Home > Categories > Food > Sauces and Condiments > Watties Tomato Sauce - Fiery Chilli review
What gives Wattie's Tomato Sauce its unique taste that Kiwis know and love?
The rich tomato puree (equivalent to a large number of tomatoes) concentrated into every bottle and a special blend of spices. Wattie's Tomato Sauce is rich in lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Available in a range of sizes and packaging options for your convenience.
NEW Wattie's Tomato Sauce Fiery Chilli takes New Zealand's favourite sauce and expertly blends it with fiery chilli to give food that extra kick!
Nutrition
• No added colours
• No artificial flavours
• No preservatives
• 99% fat free
Product reviews...
We were given this sauce by KIWIreviews to try and I immediately thought it might be a great way to jazz up my meals with a burst of chilli added just before serving, without having to subject my husband or Miss 7's palates to something too hot for their tastes. We were having lasagne for dinner one night and I added some of this sauce on top for my first taste, being a bit sparing as the word 'fiery' on the front of the bottle worried me a little. Well it turns out that I need not have been worried as this barely left a tingle in my mouth. To be honest, I could barely distinguish this from regular sauce, but it did give a small hint of chilli.
Thinking this might be a good thing for my husband, I tried to get him to try some and ignore the suggestion on the bottle that this was really spicy hot. He did have some, but I could tell that he really didn't see the point of deviating from his regular tomato sauce addiction. He could certainly tolerate the chilli levels though, so I'd say this product is definitely more on the mild side.
I've since tried this product in other ways - it's great on hot chips as it's fine eaten on it's own in big quantities. It's also been a nice addition to put inside home-made burger patties as I usually toss up between adding chilli sauce or tomato sauce, so this was a nice in-between option. I'd recommend this if you like mild chilli, and want something a bit different to use in place of your regular sauce. I'll continue to use this product, but I can't see us going through it nearly as fast as the gallons of regular Watties sauce that we seem to get through!
I am a major watties tomato sauce lover and sweet chilli sauce fan so this was something I was really excited about viewing. I opened the bottle and licked the peel of tab that secures the bottle first, which I thought straight away thats mild. I decided to make a pasta dish and use the sauce as the pasta sauce extra, so I made a chicken mushroom and onion pasta dish adding one can of tomato pasta sauce and half a cup of the tomato firey sauce. I liked it, it added a bit of a mild kick to the pasta and changed the taste of it, it wasnt very firey though which I would have liked.
My son tried the pasta and ate it, he can handle a bit of spice and he said it was the right amount for him, he didn't have the burning mouth he and I thought he might get. I'm not sure if it would be something I would buy all the time, I think I like to keep adding chilli flakes if I needed a kick, but is good for the odd meal here and there. I had it on my steak the other night which added a different taste to it, its weird as something you add it to it tastes fine but then can add it to something and it leaves a bitter after tastes. I guess it comes down to a personal choice at the end of the day. maybe should be called mild chilli sauce though rather than firey chilli sauce.
Overall I had a mixture of feelings and thoughts about the sauce. I have a little bit left which I'm saving for a bbq this weekend where I can try it out with some friends. will be interesting to hear what they have to say.
Straight off the bat I can say this is most definitely NOT Fiery as the label indicates. The kids and hubby all LOVE their hot sauces so were a little disappointed this didn't have the "kick" they were expecting but on the other hand this was mild enough for me who isn't a fan of spicy nor fiery things to enjoy!
We first tried this on Mac and Cheese, it was okay but leaves quite a bitter taste in your mouth rather than a fiery one. I also made pizza scrolls and used the Watties Fiery Chilli sauce as the base, the kids didn't seem to notice the chilli at all and the Pizza Scrolls disappeared quickly. Mr Three asked for a drink as his mouth was hot but the other kids did not seem to notice.
The price is great and the size of the bottle is perfect for us. I would not buy this often as it is not spicy enough for the hot food fanatics in our household! The sauce is great added to other dishes such as Nachos, Chilli Con Carne, Cottage Pie and basically any other mince dish as a bit of extra flavor great on pies too but not very far off good old fashioned Tomato Sauce.
As a lover of sweet chilli sauce, and ketchup I was looking forward to reviewing this sauce, it sounds like a match made in heaven. The bottle is a good size, as sometimes we open a bottle of something, and add it to the 500 million other bottles in the fridge and never use the end of the bottle. I think smaller bottles have their virtues. It is also good value for money in comparison to other sauces.
I made a bacon and egg pie, and as part of kiwi tradition it needed to be served with tomato sauce. I chose this as a good time to trial this sauce and served it without informing the man of the house that it wasn't the original ketchup that we usually use. He never said anything at the time, however later on he asked what sauce it was, and how it 'ruined' the pie.
I has also tested the sauce with the pie and felt that it didn't have any bite to it initially, however it warmed your mouth and left a bitter aftertaste that lingered for longer than necessary. It wasn't the chilli flavour I was expecting.
Seeing as having it on its own didn't really meet our needs, my next step was to add it to a mince dish. A few days later we were having nachos and I added about 1/3 cup to the mince and bean mixture. This worked really well according to my before and after tasting. It added a bit of omph and depth to the dish.
Overall, I am not sure that this is something that I would purchase again, because there is such a huge selection of other chilli / tomato sauces that meet my needs better than this, however it does work well in dishes and if I was going to buy something specific for a mince dish, this would be a good choice.
I decided to try this sauce because my husband lots his chilli sauces. I figured this sauce might be an interesting change of pace from our usual tomato sauce. I knew the kids wouldn't probably like it. So the first thing I did with this, was serve it in a little dipping dish with some fries. My eldest didn't like it at all and would not eat another sauce-coated chip.
My youngest ate one chip happily, but when the chilli taste hit her a little later, she was not impressed. I found the heat to be not too bad. It kinda hits you late, and it is like a warming sensation in your mouth and throat without being too over the top. My husband said that it was a bit too tame for him. He kept waiting for the heat to kick in, and when it didn't he was disappointed. He tends towards very hot style sauces, which I can't eat.
The next thing I tried this in was a savoury sauce addition for a meal I was cooking. It added a little heat which was not too over-powering. It was mixed in with soy sauce, and vinegar and a few herbs as well. Everyone enjoyed the meal, but I couldn't help but think that while the sauce was a great addition to the meal, it wasn't a stand out.
While the sauce was good for me, it didn't impress my kids or my husband. I think though, if you were thinking of getting into chilli sauce, or giving it a go this would be a great introduction. It's like a step up onto the highway towards ghost peppers I guess.
My children and my husband are huge fans of both tomato sauce and Chilli sauce, but my middle boy and husband are both more of a fan of chilli sauce than anyone else I have ever met. They have it on everything, from meat to cheese rolls, sandwiches, toast, and chips, even mashed potatoes. So when I received a bottle of watties tomato sauce with fiery chilli I knew they were going to be excited.
And I was right. They could not wait to get stuck into it. Not even waiting for dinner time, but instead both choosing choosing to open it the in there to add to mouse traps. No trialing it first, just straight out squirted onto their bread. A surefire sign they were excited.
Hubby loved it. Said it was hot but so good and so great that it was combined sauces as it meant he did not have to muck around with two separate bottles. But my son did not like it. At all. He said it was to chilli for him. This surprised me a lot because he will eat chilli sauce straight from the bottle, but nope he would not finish his mouse trap and has not given a second glance.
I have tried it too, and although it is not really my thing, I do think it is nice. I agree it is super hot, but this was expected given that it is tomato sauce with fiery chilli lol I think it would get more use around but season, but possibly not something I personally would go out of my way to buy to be honest.
For years I have been mixing chilli sauce with tomato sauce to get a mild chilli sauce to dip my hot chips in. Having tried Watties Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce I strongly suspected that there would be no fire in their Fiery Chilli Tomato Sauce. I was right. It had a nice chilli flavour similar to what I got with my own 50:50 blend of tomato sauce and chilli sauce. Unlike my our concoction this sauce is a smooth texture. There are no bits of chilli. Every drop is the same flavour.
It is a nice sauce but it has been misnamed. I would have probably called it mild chilli or hint of chilli. The up side of this is there is not a loud protest from the kids when they squeeze the wrong sauce on their plate, because the bottle looks so similar to the regular Watties tomato sauce it has happened a few times. It is a case of they will eat it unless you tell them what it is.
It was a pleasant surprise to find out the this sauce is the same price as the regular sauce. I could see this being used on pizza bases, lasange, tacos and anywhere else you would use tomato sauce. I have only tried it as a dipping sauce and have nearly emptied the bottle. I will be buying more so I don't have to make my own any more.
I was really looking forward to trying this sauce as we love hot and spicy food in our house. As soon as it arrived I couldn't help but open it up and squeeze some out onto my finger. I was actually a bit disappointed as with the name "fiery chilli" I was expecting a decent kick of heat. I was gutted that it wasn't that hot. I would consider it mild to say the least.
Needless to say I thought I would give it a try by chucking some through some mince we were having for tea as was planning on making spicy nachos. It still didn't do a lot for me. There wasn't a lot of spice from the sauce and I ended up actually adding in some chilli flakes to give it a boot of flavour.
I would say because we love chilli in our house maybe our palates have a higher threshold for heat so perhaps this sauce is better suited to those that like a small amount of heat and spice. Unfortunately this wouldn't be a sauce that I would add to the grocery list and purchase time and time again.
I definately don't think it lives up to its name of "fiery chilli" perhaps it should have written somewhere on the bottle that it is a mild heat sauce or have some sort of heat scale on the bottle to indicate this.
OK, let's get this out in the open to start with - THIS IS NOT FIERY! Trying some of this on my finger, straight out of the bottle, and I could tell that this is a mild chilli and tomato sauce, that most Kiwis will find somewhat tingly on their tongues, and that's about it. But that is A-OK... because it means the majority of Kiwis with bland palates may actually get daring and try it... if they can brave-up enough to overlook the name, which oversells the spice factor dramatically. This is a MILD sauce, that is well matched to Kiwi tolerances.
When we are nearing the end of tomato season, I buy up boxloads of toms when they go on clearance, and I make my own Chilli Tomato sauce. I use whole tomatoes, real chillis grown myself, and quite often garlic from my own garden too. Onions, salt and pepper I have to buy, and a few other secret additives that I won't share. (Yes, they are all available at supermarkets, I just don't want to give away my sauce secrets!) So, you know, I think I can speak on the topic of a "chilli and tomato sauce' and know something about spicy sauces.
I have tried this sauce as an ingredient in mini-lasagnes, I have used it in savoury mince, I have tried it as a replacement for the 'original recipe' sauce in ham-&-cheese toasties, and I have even used it to enhance some Wattie's canned spaghetti... and in all cases it has done a wonderful job of adding extra flavour and just a hint of tingle to the food.
Overall, mainly because of the price and the lack of spice, this is not one I would buy regularly, but it is one I may get as a gift for a friend, or to have on hand for a BBQ condiment bar for those who are a little adventurous or want to be so. Just because a die-hard like me finds it too mild for my tastes, doesn't make it a boring sauce at all. Just... don't expect it to cause you any serious burn issues.
Random listing from 'Food'...
A light 'butter free' mild spiced chicken curry.
Ingredients:
Vegetables 43% (Tomato & Tomato Paste 17% (Tomato, Acidity Regulator [Citric Acid]), Pumpkin, Onion, Red Capsicum, Carrot, Garlic), Water, Free Range Chicken 10%, Coconut Cream (Coconut Cream, Stabilisers [Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan]), Brown Rice 6%, Yoghurt (contains Milk), Date Syrup, Ginger, Spices (including Chilli), Sunflower ... more...
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