Homemade Texican Chilipitin Sauce From Dixie Dude Ranch Bandera, Texas: This Ain’t No Gringo Sauce!

For many years, when I went to Beeville, Texas to visit my mother, I would take her to our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Zarape, which is where I found the best hot sauce I ever tasted. In October of 2007, sadly, the restaurant closed, so I set out on a search for the past owners and found Eli Salinas in Edna, Texas. I contacted him, telling him how much I liked his hot sauce, and that I wanted to buy some from him. He said he was no longer going to make it, but would sell the recipe to me and help me get started with bottling. To no surprise, the recipe I received was in Spanish, and Eli expressed that he had bought the original recipe and equipment from a company in Monterey, Mexico. Eli has been very instrumental in helping us get started in this modest venture.

Soon, we started producing, bottling and labeling our new chilipitin sauce, which we call Texican. We changed it just a little and made it hotter with more peppers, went with a lower acidity and more fresh garlic and added turmeric, which has become known for its health benefits. Our secret, and what makes our products unique, is the little red pequin pepper we sometimes refer to as the “rite of passage” pepper. The pequin pepper is also an excellent source of vitamins C, B and A.

We believe our homemade Texican chilipitin sauce will be an alternative to Tabasco on restaurant tables and household tables because of its unique flavor and low acidity. We take as much pride in making our hot sauce as we do in our daily meals that we serve and share with our visitors. For decades, we have been creating wholesome, well-balanced, country-style meals served family style with generous portions. Our homemade Texican Chilipitin sauce is a natural accompaniment to our fabulous food.

For more information, please contact Dixie Dude Ranch at (830) 796-7771 or (800) 375-YALL (9255).