Sonic Jalapeño Ranch And Asian Sweet Chili Sauce Review: A Zesty Slam Dunk

The proper dipping sauce can make the difference between an underwhelming meal and a great one. Old reliables like ranch, barbecue sauce, and ketchup can do some heavy lifting, but variety is the spice of life, and to many, sauces are life. Sonic knows this, so for spring, it's rolling out two new dipping sauces to join an already stacked lineup.

Jalapeño Ranch and Asian-Style Sweet Chili are the drive-in's newest offerings. Sonic describes Jalapeño Ranch as, "A fiery remix of a fan-favorite classic. This sauce blends Ranch with a zesty hint of green jalapeños to form a spicy, herby, and creamy Ranch sauce." Meanwhile, Asian-Style Sweet Chili is, "Sweet, spicy and irresistibly delicious. This sauce brings a bold balance of heat and sweetness with notes of soy sauce, sesame, garlic, and ginger."

They certainly sound good, but can they live up to the billing? Sonic sent me a sampler of both new sauces along with all of their classics — Ranch, Groovy Sauce, Marinara, Buffalo, and BBQ — and I picked up a handful of my favorite Sonic snacks to test out the new sauces. Read on to find out if the latest offerings are a saucy success or a dipping disappointment.

As with all things both sweet and savory, moderation is key as neither of these sauces should be considered a health food. The Asian-Style Sweet Chili is the sugariest of the two, clocking in at 11 grams per serving, which is the second-highest sugar content on Sonic's sauce list behind only breakfast syurp. The sauce contains 60 calories and 370 milligrams of sodium. making it both one of the saltiest and sweetest sauces on the menu — though it is fat-free. 

Meanwhile, the Jalapeño Ranch clocks in at 130 calories, 20 cals higher than the traditional Ranch sauce. The newcomer contains 13 grams of fat and 170 grams of sodium, making it slightly less fatty and significantly less salty compared to the traditional Ranch's values of 11 grams of fat and 320 milligrams of sodium. Both contain just a single gram of sugar.

To determine the best menu pairings with the new sauces, I ordered a bevy of snack and chicken options: Groovy Fries, Tots, Ched 'R' Peppers, Onion Rings, Crispy Chicken Tenders, Bacon Ranch Queso Wrap, Southwest Crunch Queso Wrap, and Premium Chicken Bites. (Unfortunately, the restaurant failed to include the Chicken Bites in my to-go order, which I discovered only after arriving home.) The nutritional information for these items, and the rest of the Sonic menu, can be found online.

It used to be that anything with jalapeño in the name meant spicy, but as tastes have evolved and habañeros and even reaper peppers have made their way into everything from air fryer chicken wings to Hot Ones-inspired sub sandwiches, the jalapeño has become the patron pepper of mild heat. On the other side of the coin is ranch, famous as the dipping sauce equivalent of the fire brigade; ranch is meant to tame heat. A combination of the two, then, has to strike the right balance between spicy and cool, and Sonic threads the needle perfectly with the new Jalapeño Ranch.

Where the drive-in's classic Ranch sauce is a little sweet and heavy on the buttermilk, the Jalapeño Ranch is plenty creamy but ditches the buttermilk flavor in favor of an almost herby initial taste followed by a lingering heat on the back end. Not surprisingly, the Jalapeño Ranch is good on everything. I loved it on the chicken and fries, while my wife couldn't stop dipping in the onion rings. The Ched 'R' Peppers — Sonic's take on deep-fried jalapeño poppers — feel like cheating with this sauce since the flavors complement each other so well. Overall, the newcomer won't replace the classic Ranch because they fill different spacers in the sauce lineup. If you want creamy and cool, go regular Ranch. For creamy with a little kick, turn to the Jalapeño Ranch variant and get to dipping.

I appreciate that Sonic released two wildly different sauces at the same time. The Asian-Style Sweet Chili is very sweet and syrupy, no surprise given that the first three ingredients are high fructose corn syrup, water, and sugar. Still, this sauce packs solid flavor. While the sweetness on the front end is almost overwhelming, it quickly transforms into a pleasant heat that tickles the back of your throat long after the bite is over.

While a bit less versatile than the Jalapeño Ranch, I still found myself dipping numerous items in the Asian-Style Sweet Chili to positive results. The saltiness of the Groovy Fries — which, if we're being honest, are always a bit too salty — balances out the sweetness of the sauce nicely. My favorite pairing, though, was with the tots. Something about the texture of the crispy potato pieces created the ideal vehicle for the sweet/spicy combination.

Sonic created two new sauces, and both are winners. While the Jalapeño Ranch is by far the more versatile of the two, the Asian-Style Sweet Chili sauce fills a void in Sonic's lineup. The closest thing the chain had to anything sweet in its sauce offerings was a Honey Mustard, but that's more tangy than sweet. Pair it with chicken or anything fried, and it's worth a go, but avoid cheese; that's not a combination that's going to win many folks over.

New menu items are always exciting, but sometimes the little things get overlooked. Two new sauces may not be a reason to rush out to Sonic, but they offer an opportunity to make your next meal a little more exciting. Try both with your favorite items and see if a little kick is what your order was missing.

Sonic reached out to Mashed with an offer to try its new sauces prior to their nationwide release on March 31. The chain sent me a sauce sampler featuring the two new items along with all of the menu classics, plus a gift card to order several of my favorite menu items. My evaluations of the sauces were based on taste, texture, and the way they paired with Sonic's food. Recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer. Mashed was not compensated in any way for this review.