ma on our pizzas. While we wouldn’t call them the best hot sauce for homemade pizza, we are a little biased.
But since there are so many different hot sauces on the market, and we love to try new things, we decided to try a variety of hot sauces to see which ones pair best with our favorite pizzas.
Why People Love Hot Sauce
Why do some people love hot sauce and others can’t handle the tiniest bit of heat? It has nothing to do with DNA and more to do with exposure. If someone was exposed at an early age, they might have acquired the taste.
For example, in Mexico, children often eat mango lollipops covered in chili powder. So as they get older, they have developed a taste for picante.
According to science, the reason some people love hot sauce is as simple as endorphins. When you eat hot sauce, your body registers pain, and to combat pain, the body releases endorphins which make you feel good.
There is even some research that suggests that people who enjoy spicy foods have more thrill seeker personalities and enjoy the pleasure-pain connection.
If you love hot sauce, you know it’s the perfect addition to pizza. The pizza profile is fairly simple: bread, cheese, and tomato sauce. Acidic hot sauce adds the perfect tanginess to pizza.
So whether you learned to love it as a kid or just love the excitement of burning your mouth with spicy sauce, you will love to read that hot sauce is a great addition to a healthy diet.
Benefits of Hot Sauce
Eating hot sauce as part of your regular diet can:
- Boost metabolism
- Increase heart health
- Reduce inflammation linked to obesity
- Lower cholesterol and blood pressure
So, don’t shy away from the hot sauce on pizza. Embrace the heat for your health! Or maybe check with your doctor first.
Hot Sauce and Pizza Recommendations
Here are a few of the different hot sauce and pizza pairings we tried. They are really all amazing on pizza! Some are a little hotter than others. We tried to find the scoville scale for each of the hot sauce pizza options listed, but couldn’t find them all. (If you know a good place to find them, let us know!)
So if you’re new to hot sauce, make sure to taste a tiny bit before you douse your pizza. Which one is the absolute best hot sauce with pizza? We’ll let you decide.
Pineapple Hot Sauces for Homemade Pizza
We love hot and sweet together. And these hot sauces do not disappoint. While still being mild in our mouths, some of you will probably reach your hotness level with these hot sauces on pizza. No matter where you stand on the pineapple on pizza debate, you will love pineapple hot sauce. We even double up sometimes putting a pineapple-infused hot sauce on a pineapple pizza. Genius.
Heartbeat Hot Sauce – Pineapple Habanero
($11.95-ish)
If you are ready to take a step up from sriracha sauce, this pineapple habanero hot sauce is a good place to start. It’s more sweet than hot, but that’s not to say it isn’t hot. It’s delicious on a Hawaiian pizza.
Country: Canada
Bottle Size: 6 ounces
Scoville Heat Units: 12,200
Pineapple Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
($9.99-ish)
What’s better than one tropical fruit in your hot sauce? Well, two tropical fruits, of course, including both pineapple and mango. This sauce blends the tropical with the fiery ghost pepper. Because it leans a little sweet, it works well with pepperoni or supreme pizzas.
Country: USA (MN!)
Bottle Size: 6 ounces
Scoville Heat Units: 4,000 (They call it “Hell” level)
Celeste’s Pineapple Mango Habanero
($7.99-ish)
This hot sauce combines mango, pineapple, lime, beer, tequila, and spices. It’s a party of flavors that enhances any pizza. We loved it on a veggie pizza.
Country: USA
Bottle Size: 5 ounces
Scoville Heat Units: Unknown
Habanero Hot Sauces on Pizza
Habanero chilies come from Mexico and can be green, orange, or red. The color is based on the maturity of the pepper and not the heat level. Habaneros are hotter than jalapeños and are commonly used in Central and South American cuisine.
And when not mixed with sweet pineapples from the previous section, you can really start to feel the heat with these hot sauces on pizza.
This hot habanero sauce is a wonderfully simple hot sauce that is made with humble ingredients. It combines habanero peppers, dates, mangos, and spices. It’s a medium heat sauce with tons of flavor. It is perfect on a meat lover’s pizza.
O’Brothers, Habanero Hot Sauce
Smokey chipotle flavors and extra heat make this a stand-out sauce. If you like it hot, this will do you just fine. Because of its intensity, it works well with a simple white pizza or Margarita pizza.
Siete Habanero Hot Sauce with Flax, Chia & ACV
Probably the healthiest hot sauce on the list, this sauce adds flax, chia, and apple cider vinegar to their hot sauce recipe. Put it on a cheese pizza to give it some depth. It’s also yummy on a veggie pizza with artichokes.
Ghost Pepper Hot Sauces on Homemade Pizza
Ghost peppers are a hybrid chili pepper from Northern India. They are considered one of the hottest peppers in the world. Because they are so hot, they are usually mixed with other ingredients, so you get some different flavors and not just a mouth-numbing heat.
Purple Pulsar Ghost Pepper and Blueberry Hot Sauce
Blueberries in hot sauce is not as strange as it sounds. The tartness of the blueberries matches well with the hot peppers creating a unique experience for your tastebuds. It’s good on mushroom and prosciutto pizza. The saltiness of the prosciutto is perfect with tart blueberries and hot peppers.
Pepper Joe’s Ghost Pepper BBQ Sauce
You can use this BBQ sauce for dipping slices or even as a base for a BBQ chicken pizza. Brown sugar makes the sauce sweet, and the hickory smokey flavor balance out the heat. But it’s still hot enough to satisfy heat seekers.
Adoboloco Hot Sauce Kolohekid Hawaiian Hot Ghost Pepper Chili Sauce
Be careful with this one. The heat sneaks up on you. The flavor convinces you to use more, and then the heat tackles your tastebuds. It’s a thin sauce similar to the consistency of Tabasco but so much hotter. This works with any pizza.
Carolina Reaper Pepper Hot Sauces for your Pizza
The Carolina reaper is considered one of the world’s hottest peppers. It has double the heat of the hottest ghost pepper. So try these hot sauces but be warned.
Black Garlic And Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce by Bravado Spice Co.
The garlic tampers the heat and lets the flavor shine through in this sauce. If you are new to extreme hot sauce, this is a good starter reaper to try. It works well with pepperoni, sausage, or Supreme pizzas.
Thai Green Carolina Reaper by Seed Ranch
This green hot sauce has a refreshing light flavor. It is made with lemongrass, lime, and a combination of spices. The burn is slow but not overpowering. This would go well with a Thai pizza or a veggie pizza.
Foo Foo Mama Choo Hot Sauce with Smoking Ed’s Carolina Reaper Pepper
This is an all-around great hot sauce that works on almost everything. It’s thicker than some of the others because of the roasted tomatoes. It’s flavorful, but most importantly, it’s hot. Since it’s a heavier hot sauce, it’s an excellent addition to a pepperoni or sausage pizza.
So there you have it, the best hot sauce and pizza combinations. On your next pizza night, get creative, play a game of Hot Ones, and try some different sauces to see which ones have enough heat for your favorite pizza.
If you want to learn how to make your own hot sauce, check out this book with some great tips on making hot sauce at home. In addition, take a peek at one of our other guides for pairing beverages like beer and wine.
Have you tried any of these hot sauces? What’s your favorite hot sauce and pizza pairing?
