Home > Categories > Food > Spreads > Pa Hill Hot Chilli Peanut Butter review
Peanut Butter with a bite. For all the chilli lovers out there, this is a blend you should definitely try.
The peanuts we use come from Argentina and are dry roasted to make the perfect texture of peanut butter. Peanut butter madness sets in and we create flavours as peanut butter is a benefit to health and can be used to add flavour and texture in cooking.
People love to mix Peanut Butter with a huge variety of flavours. Who would have thought that people will eat peanut butter with Chilli?! So we'll give it a go too.
Product reviews...
This was hot! This is main thing you need to know. For me this was too hot to just load on toast/crackers. Husband was fine with that but be warned.
I loved the classic jar, however it didn't love me back. I am not sure if it was the oil that has risen a bit and made it sticky but unfortunately I needed a strong hand to open the jar. It was the third of the three jars I had received and the others opened fine.
The consistency was a bit surprising for me as it had separately fairly clearly and it needed a "good mix up" which I understand is part of some butters as they are not packed with bad ingredients to keep it mixed. I had to stir it most times I opened it as it.
This worked for the husband on crackers but I needed some strawberries to mellow that out (also I spread it pretty thinly so it will last a long long time which is a good thing). The other big find for me was mixing it with cream cheese (see bottom cracker!). This was a game changer for me, so much nicer for me personally. I also used it most successfully in a saty noodles dinner as it added a really good kick which I prefer in a meal to on a cracker. But be warned, it does say "hot" and it means it!
I do like me some spicy food, much to the continued bafflement of the local kebab shop team, who think I am crazy or have a stutter when I order three sauces - hot chilli, hot chilli, honey mustard. So, this peanut butter sounded right in my wheelhouse... well worth taking the plunge and testing it myself.
Having recently decided to get back into making chocolates, and thus having a good supply of dark choc drops on hand, it seemed the perfect time to try a spicy twist on my favourite peanut butter choc chip recipe. It uses 1/4 cup of peanut butter... and the resulting biscuits were so spicy I could barely make it through a whole cookie. A friend who loves spicy even more than I do, and has an appetite for fire, got the first batch and gave feedback that they were "...quite good actually!" which is very high praise from him.
For the second batch, I split the mix, using 60g of Pa Hill Hot Chilli Peanut Butter and 75g of Pic's Chunky Peanut Butter to add texture and tone down the spice. PERECTION! A wonderful warmth in the flavour that crept up as I chewed. #nom
After that, a chicken satay dish was the next obvious test, and just 1 tablespoon of this gave the satay sauce an extra boost without adding any extra oils to the mix. I was so taken with it that I have started work on my own satay sauce recipe using this peanut butter as the base to build on. It has a great belnd of flavours and a solid heat that can be tweaked down easily for those with more sensitive taste buds.
It's not a huge jar for the price, but being hand-crafted from the bare minimum ingredients required to get the flavour profile right, it's one of the better boutique nut-buttes I have come across. Not for the faint of tongue, I assure you!
Overall, I am well-pleased by this one, as it goes a long way when 'toned down a bit'. It is also nice to put a thin layer of this peanut butter on a stick of celery and add some finely grated gouda or cheddar cheese as a snack for a Summer afternoon.
I like hot food, but this one is REALLY hot! I made the mistake of trying a little on a teaspoon and my eyes were treated to an instant wash. No kidding, this is one for the chilli connoisseurs. For everyone else, even me, this product is best mixed with other ingredients so that you end up with the right strength. And then it is great - spicy and full of flavour, although the chilli does overshadow the peanuts somewhat. It is useful that the product lid has a sticker with some suggestions for use - with sandwiches, in stir fries, added to batter or gravy, and included as part of a dip.
I used it as the main ingredient in a satay sauce, adding nuoc mam (fish sauce), garlic and root vegetable slivers, and the result was perfect. Hot but not overly so, and it is easy to increase or reduce the heat by simply adding more of the other ingredients. I enjoyed it just as it was, but my partner added a dash of coconut cream. Each to their own! Breaking with tradition, I served the sauce with a fusion dish of baked potatoes, kebabs, and avocado.
Because I had some sauce left over, I next tried it with nachos. I used plain beef mince and just stir fried the meat until it was cooked then added the sauce; once it was reheated, I poured it over the nacho chips and added cheese and yoghurt on top. That was a really good way to use it as the sauce had mellowed slightly overnight and tasted even better than it had the day before.
We use a lot of cottage cheese but it can lack flavour so I usually add something to pep it up. A little peanut butter stirred in made a great sandwich filling. I warmed the peanut butter first so it would mix in more smoothly, but I could also have just put it straight on to the bread and added the cottage cheese on top. However it was assembled, it was a tasty combination and one I will remember for the future. It would also be a good topping for crackers or triangles of toast to serve with soup.
I loved the quote on the side of the jar - Skippidy-Do-Da, Peanut Butter Hoo-Ha". It made me think of a Disney cartoon where one of the characters might have taken a mouthful straight from the jar (as I did!) and then started dancing round with his tongue hanging out because it was unexpectedly hot! I love products that have funny information printed on the packaging. I am more inclined to buy something when it makes me smile; so many manufacturers take themselves too seriously. There is a place in retail for creative marketing.
Random listing from 'Food'...
Heat'n'Eat single serve meals.
Can be reheated in pie warmers, microwave or conventional ovens.
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