These Sauces and Seasonings Can Make Meal Prep Easier

In 2022, Datassential found that 75 percent of restaurant operators saw an increase in labor costs. As customer expectations grow higher, restaurants are still battling ongoing labor shortages, and many are finding they need to do more with less.

To help solve these issues, operators are taking a second look at their product mixes and turning to formats that offer more convenience. According to Datassential, 57 percent of restaurant operators say products that can help them save on labor are particularly appealing in the current environment.

The Texas Pete® Simple As recipe collection offers operators easy-to-prepare recipes with five or fewer ingredients that can be readied in 10 minutes or less. Read on for a sneak peek of a few top favorites.

CHA! CHA! Miso-Soy Glaze

A crowd-favorite Asian-inspired glaze, CHA! CHA! Miso-Soy Glaze calls for Ponzu sauce, honey, red miso, and CHA! by Texas Pete® Sriracha Sauce. The prep time clocks in at 10 minutes for 40 servings. It’s shown here with halibut over riced cauliflower “fried rice.”

Spicy Tahini Garlic Sauce

This recipe for Spicy Tahini Garlic Sauce is creamy, spicy, tangy, and just slightly sweet—the perfect dressing for crisp salads, as shown above, as well as rice bowls, loaded fries, and more. A quick mix of tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and Texas Pete® Sauteed Garlic Hot Sauce, it takes five minutes to prepare an amount that serves four to five. It can also be kept refrigerated for up to seven days.

Sweet Flame Sticky Sauce

For kitchens that are short on time and looking to evoke smoky-sweet heat, Sweet Flame Sticky Sauce is the answer. The recipe can become a crowd-pleasing barbecue rib sauce. It can also be used to top burgers, as a coating for wings or tenders, or even as a dipping sauce for potato wedges. Simply add Texas Pete® Dust Dry Seasoning to Texas Pete® Sweet Flame BBQ Sauce. It takes about five minutes of prep time to produce 24 servings.

Spicy Wing Crunch

Texas Pete® Dust Dry Seasoning can also be mixed with ground pork rinds, lemon juice, and brown sugar to create Spicy Wing Crunch, well-suited for coating chicken wings, tenders, and other proteins with a crunchy element that also delivers the right amount of kick. It takes 10 minutes to prepare enough for about 60 wings.

Campfire Ranch

In fact, Texas Pete® Dust Dry Seasoning and Texas Pete® Sweet Flame BBQ Sauce are both incredibly versatile, easily accommodating a wide variety of creative menu applications. As another example, if operators add them both to ranch dressing, the result is Campfire Ranch—a quick way to elevate burgers, sandwiches, salads, waffle fries, veggies, and more.

Texas Heatwave Marinade

Many restaurants are turning to spicy marinades to drive interest in their protein offerings. Texas Heatwave Marinade can provide an intense yet still enjoyable heat level with minimal prep time. The recipe calls for Texas Pete® Hotter Hot Sauce, Texas Pete® Dust, vegetable oil, and lemon juice. It’s ideal for imparting flavor and juiciness to fish, chicken, or pork.

The full recipes provided here—as well as even more recipes, videos, and inspiration on how Texas Pete® products can enhance menus without adding stress—can be found at the company’s “Simple As” website.