Amy Y.
Yelp
Whoa, there are some huuuuge chickens within these hot buns. Hetchy's Hots serves some of the best tasting hot fried chicken sandwiches that I've had in the bay area. Hetchy's Hots was created as a solution to help keep people employed during COVID-19 while also donating 3% of proceeds to frontline workers.
You have to order online through their website or a third party delivery service, even if you're picking up the order. There's almost no available parking here even on a weekday, and the police were enforcing parking tickets on the street during my visit. Orders are picked up at the entrance of Square Pie Guys, and orders can take up to 30 minutes to be ready.
These sandwiches traveled very well in 20 minutes - nothing got soggy or cold, the crunch was still there, and no ingredients shifted. That's some great packaging! The extra large piece of chicken has a thick, crunchy exterior, and a thick, juicy inside. This has been by far the biggest piece of chicken I've ever seen in a sandwich, and every inch of it was sooo good and moist. The buns do an excellent job at holding the chicken, and are durable yet soft and buttery themselves. They have three heat levels (1 chili pepper to 3 chili peppers), and we got the Rancher Dancher (1 chili pepper) and Hetch Calabria (2 chili peppers). The chicken thighs are flavored with chili oil as well as a spice mix, which in theory can be really spicy, but from judging what we've tried, I can definitely take on their hottest sandwich no problem (my usual spice enjoyment limit is mild or medium at other hot chicken places).
The Rancher Dancer's ranch powder gives it a little bit of that creamy, Doritos Cool Ranch funk. The special sauce is an unidentifiable creamy sauce - nothing too out of the ordinary, but spread well enough to not be too overbearing. I loved the acidic crunch from the thin sliced pickled onions. On this sandwich, they seemed to have burnt a couple of patches on the chicken, but we just ate it no problem.
The Hetch Calabria was a sweeter, smokier, and tangier sandwich due to the flavors from the peppers and pickles, which were fresh and plentiful. The aioli had an addictive taste, and was more garlicky than lemony. To me, the heat level was maybe mild at best, while the Rancher Dancer just had a hint of spice.
To accompany our sandwiches, we shared the Szetchy Fries. For some reason, my first taste of this made me think of Froot Loops - they definitely had some sweetness in the seasoning, and I prefer fries to be salty. It didn't exactly remind me of Sichuan spice, and the closest thing I could compare it to is Tajin. The fries were still well made and crunchy though, and my boyfriend really liked the light seasoning.
Turn up the heat, Hetchy's Hots! I'd love to see spicier offerings, although your current sandwiches are pretty superb. Hopefully we can get luckier parking when craving a hot chicken sandwich...