Review: Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips & The Winner of the #MerciAwards Gift Pack Is… & More
Junk Food Nation, I’ve delayed long enough. I’ll save my pithy comments about Oscar Pistorius (WHAT A PSYCHOPATH), and about Kate Upton’s body paint in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue (CAN THEY DO THIS LEGALLY???) until a later time. Or never. Whatever.
Let’s get to the winner of the #MerciAwards Joy of Thank You Gift Pack! Decent turn out with over 100+ entries! A big thank you to Merci Chocolate for helping make this happen. And thanks to all of you who participated. Using the random number generator at Random.org, I assigned every entry a number, clicked the button, and found my winner:
*** @vector_jones101 ***
Congratulations, @vector_jones101! E-mail your contact info to junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com and Merci Chocolate will mail you your prize as soon as they can! Enjoy!
Today’s junk food: Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips!
Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips: The Money Shot
I’ve been looking for these Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips since…well, since this post. Looks like Doritos was just limiting the distribution until it could fine tune the recipe and release it nationwide! After not being able to find this flavor anywhere, now I see it EVERYWHERE! Glorious.
Words so hot, they are on fire?
I’ve reviewed other Doritos JACKED varieties before, and had a generally good opinion of them. My concern is always in an attempt to XTREMEIFY these flavors, I don’t want it to go overboard and unpalatable. Hopefully, Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips don’t do that.
Stronger faster
I think I can…
You mean Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips came and went without a warning, and now they’re back again, don’t you? Jerks.
Tangy, Cool, Creamy. Ergh.
I don’t know if I want to be blasted with Ranch Dressing. But hey, whatevs. GIVE IT.
130 per 6 chips
Chicken fat!!!!
Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips have chicken fat in them! Good sign, as I loved that Frito-Lay STAX Buffalo Wing with Ranch Chips had chicken fat in them as well. *HURRAY*
HUGE chips
When I dopped my nose into this open bag of Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips, my nostrils certainly stung like I was smelling hot wings. There was a slight vinegar smell…it did sort of smell like hot wing sauce mixed with ranch. There was a bit of creaminess in the aroma. It wasn’t 100% buffalo sauce smell…hmmm.
JACKED with powder
When I bit into these Doritos JACKED Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Chips, and munched, my first thought was that it did taste like the flavor of a chicken wing dipped in hot sauce and then dipped into ranch dressing, but that the overall flavor was different than I expected.
The texture of the chip, like the past JACKED flavors I reviewed, was the same – very crunchy, huge chips. Despite my gaping maw, I could NOT fit a whole one into my mouth.
The first flavor I tasted was the tang of the hot wing sauce…however, it didn’t go as far as typical Frank’s Red Hot. It was VERY tangy and tomatoey, and at some moments, very sour, but that nice cayenne chili flavor wasn’t quite there…there was something lacking. Maybe that’s the “Ranch Dipped” part, taming down the hot wing flavor before it has a chance to curl your tongue? The tomatoey tang was, at times, WAY over the top.
There was a chicken undertone to the chip which I had to really think about to taste, but I could taste it there. This wasn’t just a salty chip – there were hints of a chicken-fatty-flavor underneath. I liked that.
I didn’t QUITE get a ranch flavor, but there was a general creaminess to the chip. There was a slight burn at the end of the chip – not a lot, but a little tingle.
I’m doing an awful job describing these. Look – I guess if someone got me a bowl of Frank’s Red Hot, mixed it was some ranch dressing, and then I tasted THAT and compared it to this, I’m guessing the flavors would be very similar. But (and I don’t think this is news) I personally DON’T eat hot wings with ranch or blue cheese dressing, because I like the flavor of buffalo sauce alone a lot. That’s why I put Frank’s on everything.
So I guess my final assessment is: these tasted good, were a solid JACKED chip, and probably matched the expected flavor very closely, but to me, they were too creamy, not hot-saucey enough.
PURCHASED AT: Harris Teeter
COST: $4.29
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 61 Comments
I was waiting for these for well over 6 months and I finally found them this weekend.
I was really disappointed. You’re right, there’s not enough ranch or buffalo on them… so WTF is on them??
I’m really irritated with the Jacked chips. My theory is that they use less fat in the chips’ dough so that they’re more crunchy and less tender(like the originals), but the lack of fat makes the flavor powder feel flat and too short-lived.
Do me a favor. Open the bag back up and take another bite. Notice how there’s no aftertaste… 10 seconds after you swallow, there’s no more flavor in the mouth. I think this is because of lack of fat, which acts as a flavor vehicle is most other Doritos.
@Noms: Yeah, The more I’ve eaten them, the less I enjoy them. I too miss that signature flakiness – these did feel very flat and compacted
I don’t care if it’s legal or not, Kate Upton + Body Paint = Win.
@Nick: TRUTH
u dont know wat u like. get lost..
Nice!! We finally found a bag of these today, and can’t wait to taste them. But, just like you, we are purists when it comes to wings – we don’t like to muddy them up with any dressing!!
@ChipReview: Yes…I’d be curious to see what you think. The more I try them…the less I like them 🙁
I just tried these, they are not for me.I couldn’t get past the flavor. I had to throw them away. Wow. I never thought that there would be a doritos flavor I didn’t like. 🙁
@Cass: Yeah, I just tried them again last night, and maybe I have to accept the fact that….I don’t like these 🙁 WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
OK so after our phone conversation, I went back and tried these again. Still too much vinegar flavor for sure, but I did notice a little bit more of that creaminess that you were mentioning. Hardly noticed it the first time; noticed and disliked it the second time. I guess here’s my rant on the subject.
It’s goddamn Ranch Dressing. Ranch Dressing is the best selling salad dressing in America because it appeals to the very center. It’s cool, it’s creamy, it’s not too tart, it’s not too oily, it’s not too ANYTHING (except remarkably unhealthy). It’s mayonnaise that you can eat with impunity because you’re eating it on salad. Has anyone ever seen X-TREME MAYO? Like, mayo that’s EVEN MORE MAYONNAISEY THAN EVER BEFORE? Mayo is the super-ego that says to your spicy id, “hold on a second, let’s be rational.” It is, by definition, the thing that makes things less extreme.
Take a Subway sandwich. You want to make it “extreme”? You want to “jack it up”? Sure – throw some pickled jalapenos on that sucker and shake on the red pepper flake. Take a bite. Ooof – too spicy; better add some mayo to cool things off. What’s ranch or blue cheese dressing there for on the buffalo wing plate? TO MAKE THE WINGS LESS HOT. Ranch dressing is middle-of-the-road: existentially, it cannot be extreme. You know what the “jacked up” version of the middle is? It’s still the fucking middle. The only people for whom ranch dressing counts as ‘jacked up’ are people for whom a slice of lemon in a glass of tap water counts as a cocktail.
So goddammit, Doritos. Don’t tell me that you’ve got this new flavor that’s totally jacked up, and then have that flavor be something that BY ITS OWN DEFINITION un-jacks up flavors. Also, these chips are too big. Do I look like Steven Tyler to you?
@Shorneys: +1
i could have sworn these had a real chicken taste to them, the chicken fat would explain it! they’re delicious.. surprised people aren’t liking them!
@Melissa: Yeah, I liked them less and less as I ate them, but I’m glad you enjoyed them!
THE chips are waaay too thick, they need to be crisp but thinner. When U increase the thickness it DETRACTS from the FRESHNESS.
Flavor was accurate, bold, a little too salty. The chip size was too large for the bag, if U grabbed a big chip with was too difficult to fit in your mouth, so the chip had to be bitten smaller.
RATING-6 out of 10.
@Mr. Houdini- Yeah, you feel like they could’ve made this so much better. I love your point about thickness and freshness. Especially since we’re used to Doritos being a certain texture. Thumbs down
I love spicy chips. These suck.
@Aaron: Concur
I bought these hoping they might be a substitute for the apparently discontinued Blazin’ Buffalo and Ranch flavor. That flavor was the Dorito all the other Doritos wish they were. Those things were good. These are nothing like them and rather disappointing. I guess I will go back to regular ranch for awhile.
@Megan: Yeah – seems pretty consistent across the board that everyone gave it a thumbs down
@Megan
My thoughts exactly! I loved Blazin’ Buffalo and Ranch chips, they were simply delicious. Not only did the chips have a perfect crispiness to them, the flavor was spot on. I would buy one of the smaller bags as a snack during lunch almost every single day, so you can imagine my surprise when they vanished, only to be replaced by a similarly colored bag pertaining to this page. At first I simply thought that they were just trying to change up the logo, but NO they changed the entire flavor and texture.
I just bought a big bag today hoping I could bite down through the overwhelming tanginess and enjoy them on some level but I simply can’t. I sit here in front of the large open mouth of a full bag with absolutely no interest in taking another bite. I’m so disappointed that my favorite flavor of chip is gone, and we probably won’t be seeing them ever again. 🙁
These chips rock you guys all suck. Funny how you say you don’t Like them junkfood guy but you continue to eat them. Everyone I know whose tried them say they are the best dorito chip ever. The size of them are awesome so stop hating people, I guess they were made for real men and women who can handle them.
@Hap – I’m glad you like them! Yeah just wasn’t for me
If there are any humans at Frito-Lay, please listen. You must bring back the Blazin Buffalo and Ranch Doritos. There will never be anything like them. I’ve gone on a Doritos hunger strike since they were removed. And I need some Doritos. Bring them back. Please.
@Wit: HERE HERE! I totally agree.
yes I agree I have never had doritos since they got rid of the blazin buffalo and ranch and another one I miss was the salsa flavor from about 7 years back it was in a black bag…… why do they get rid of the best flavors?????
@James M: I still miss the Wild White Nacho Doritos….sigh
Hot sauce, vinegar, and ass!
@Steven – LOL
i just tried these. i don’t taste any chicken or ranch whatsoever…zero. all i taste is an insane amount of salt and some spiciness. i wouldn’t buy them again and i guarantee they won’t be around for long.
@Tyrone: And surprisingly, you still see BAGS of these EVERYWHERE, no? Confuses me…
Omg. Some of these post bother me. I have never left a review in my life and due to me going to multiple stores prompted me to. These are by far the best chips ever!! Please, please do not ever stop making these! I have been obsessed with these chips since I’ve discovered them about a year ago. The boldness is unreal! No other chip can compare. Regular Doritos just doesn’t do it for me anymore. If you don’t want your taste buds to reject regular chips I don’t advise you to buy, because I promise after you buy there’s no comparison.
@Tiffany: LOL, love the passion! These have definitely been a polarizing chip. I’m glad you liked them! They are still on the shelves everywhere here in DC.
I wish I had found this site before wasting my time buying these god awful Doritos wanna be! The fact that they are so thick and crunchy makes them seem as though you are trying to eat 3 normal Doritos stack upon each other and that they have went stale and that doesn’t even compare to the horrible taste that this disgusting chip places onto my tongue!!
@Brian: YIKES. sorry, man
The chip of the devil. They’re scary big and red like molten lava. Think Darkness from the movie Legend. VERY tangy with a hint of chicken flavor. Mild heat with surprisingly little aftertaste. Approach with caution. Note: Not for women or children.
@Matt: LOL +1
My 14 year old son loves these chip so much that he decided to eat one and a half of the 10 ounce bags and now a day later his throat is so swollen and sore. I’m wondering if they are to spicy for him. I think personally when you open the bag they smell nasty but that’s just my opinion.
@Momma: Yeah, I’m not a fan…hopefully your son is better!
I love the Blazin Buffalo & Ranch flavor and I would take it everywhere, to school, car trips , even when I was driving a boat! But now that the soulless Frito-Lay workers discontinued it, I feel like the substitutes are horrible! The JACKED and test subjects are extremely disappointing . They should make a loaded potato flavor like Ruffles.
@Trevor: I used to love that Blazin Buffalo and Ranch too. Sigh.
These birches is the shit
@Aidan: +1
I love these chips!!! Best I have ever tasted great job Doritos.
I tried these this last weekend, and was kind of disappointed. I have about 2/3 of the bag left, and I’ll leave them in the kitchen to see if my housemates eat them. I know one of them loves salt-and-vinegar chips; these may be right up his alley.
As junkfoodguy and the other commenters said, they mostly taste like vinegar and tomato. There’s a bit of a chili pepper bite, but not much–black pepper Triscuits are much spicier than these things. They taste nothing like chicken, at least to me. The ingredients say that they contain chicken broth, chicken powder and chicken fat, but I think it must be drowned out by the flavor of sour tomatoes.
I know I’m nitpicking here, but I can’t figure out why they’d bother using chicken fat. I’ve roasted a hundred chickens in my life, and the fat is the least chicken-y part. Seriously, try it; roast a whole chicken, and when it’s done, all crispy and crackly and brown, pour the drippings out of the pan. The rich, meaty, cooked-down broth will sink to the bottom, and the fat will float on top. Take a teaspoon and taste the fat. IT HARDLY TASTES LIKE ANYTHING. It tastes like hot vegetable oil that maybe sat next to some fried chicken in the refrigerator and picked up a faint, ghostly smack of poultry.
Anyway, I won’t buy these again, but Doritos can make them for the next fifty years if others seem to like them! Next time, if I want something that tastes like hot wings, I should just get some hot wings.
@Diana: Love the chicken fat rant! I personally appreciate chicken fat only because it helps round out a flavor sometimes, so that a “chicken” snack doesn’t just taste like it’s been dipped in chicken bouillon.
That said, I still didn’t like these. Like you, next time I want hot wing flavor – I’ll go buy some hot wings
i like the taste it goes great with raspberry jalapeno jam but that aside when i initially open the bag it smell a little like feet
@Curtis: LOL
I don’t even know what to think of these chips. Spicy, cool, vinegar, VINEGAR, salt, way too big… the list goes on. I didn’t hate them, but I’ll stick to Tapatio Doritos if I’m looking for something spicy. Also they burnt my nose.
@Riley: OH I miss those Tapatio Doritos. I can’t find them on the East Coast
The flavor of dill shone through in this chip too much for my taste. When I think of Buffalo Wings or Ranch dip / dressing, dill is not one that comes to mind. I think they missed the boat there and I am extremely unhappy about the size of these chips. I am traditionally a single bite dorito consumer and these are too big for that.
I like ruffles cheddar sour cream chips and I remember when doritos came out when I was a kid. I like sharing a small bag of each with a friend or a sibling and trading a ruffles chip for a doritos chip or vis versa with them. So I never buy chips, but I picked these up last night and I didn’t know what jacked was, when I opened the bag I was really surprised when I had to take bites out of the chip. I thought I just chose a good bag that wasn’t crushed up too bad. They tasted really terrible though and just salty and sour and acidic. The dull umami undertone of chicken was too hard to focus on and just kinda gross. I ate the whole bag but only because I paid so much for them. I wanted to return them after my first bite almost like when you buy a bag of chewing tobacco as an experiment same feeling of laughable disappointment.
I’ve had these plenty of times. You get the ‘kick’ of spices mixed with chicken fat at the end. They didn’t add the ranch to it, though. Personally, I like ranch with hot wings.
doritos jacked is a very good brand yes they had a rough start but they have been getting way better i personaly love them they are really good now i know that this is an old subject but still give them one more try you never know they may taste much better and i hope you all give them one more shot whats the harm in that
I love them! I didn’t like Doritos that much! I love these. Great flavor Has real good spice flavor. I haven’t found them and many stores. What’s up with that?
I would have sex with these if I could. They’re so awesome. In fact, I am eating some right now.
These are the greatest with beer I have ate lots of different snacks but these are by far the best snack with beer don’t take my word for it try it your self
shit = 2 damn good. The creamy texture unleashing its load in my mouth was just orgasmic. My eyes roll to the back of my head with pleasure every bite I take
@smoke yes I love your comment it really speaks to me on a personal level, many people hate on these chips but these chips aren’t a to be eaten alone. These chips are GOD tier once they’re matched up with a cold one. It is one of they best things I’ve done in my 43 years of life i feel like I can die now and feel contempt because my life has been fulfilled.
People who don’t like these chips are complete Neanderthals on some real business though.
This is the best flavor Doritos has and they would be a fool if theyever got rid of them
I agree Del.