RIVER NORTH — When employees at Jake Melnick's Corner Tap in River North felt their XXX Hot Wings were so spicy they could be a liability, they didn't turn down the heat.
They asked customers to sign a waiver before trying them.
"The waiver is a little cheeky, kind of funny, too, but basically it just warns that these wings are seriously hot," said head chef Ryan Kikkert, who dreamed up the mix of habanero peppers, ghost peppers and Trinidad scorpion peppers, considered the hottest in the world.
A few DNAstaffers tried the wings, and Lizzie Schiffman and Jon Hansen chat about the experience:
"If you're going to eat something that could potentially hurt you, we have the waiver in place to assure that you're willing to take that risk," Kikkert said.
Kikkert says his goal with the new recipe, debuted earlier this year with the addition of the scorpion peppers imported from Holland, wasn't to make a sauce that's just "burn-your-face-off hot."
"What makes ours unique is there's a lot of flavor," he said. "The habanero has a banana-y, fruity flavor, and we bring that out by smoking it over hickory wood. The ghost pepper is dried, then mixed with my secret ingredient — orange juice — to bring out that sweetness. ... The scorpion has got a more jalapeno-tangy bite to it.
"All those peppers together makes a really unique flavor," he said. "But I mean, it's still melt-your-face-off hot."
In honor of National Chicken Wing Day on Tuesday, some DNAinfo Chicago staffers tried to hold their own against the XXX Hot Wings. See our video above for the results.
The restaurant has served a version of superlatively hot wings on its menu since it opened 11 years ago at 41 E. Superior St., but they revamped the XXX Hot Wings this year to incorporate the newly crowned hottest pepper in the world after the scorpion pepper won the title in 2012 from the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
Online "chili heads" like Firehead Thomas and Ted the Firebreathing Idiot have posted online videos recounting their samplings of the pepper, describing burning and watering of the eyes, choking sensations and numbness in their mouths and tongues for hours or even days.
To prevent customers from having the same lasting effects, Jake Melnick's Corner Tap dispatches "cooling plates" to customers who surrender during their meal and ring a bell for aid.
"If you ring the bell, the server knows to bring you the cooling plate, which is ice cream, milk, bread and some slices of orange," Kikkert said. "All those things help cool you down. The ice cream is just cold, the dairy is good to cool down the heat, the bread helps absorb some of the capsaicin in your mouth, and for some reason, if you suck on an orange, that seems to cool it down, too."
A plate of XXX wings costs $15.95 at the restaurant at 41 E. Superior St. Successful finishers will earn a spot on the restaurant's online "wall of flame."
Watch our video to see which DNAinfo Chicago staffers broke down and rang the bell at our recent taste test.
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