6 keto-friendly hot sauces we love (and 2 we avoid!)
This post was originally published on January 6, 2019, and updated on November 3, 2022 with new information and insights.
The ketogenic diet nixes many of our favorite foods: pasta, rice, potatoes, bread… the list goes on! When you follow this way of eating, it’s more important than ever to have your fridge and pantry stocked with yummy low carb condiments so you can mix things up with every meal!
The ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein diet with very limited carbohydrates. A typical ketogenic meal will be rich in fats and protein – meaning lots of tasty meat, cheese, nuts, and avocados. However, many store-bought seasonings and condiments are full of hidden sugars, making them off limits.
So if most condiments are off-limits… is hot sauce keto-friendly?
Luckily, most hot sauces are ketogenic-friendly, meaning that they are no carb or very low carb. Some hot sauces, like the classic Huy Fong Sriracha, do have sugar listed as an ingredient.
However, even with hot sauces that include sugar, most don’t exceed 1 or 2 grams of total carbs per serving. This means that for ketogenic purposes, it is almost always okay to use. However, some keto-dieters completely avoid sugar as an added ingredient, in which case it’s important to look at the ingredients list of your favorite hot sauces.
Our favorite keto-friendly hot sauces
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1. Tapatio
Tapatio Salsa Picante is a great keto pick with zero calories and zero carbs per serving. This hot sauce does not have any added sugars, so you can feel free to use it liberally! You can add it to eggs, taco bowls, or in your favorite soup.
2. Marie Sharp’s Belizean Heat
Belizean Heat is one of my all-time favorite hot sauces — I love to eat it on keto-friendly pizza! This hot sauce has zero carbs in a 1-teaspoon serving, so it won’t affect your daily macros.
Click here to buy Belizean Heat.
3. Cholula
Cholula has a handful of flavors of hot sauce that are great if you are eating low-carb. The majority of them are zero carbs and zero sugar. Similar to Tapatio, Cholula of any flavor is amazing with nearly any savory food with a Mexican flavor palette.
4. Truff Black Truffle Hot Sauce
Truff is a lesser known brand that some of the others, but it’s making a big splash online. Their Black Truffle Hot Sauce has just 1g of carbs, with no added sugar.
5. Valentina Extra hot
Valentina is another one of my favorite hot sauces that I use on anything and everything. I always buy extra hot, but the regular is great too! Valentina has 0 calories and 0 carbs, making it the perfect pick when you eat low carb.
Click here to buy Valentina Extra hot.
6. Melinda’s
Melinda’s is a popular hot sauce brand that has tons of different flavors, and the good news is that most of them are perfectly fine on the keto diet. Their Fire Roasted Garlic & Habanero, Peri Peri, and Green Sauce all have 0 carbs and 0 calories.
Click here to buy Melinda’s hot sauce.
Hot sauces that may not be keto-friendly
While we can’t name every hot sauce that is not keto-friendly, there are a few major brands that you may want to avoid.
Yellowbird
We looked at 5 different flavors of Yellowbird hot sauce, and they had as much as 3g of carbs per serving, some with added sugars. While one single teaspoon probably won’t throw you out of ketosis, you may want to exercise extreme moderation with Yellowbird.
Huy Fong Sriracha
Sorry, Sriracha lovers, Huy Fong isn’t the best pick if you’re strictly low carb or ketogenic. Sriracha has 4g of carbs per serving, with 3g of added sugars.
How to use hot sauce on the ketogenic diet
In our biased opinion, hot sauce is great with any meal!
A low-carb marinade
Most bottled marinades are full of sugar, which limits your options when you’re on the keto diet. Hot sauce makes a great marinade (or ingredient of a marinade) for steak, pork, chicken, tofu, and other meats. Toss cubed steak in a ziplock bag with 1/4 cup of Tapatio or Cholula, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, and the juice from a fresh lime for spicy tacos!
Tangy salad dressings
Salad dressings are also notorious for hidden sugars, so it’s best to stick to cream-based dressings (like ranch or blue cheese), or make your own from scratch. Try mixing a dash of Chipotle Tabasco in your ranch, or a teaspoon of Yellow Bird in a homemade vinaigrette to level up your salad game.
Miss the mark on a new recipe? Spice it up
Most ketogenic recipes are written by bloggers, not chefs, which means that they often miss the mark when it comes to robust flavors. Hot sauce can resuscitate any variety of recipes that fall a little flat in the flavor department.
Other healthy reasons to include hot sauce in your keto diet
Not only is hot sauce a very low-carb condiment, but it also has other health benefits to supplement your ketogenic diet!
A recent study carried out by researchers at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands also showed that consumption of this spice leads to a decrease in the sense of appetite and helps to burn the calories contained in food.
Capsaicin, the substance found in chili peppers that causes the sensation of burning on the tongue, may also reduce the activity of ghrelin, the hormone produced by the cells of the stomach and pancreas which stimulates appetite. To put it simply: it may help you feel fuller for longer, without consuming extra calories.
Following the ketogenic diet doesn’t mean you have to shy away from using condiments and seasoning. Hot sauces are typically very low carb, which means they’re a perfect way to spice up any keto meal!
