Hot chicken is one of the “it” foods of the 2020s. There’s Nashville hot chicken, Korean barbecue, and buffalo wings; really, the options are endless. So what can a chicken joint do to stand out in a crowded landscape? Well, you can be like the LA-based chain Dave’s Hot Chicken and make poultry so spicy that customers have to sign a waiver just to try it.
The chicken in question, at a spice level called the reaper, has captured the attention of the country, including the viral Reaper Challenge, but don’t be fooled – fans say this is no gimmick. The waiver states, rather ominously, “I acknowledge that eating the REAPER can cause me harm, including, but not limited to, bodily injury, property damage, emotional distress, or even death” (via Reddit).
The heat level can be applied to tenders and sliders, but not Dave’s Bites chicken nuggets. If you’re a sucker for pain but don’t mess with meat, don’t worry! Dave’s offers cauliflower tenders or sliders, which can also be ordered Reaper hot.
How hot is Reaper hot?
The Dave’s chicken comes in seven spice levels: no heat, lite mild, mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and Reaper. The Reaper comes in between 1.6 and 2 million on the Scoville scale. That doesn’t quite touch the hottest pepper in the world, South Carolina’s Pepper X, which boasts a whopping 2.69 million Scoville heat units, but it does firmly place it in the next tier, blowing past ghost peppers to enter the world of the Carolina Reaper, once named the world’s hottest pepper, and Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.
The Reaper starts with a smoky note, but all semblance of flavor goes out the window once the spice hits. That’s why grabbing a milkshake is important: While water can’t cool the spicy sensation due to not being able to dissolve capsaicin, the fat in dairy is perfect for doing just that. And let’s face it: You’re going to need something cold, you know, because of all the sweating.
While the Reaper slider comes in at a pedestrian eighth on the Food Republic ranking of fast food chicken sandwiches, the impact of the challenge and Dave’s Hot Chicken marketing has undoubtedly played a part in the restaurant’s massive success. The company is growing as fast as any restaurant chain in the country, and the fact that it has almost two million Instagram followers, as well as over 23 million TikTok likes, is likely an important piece of that rise.
