Dia Del Perro - Mild Alderwood Smoked Serrano Pepper Sauce 5 OZ
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce's Día Del Perro, "Day of the Dog" - An alderwood-smoked serrano pepper sauce with tomatillo, toasted onion, roasted garlic, chile pequin, and featuring New Mexico Hatch chile.
Reformulated in July of 2023 to use tangier tomatillo, this sauce is heartfelt tribute to the delicious taqueria-style verde table sauces of California & Mexico, this sauce pairs beautifully with chile rellenos, enchiladas with red sauce, eggs & potatoes, mac & cheese, potatoes au gratin, papusas, pizza, soft tacos, chicken, tostadas, flautas, chili con carne, in soups, and much more. The heat starts out as fairly mild, but gradually creeps up as the chile pequin and hatch chile builds in intensity.
Tangy & delicious, Día Del Perro is a deep, layered and complex alternative to the classic verde-style table sauce and a must-have for Mexcan food!
Dia del Perro makes Men's Journal's list of 4 Smoked Hot Sauces for Any Dish!
Día del Perro was listed among Hot Sauce Daily's Top 5 Spicy Products of 2014!
Dia del Perro makes Playboy.com's list of The Best Fruit-Flavored Hot Sauces!
Pairing suggestions: Highly recommended for enchiladas with red sauce, chile rellenos, chili con carne, mac & cheese, potatoes au gratin, virtually any Mexican food and more!
- 2024 Good Food Awards Winner
- 2023 Scovie Awards, 3rd Place, Verde
- 2017 Scovie Awards, 2nd Place - Marketing & Advertising, Product Label
- 2016 The Hot Pepper Awards, 1st Place - Ethnic
- 2016 Scovie Awards, Grand Prize Winner, Advertising & Marketing Division - Product Label
- 2016 Scovie Awards, 1st Place, Flat Art - Product Label
- 2014 The Hot Pepper Awards, #1 Overall - Hot Sauce
- 2014 The Hot Pepper Awards, 1st Place - Mild
- 2014 The Hot Pepper Awards, 1st Place - Serrano
- 2014 The Hot Pepper Awards, 1st Place - Ethnic
- 2014 The Hot Pepper Awards, "The Picasso Award" for Art & Design
- 2014 World Hot Sauce Awards, 1st place, Marketing, Label
- 2014 World Hot Sauce Awards, 1st overall, Marketing division
The Story Behind the Sauce
Día del Perro - the most storied of the Lucky Dog Hot Sauce lineup. As with chipotle sauces, I had no intention of ever making a "classic verde" sauce. Not because I don't love tangy green sauces, but because it's difficult to make something different than the 6,927,462 tangy green sauces already on the market.
All that changed through a series of connected events. First, a dear friend shared her friend Robin Case's artwork to social media suggesting that she was selling art to make ends meet and accepting work for commissioned pieces as very reasonable prices. My mother had a birthday coming up, and knowing her love of butterflies I sent an inquiry to the artist along with a photo of a Monarch I'd recently taken in my front yard.
The resulting painting was magnificent and my mother loved it. I'd just finished up at several festivals, and as I've always loved Día de los Muertos artwork, I inquired as to what a Día de los Muertos version of my label would cost. Satisfied with the price and wanting to support the arts, I commissioned the painting. Robin asked what my requirements were, and my only response was "I love sunflowers. If you could work a sunflower into it I'd be happy."
The rest was all Robin Case. The painting was breathtaking - and since I had my brand tattooed on my left arm and nothing on my right arm, I thought it might be a nice balance. A while after the tattoo, it occurred to me that this would make for a spectacular label - so work began with my graphic artist to add the branding & other relevant details, such as the color-matched brand name, and the hand-done banner with tattoo-style script for the product name.
This was the first time one of my labels preceded the sauce - so the pressure was on. If the sauce sucked, it would be pretty embarrassing to have it tattooed on my arm, and I felt I owed the art, and the artist my best efforts.
So into the kitchen I went, armed with some of my favorite ingredients in attempt to create a traditional, yet still interesting and complex verde sauce. I wanted to taste more than just tomatillo, so I used carrot & apple to mute the acidity, while layering in alderwood-smoked salts, toasted onion, roasted garlic and chile Tepin (the "bird" chile). I layered the heat with habanero infused salts, and Serrano peppers.
While perhaps not the most versatile of the Lucky Dog lineup, I believe Día del Perro holds its own by being a delicious specialty sauce that compliments a wide array of foods. At the least, it's worthy of the gorgeous label artwork by Robin Case.
Once the prototyping was completed, I started having significant car troubles with my old beater Dodge van. Several folks suggested doing a Kickstarter campaign, and I thought it might be a good idea to make the Día del Perro sauce / art the centerpiece. The Kickstarter campaign was a glowing success, and the new sauce was incredibly well received.
The rest, as they say, is history.
~Scott Z