Popeyes Is Responsible For The Worst Fast Food Signature Sauce: Avoid This Flavor

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A fast food chain's signature dipping sauce can become as iconic as its star menu items. What's a Taco Bell bean burrito without an extra squirt of hot sauce on every bite, or McDonald's french fries without a coating of sweet-and-sour sauce? Ketchup may be a more popular choice, but you can get ketchup anywhere. All this to say, Chowhound ranked a whopping 19 fast food signature sauces to determine which restaurants are getting it right, and which could revisit their saucy recipes.

There was quite a bit of variety to the sauces, covering everything from mustard makeovers to horseradish heroes. Topping out the list is Whataburger's spicy ketchup, which has a laudable balance of sweetness and spice. Somewhat ironically, the worst of the sauces is Popeyes' Sweet Heat, another sweet-and-spicy blend that somehow gets the balance all wrong. The sauce is sweetened with both honey and sugar, but the prominent sweetness that hits the palate first is quickly overwhelmed by an unrelenting spice. Of course, people have a wide range of tolerance when it comes to spice levels. Over on Reddit, users volley back and forth over whether the sauce is shockingly spicy or unimpressively mild. Several proclaim it to be their favorite sauce, but recommend mixing it with milder condiments if you need to tone down the heat.

Chowhound's ranking focuses on the standalone flavor of the sauces themselves, not necessarily on how they accompany fries, chicken, and the like. It's possible that Popeyes' Sweet Heat sauce evens out once paired up with one of Popeyes' famous fried chicken pieces. Even if this sauce is never your personal winner, Popeyes has plenty to recommend, from Anthony Bourdain's favorite spicy fried chicken dinner to Popeyes' best chicken sandwich (the golden barbecue). If you do count yourself among Sweet Heat's fans, you can buy a bottle of Popeyes Sweet Heat dipping sauce to keep on-hand at home.

In addition to the Sweet Heat sauce, Popeyes has several more dips to choose from with names that convey a playful, creative note that may make you curious to learn more. Its Mardi Gras Mustard, for example, outranked Sweet Heat in Chowhound's ranking at No. 11 (still not great, although you may love it if you're a horseradish fan). Other offerings include Wild Honey Mustard (honeyed Creole mustard), blackened ranch, and Bayou Buffalo.