4n6bbq presents: Franks RedHot Taster

This one is a bit of a departure from previous 4N6BBQ Presents tasters. We’re going into today’s cook knowing we’re not going to have super spicy sauces. We’re knowingly going commercial to see just how funny “XTRA HOT” isn’t really hot in the grand scheme of things. Frank’s RedHot is arguably the most popular (sales numbers) sauce within the United States. Let’s give ’em their due.

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The Reviews | Pellet Smoker Wings Recipe

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If you want to skip the cook and go right for the reviews, link above is for you. If you want the quick 1-pager of how to cook ’em, link above is for you. If you want to see how I prepped and cooked 8 pounds of chicken wings on a pellet smoker, then read on my friends.

The Cook

I’m still perplexed on how this works, but it works. In March 2026, I ended up paying $18 for 12lbs of wings. Ain’t nothing cheap anymore, but I took advantage of this deal. We were going BIG for this taster. We have 12 sauces to try, and 4 people to try ’em. So doing a little math, I’m looking at 48 drums/flats. We’re going to trim ’em up, chop the tip and split the wing.

So when it’s buy 1 get 2 free, I ended up with 36 wings. Had to go back and buy one more to get two more free. Freezer is loaded up with the spares, but we have to get prepping. Looking at a 1:30p cook, we want to make sure these birds get baking powder dusted for a few hours in the fridge.

Pat your birds dry, throw 10-12 wings in a gallon ziploc with 1-2Tbsp of baking powder and shake to coat. You see I sprinkled a little more powder on the half-pan, because I know for a fact (Check the Chicken Wing Gauntlet post) – the single layer dusted wing in the fridge dries out nicely. What I don’t know – and what we’ll find out today – is how stacking up this many wings (48 halves) in a half pan will turn out.

When you’re ready to start cooking, get the wings out of the fridge so they start to lose their chill. We don’t need ’em room temperature, but that temp should be coming up when we’re throwing them on the grate. Doug popped over early, so he helped me throw that ForensicBBQ Bird Rub on there. We did a sprinkle on the layered bird while in the pan. Put them seasoning side down on the grates and came back and hit ’em one last time. The birds should have some flavor in addition to the sauce.

Good color, smokey.. doesn’t have that grill/charcoal finishing taste, but if anything else, I want to show you what your RecTeq (or any Pellet Smoker) is capable of on its own. You’re here to see how we evaluated the sauces, so let’s do it.

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The Reviews

Each sauce got their own boat that we poured the sauce onto the wing over. Each taster got to put their desired amount of the wing. It left a puddle of sauce that we could come back and taste on its own to do a full slather. We don’t need to spin the wings in the sauce. We’re all adults here, taste how you want to taste it. Spoiler alert up front.. the top three are as follows:

Franks RedHot Original. Franks RedHot Xtra Hot. Franks RedHot Hot Buffalo Sauce. The general consensus for the McCormick’s/Frank’s crew: You have a solid sauce – the others maybe not so much. That being said – I left a couple on there that were listed on their website – but we couldn’t find anywhere. I reached out to Franks, and they didn’t respond.

Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wings Hot Sauce	We were looking forward to this one.. and we were kind of surprised by the reaction. This is the lone sauce to amplify the seasoning on the wings. The sauce itself was so weak and uneventful, it let the rub shine through. Fascinating magic this sauce had. Decent at best.
Frank’s RedHot Dill Pickle Naturally Flavored Hot Sauce	This was overpowering with the dill – but shouldn’t be a surprise given it’s a dill pickle hot sauce. Our review had it at surprisingly good. Because my ForensicBBQ Bird Rub relies on dill already, this sauce was very complementary. Can’t see too many uses besides wings and maybe a bloody mary. We thought it’d be ‘meh’, but came away happy with it. Zero heat, but an as-described flavor.
Frank’s RedHot Garlic Buffalo Wings Hot Sauce	This one kinda sucked. If we could taste the garlic, it was weak and fake flavored garlic. We couldn’t taste anything on this one besides vinegar. The only real positive we could come away with this one – is that it was better than just regular buffalo. Which was not saying much at all.
Frank’s RedHot Garlic Parmesan Wings Sauce	May not exist. Reached out to Franks/McCormicks with no response.
Frank’s RedHot General Tso Wings Sauce	We tried this one early on in the taster – and this did not set the tone we were hoping for. So very sugary. Two of us came away with “not great”. This was the first one we decided to try on its own without the chicken canvas and it was better – but still not great. Perhaps a good marinade for other meat products.
Frank’s RedHot Hot Buffalo Wings Hot Sauce	Far and away the best. This one had exactly what you want out of a chicken wing hot sauce. Has enough heat – but if you’re a spicehead, you’ll want more. It had the buttery flavor you’d want. If you want a Franks RedHot wing sauce, this is the one to buy.
Frank’s RedHot Mango Habanero Wings Sauce	I love that my only commentary for this one was “ass”. Had to request the group come up with a little bit more and it did not get any better. I like the “Not the worst”.. but it was bad. Everyone knows or is familiar with the mango habanero flavor – and this had neither mango nor habanero flavor that was pronounced. Skip this one. Even if it’s discounted, or free. Just no.
Frank’s RedHot Mild Wings Hot Sauce	May not exist. Reached out to Franks/McCormicks with no response. *22 May Update: This does exist, I located it at Walmart. Not going to withhold this post as of today, but may update it in the future*
Frank’s RedHot Nashville Hot Wing Sauce	Congratulations. This was not only the worst wing sauce today, it might be the worst wing sauce of all time. It wasn’t hot. It didn’t have flavor. It sure as hell was not “Nashville Hot”. I personally was looking forward to this one, and came away with “What happened..”. Junk. I’m getting angry at this sauce just typing about it.
Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce	This is the OG for a reason. Delicious. I don’t need to say anything more other than this is it.
Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili Hot Sauce	Absolutely zero spice. Wings may not be the best application unless played with – but was an excellent, flavorful sauce. I can’t see too many people tasting it and not enjoying whatever you’re making with it. Flip back to my Jake Melnick’s post.. could use this as a base. Nicely done, just wasn’t our favorite for a wing sauce.
Frank’s RedHot Stingin’ Honey Teriyaki Wing Sauce	I was kind of excited for this one too. Because it was something new and different. What we came away with was that it was super sugary, sweet – and very mild on teriyaki. Which was disappointing. Even though it comes from the “RedHot Wings” collection – we didn’t think Wings were the best application. Pork chop glaze? Rice/Hibachi? Would be way better.
Frank’s RedHot Spicy Maple Wings Sauce	May not exist. Reached out to Franks/McCormicks with no response.
Frank’s RedHot Smokin’ Sweet BBQ Wings Sauce	May not exist. Reached out to Franks/McCormicks with no response.
Frank’s RedHot Xtra Hot Sauce	My comment for this: “OG for adults”. If it was possible to make the Original sauce better, this is the result. If you have high heat tolerance, this one isn’t going to knock your socks off – but it was delicious enough to still have that OG taste with a little more heat. I’ll probably never buy OG again after comparing the two, but good on ya.
Frank’s RedHot Pineapple Hawaiian Wings Sauce	May not exist. Reached out to Franks/McCormicks with no response.
Frank’s RedHot Stingin’ Honey Garlic	This was another one we were looking forward to because it was unique. I don’t know if the “stingin” label on these sauces meant “sugar” – but the sweet was so noticeable, it was hard to ignore. However, this one had the best flavor of the sugar bombs. still weak on the heat scale, but was okay.

We hope you take our words to heart and this helps you when you go to your market for your next chicken wing sauce. If you did listen to us, you won’t have this experience:

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Pellet Smoker Wings Recipe