Gone are the days when Frito-Lay Flamin’ Hot Cheetos lived exclusively on gas station and grocery store shelves. Now you can find them in croissants, tacos, sushi, tortillas and even ice cream. Chester Cheetah’s favorite spicy snack has taken the world by storm—including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Carnival Midway. If you browse the food options this month, you’ll find more than one item dusted with Hot Cheetos.
The Cheetos craze at the Houston rodeo started about nine years ago, according to Dominic Palmieri of Ray Cammack Shows (RCS), the company RodeoHouston is contracted to produce the carnival. Midway Gourmet, as he’s known, says the idea came when his colleagues put Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in sandwiches for some spice and crunch. The first item to arrive at the carnival was oven-roasted corn topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, sold at the Corn Shack booth.
A foot-long corn dog covered in Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is an example of the sumptuous carnival food you can expect at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle“To hold on [Cheetos] for something you need food glue. Well, in this particular case, the mayonnaise was the glue,” Palmieri said. “We started grinding Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and rolling it on the corn. We tried it first with the butter, but the butter wasn’t a good enough glue.”
Of course, Palmieri didn’t invent this: Elote, the Mexican street snack that covers corn on the cob with butter or mayo, lime and chili, has been around since the early 1900s. Still, the Hot Cheetos version was a hit at the rodeo.
“It was so popular that I literally went around to every grocery store and I bought every bag of Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos that they had,” Palmieri said.
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Cheese Turkey leg by Biggy’s BBQ was awarded in the “Creative” category at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s 2020 Gold Buckle Foodie awards.
Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff PhotographerNo longer rummaging through grocery store shelves for the chips, Palmieri says Frito-Lay now supplies industrial-size bags directly to RCS, which serves eight major carnival events across the country each year, including the Arizona State Fair, LA County Fair and Coachella. And the Hot Cheetos menu has only grown at RCS: The chips are now on chicken sandwiches, candy apples, pizza and even cotton candy. Palmieri has also helped other franchisees figure out how to incorporate Flamin’ Hot Cheetos into their snacks after he started getting calls from around the country asking how they could get in on the craze.
“Every year we try to push the limits of flavor and texture,” Palmieri said of his Flamin’ Hot experiments, like a true mad scientist. “All the different fun, wild and crazy things, whether it’s deep fried, grilled or smoked. And the Cheetos thing has just been, no pun intended, the hot food trend for quite a while now.”
A hot cheetos-crusted apple at the 2019 Gold Buckle Foodie Awards at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Mark Mulligan/Staff photographerThis year’s rodeo offerings include a Big Daddy Cheeto Cheese Corn Dog, like the regular Big Daddy corn dog but topped with melted cheddar and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; a pair of fried chicken sandwich and burger items containing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; Flamin’ Hot chicken wings (self-explanatory); pickle chips topped with melted cheddar and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; and of course the Flamin’ Hot Corn that started it all. Most can be found at Biggy’s II, but other Flamin’ Hot dishes can be found at Enzo’s Pizzeria and the Corn Shack.
Palmieri says Hot Cheeto fries are probably their most popular Flamin’ Hot take, but it’s also hard to quantify who is the true front-runner. He has found that people often try several things, and creates a kind of Flamin’ rodeo sample plate.
Crunchy Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Cheese Pickles by Biggy’s BBQ was awarded in the “New Flavor” category at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s 2020 Gold Buckle Foodie awards.
Karen Warren/Staff photographerWith the help of “Rocco,” the giant grinder Palmieri bought to pulverize “a semi-load” of Cheetos this year, RCS’ 32 food booths will serve thousands of rodeo-goers. And this year, Palmieri hopes his latest exercise in food experimentation will tempt them: a Cap’n Crunch chicken sandwich.
The Hot Cheetos float was introduced in 2022 at the Candy Factory at the Houston rodeo.
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo“We put Cap’n Crunch cereal [on the chicken], but what we’ve done for the food glue, when the fried chicken comes out piping hot, we hit it with a honey raspberry glaze,” Palmieri said. “That texture and crispness of the cereal along with the acidity of the raspberry. honey glaze and then the super extra crispy fried chicken… It’s just really good. I’m telling you it works on so many levels.”
But Palmieri believes King Cheeto is here to stay, especially for Houstonians, whom he credits for being ready to embrace his Flamin’ Hot creations. “You guys like to kick it up a notch,” he says.
