Bored Of Store-Bought Seasonings? Dehydrate Hot Sauce Instead

From citrusy cocktail garnishes to thickening powders, dehydrating ingredients opens up a world of possibilities. It can even reinvigorate certain aspects of your cooking, particularly if things are starting to feel same-y. Take your spice cupboard, for example. Store-bought seasoning powders can certainly help you out if you want to add a quick, easy shot of flavor, but the options available to you in-store can be limited. Your go-tos may have even lost their kick due to overexposure.

This is the part where you fish your dehydrator out of the cupboard and fire it up. By spreading a layer of sauce across baking parchment, dehydrating it until it's easily breakable, and then pulverizing it with a blender or a mortar and pestle, you can turn a jar of your favorite hot sauce into your new favorite seasoning. If you want to take it a step further, you can even try adding chilis or garlic before turning a slug of your hot sauce of choice into a delicious, powdery blend.

Now that you have the remedy for your culinary boredom, run with it. You might want to stock up on spice jars and labels since you'll need them once your dehydrated-hot-sauce journey kicks off. There are so many varieties — from grocery store hot sauce to gourmet delights — that the potential is practically limitless. Do you have one nearly empty bottle that doesn't have enough sauce left for dipping or drizzling, but still too much to justify throwing it out? Turn it into seasoning and open a new bottle guilt-free. What about that one bottle from the hot sauce gift set you got a while ago that you just haven't found the right use for, even though it's getting dangerously close to expiring? Just fire up the dehydrator.

Your cupboard, newly filled with countless spice jars stacked precariously on top of one another, will be ready for action. Experiment by using your homemade seasonings to coat chicken, fire up a pasta sauce or curry, or add them to your french fry seasoning. You can even throw a tasting party for your friends and have them guess which hot sauce made which coating. Then, obviously, eat everything.