As you may remember from when Popeyes unleashed Ghost Pepper Wings last year, ghost peppers are among the hottest peppers on Earth, almost 1,000 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. Now Wendy’s has created a sauce spiked with actual ghost peppers, and it’s heating up the french-fry wars. Take that, McDonald’s.

Here’s the Ghost Pepper Fries breakdown: Wendy’s natural-cut fries smothered in cheese sauce, topped with diced jalapenos (seeds ‘n’ everything), shredded cheddar cheese and ghost pepper sauce. If you eat these in your car, you might want to keep tongs and a dropcloth handy.

Total calories: 500. Fat grams: 33. Dietary fiber: 5 g. Carbs: 44 g. Protein: 9 g. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $1.99. Available for a limited time only.

These fries don’t come in a little paper bag — Ghost Pepper Fries would soak through that. They’re served on a black plastic platter with a clear dome for takeout.

Wendy’s claims that these fries aren’t just “fast-food hot,” they’re “hot hot.” Fine, but at some point, these one-up spice games must stop. Spicy: good. Hot: also good. Pure ghost pepper hot: burn unit.

Thankfully, Wendy’s Ghost Pepper Fries aren’t really “hot-hot,” they’re more “hype-hot.” They’re not horror-movie ghost peppers; they’re Casper the Friendly Ghost peppers. Nobody’s shooting flames from their mouth and pointing to a fire extinguisher on the wall.

If you’re looking for fries with a kick, Wendy’s has a leg up on the competition. Ghost Pepper Fries are spicy, for sure, but more important, they’re different from the humdrum fries on every other fast-food tray.

They’re extremely messy, with gloppy cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, the spooky ghost pepper sauce and chopped jalapenos. I’m not sure how well these will travel. Cold fries are tasteless enough; cold fries with cold, congealed cheese sauce … good luck with that. But if you’re dining in, I say give ’em a try.

Wendy’s also has a new Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken Sandwich with a spritz of ghost pepper sauce. We all love Wendy’s regular Spicy Chicken Sandwich, an icon since 1996. Well, this one takes a good thing to … let’s see where the out-of-bounds line is.

The Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken Sandwich starts with a regular Spicy Chicken Sandwich with an all-white-meat patty, then piles on warm, melty cheese sauce, Colby and pepper-Jack cheeses, a slice of crunchy red onion, diced jalapenos and ghost pepper sauce on a red jalapeno bun. Was there anything left in the fridge, Wendy’s?

The Jalapeno Fresco Spicy Chicken Sandwich makes Ghost Pepper Fries look like dainty finger food that you could eat with white gloves. One bite into the sandwich, and there were squirts here and seeping spillage there. But the bottom line: It’s a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s, and Wendy’s knows chicken sandwiches.

The sandwich is $4.99, dry cleaning not included.