Getting Saucy in Chicago

Things are getting saucy in Chicago. Chef-made bottled sauces are more prominent than ever, allowing customers to take a piece of potent restaurant flavor home to their pantries. Or if they’re feeling generous, to give as gifts. From a bourbon barrel-aged barbecue sauce to a whole line of zesty hot sauces, here are some saucy bottles to pick up this weekend.

December 7 marks the debut of Lillie’s Q’s limited edition bourbon barrel-aged Carolina Gold. It all starts with chef Charlie McKenna’s love for the Carolina Gold barbecue sauce, his favorite of the sauces he makes for Lillie’s Q. In seeking to up the ante on his beloved sauce, he placed it inside a charred oak barrel from Heaven Hill Distilleries and aged it for six months. In a beautiful full-circle move, Heaven Hill is also the distillery responsible for Lillie’s Q’s private-label bourbon, so the same barrel that provides the booze provides the base for the sauce. This hot commodity is only available for purchase at the restaurant beginning at 11:00 am. December 7, so make like a Black Friday shopper and get there early.

When one sauce just doesn’t cut it, there’s a whole slew of them at Die De Los Tamales, Pilsen’s preeminent purveyor of all things masa and corn husk. The roster of sauces is courtesy of chef Keith Carlson. He’s been making his own hot sauces for years, starting with Dia De Los Tamales’ notorious Apocalypse Sauce, so named for its inclusion of explosive ghost peppers. “As a fan of hot sauces, it was nice to know that I could make something that had amazing flavor, even while it burned your face off,” says Carlson. From here, he progressed to fresh pepper hot sauces as holiday gifts (hint: you can do the same!), and acquiring the Dia De Los Tamales space afforded him the opportunity to broaden his hobby. An important element for him is that the focus of the sauces is on the flavor of the food going into the sauce. “Flavorful sauces that are an amalgamation of foods and spices to produce something pleasant are great, but for me it’s about capturing the true flavors and heat.” The chef creates and bottles a lineup of sauces at the shop so as to highlight and augment his various tamale offerings. The roster currently stands at six, with Apocalypse Sauce, jalapeño-based Riot Sauce, smoked serrano-based Molotov Sauce, habanero-based Meltdown Sauce, hot pepper- and garlic-infused Ajo en Fuego, and chile de arbol-based Tree Sauce.

Lillie’s Q
1856 W North Avenue, Chicago
(773) 772-5500
Website

Dia De Los Tamales
939 W 18th Street, Chicago
(312) 496-3057
Website