Meet Your Maker: Joe Norris of Hot Jawn

Don’t call Hot Jawn Chili Sauce hot sauce. It’s “a spicy condiment,” says creator Joe Norris. “It’s not as vinegar-forward as your typical hot sauce. It’s also thicker, which is why I went with the squeeze bottle.”

Norris first made Hot Jawn kind of sort of on accident in 2020, when he was trying to make a wing sauce that had the kind of heat “that let you know you were alive but that also made you want to keep eating.” He spent the better part of the year perfecting the recipe and now Hot Jawn is available by the bottle online at allthejawns.com as well as local shops and restaurants including at Communion, Leschi Market, King Leroy, Double DD Meats, and Brother Joe.

Norris will also be at a few holiday markets this season so you can grab an easy gift for that friend who’s always making a big deal out of how spicy they like their food to be whenever you go out to dinner. Catch him at South Lake Union Winter Market at Van Vorst Plaza on December 7 and the Seattle Restored Winter Market at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street on December 10. 

Take a bite, warm your insides, and remember that you’re alive.

I love that you have recipes on your website and share tips on Instagram on how to use Hot Jawn to make everything from bloody marys to salad dressing. What’s your favorite way to enjoy Hot Jawn?

It was originally a wing sauce, so if you fry up some party wings and toss them in Hot Jawn and melted butter, you’ll never go wrong. My number one favorite, though, is Hot Jawn fettuccine alfredo! Stir some Hot Jawn into the sauce right before you drop the pasta and it is amazing!

For a lot of people, the holidays are all about the food—any tips on ways people can work Hot Jawn into their holiday dishes? People sometimes put cayenne pepper in pumpkin pie! Do you think that’d work?

I’m not really a pumpkin/sweet potato pie guy, and I think I like my apple pie au naturel with some vanilla bean ice cream, but if someone gives it a go, let me know for sure! I do add Hot Jawn to my collard green recipe, which is always pretty incredible, and I typically put Hot Jawn on my mac and cheese. Some of my regulars tell me that when they go to their in-laws for the holidays, they’ll typically sneak a bottle onto the table to help them get through some of the... drier, less flavorful dinner dishes that tend to come along with the holidays.

Pacific Northwest winters are notoriously awful—it’s dark, damp, cold. Do you do anything specific this time of year to help push you through until spring?

We are officially entering soup season, so the next few months will consist of filling up on a million varieties of hot, savory liquids combined with vegetables and proteins. Pro tip: You can add Hot Jawn to the big pot, but I always add more to my individual bowls. As for a hot drink, anything with whiskey works, right?