To me, this buffalo sauce recipe is the MVP when it comes to jazzing up a chicken dish, baked, or fried. This fermented sauce is beyond easy and only takes a few minutes to put together. Then all you need to do is let it sit for a week.
After that, just blend everything, strain it, and you’ll have a wonderful homemade hot sauce. Let’s enjoy this flavorful mashup and get ready to feel the heat!
What Is Buffalo Sauce?
Buffalo sauce is a mixture of melted butter and hot sauce. It has a satisfying balance of rich and spicy flavor with a smooth texture.
1. Why Is It Called Buffalo Sauce?
The good news is neither the origin of the name nor the ingredients have anything to do with an actual buffalo. The sauce was named after a restaurant in Buffalo, New York, where chicken wings were first served with this sauce. Until then, chicken wings were regarded as waste and used to make soup.
The original sauce is ridiculously simple to make; you only need five essential ingredients: chili, butter, vinegar, water, and salt. You can make your version of buffalo sauce recipe by adding other ingredients to enhance its flavors.
2. Is Buffalo Sauce Vegan?
The short answer is no.
Original buffalo sauce is a chili-based hot sauce with melted butter. As butter is a dairy product that is made from milk, it’s considered a non-vegan product.
Recently, many brands replace butter in the sauce and replace it with plant-based fat to lengthen the shelf life. You can check the label carefully to get the right buffalo sauce that you want.
Is Buffalo Sauce Healthy?
Buffalo sauce is a fermented food. This means it is full of healthy bacteria, grown during the fermentation process, which help with digestion and strengthen your gut microbiome.
The chili peppers used contain a large number of fundamental minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins (especially vitamin C). Vitamin C can also prevent colds and might even help lower the risk of heart disease and cancer.
Spicy peppers don’t agree with everyone; they can increase acidity and lead to inflammation of the stomach. A recent study found that adults over 55 who consistently consumed more than 50 grams of chili per day had an increased risk of memory decline. So how much buffalo sauce can we use daily? No more than 3 tablespoons.
Buffalo Sauce Ingredients
This homemade buffalo sauce recipe gives a kick of pleasant heat and tang. It can be used as a dipping sauce or coating for chicken wings.
What Is Buffalo Sauce Made Of?
All ingredients to make this amazing sauce are really simple: chilies, vinegar, butter, salt, Worcestershire, and seasoning of choice. You can choose your favorite chilies and change the ratio of them to control the heat of the sauce.
How To Make Homemade Buffalo Sauce
Step 1: Prep chilies
Remove the ends of the chili peppers and cut them into 2-inch pieces.
Step 2: Make the brine
Add water, rice vinegar, and salt into a glass container. Then transfer chili peppers into the container.
Step 3: Ferment
Store it in a dark place at room temperature.
Step 4: Blend
After 5-7 days, it will have some small bubbles floating on the surface. Transfer the chilies mixture from the jar into a high-speed blender for 1 minute to get more liquid out of them.
Step 5: Strain the mixture
Strain the blended mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to create a smooth sauce.
Step 6: Melt the butter and add seasoning
In a small pan, melt the butter, then add in the paprika, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce.
Step 7: Make the buffalo sauce
Pour the butter mixture into the chili sauce. Keep the sauce in a food container.
Step 8: Store
Store the buffalo sauce in the freezer for up to 6 months.
How To Thicken Buffalo Sauce
If you want to thicken your buffalo sauce, simmering is the easiest way. Pour the sauce into a small pan over small heat, use a flame to stir gently to ensure that the liquid doesn’t burn.
You don’t have to add other ingredients and the result is a more concentrated sauce.
Creamy ingredients like sugar or butter can also thicken the buffalo sauce. Try to add some sugar or melted butter into the sauce and then bring the mixture to boil. You should keep the eye during this process since overcooking the sauce might make the sauce change the consistency and flavor.
Buffalo Sauce Nutrition
Each tablespoon of our buffalo sauce recipe contains 10 calories and fat accounts for most of them (9 calories). Other element takes up for small numbers:
Fiber: 1 gram
Carbohydrate: 1 gram
Protein: 1 gram
Potassium: 19 grams
How Long Will This Sauce Keep?
The shelf life of fermented foods requires low temperatures and high-quality packaging. Without any preservatives, the homemade version has a significantly shorter shelf life than the commercial sauce.
This homemade buffalo sauce recipe can easily be kept around six months in a cool, dark location (like a low cupboard) or the refrigerator for even longer. It’s all about the acidity.
Technically shelf-stable food has a pH level below 4.6 pH. If you’re concerned, adding more vinegar can lower the pH and thus the sauce might be shelf-stable for up to a year.
From my experience, as long as the vinegar in it doesn’t smell bad and there are no signs of mold, you can use it.
Buffalo Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 oz bird’s eye chili
- 3 oz jalapeno chili
- 1/2 cup white rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp unsalted butter
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
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Instructions
- Remove the ends of the chili peppers and cut them into 2-inch pieces. I suggest using rubber gloves for this step since your skin might get burned or irritated cutting them barehanded.
- Add water, rice vinegar, and salt into a glass container. Then transfer chili peppers into the container.
- Store it in a dark place at room temperature.
- After 5-7 days, it will have some small bubbles floating on the surface. Transfer the chilies mixture from the jar into a high-speed blender for 1 minute to get more liquid out of them.
- Strain the blended mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to create a smooth sauce.
- In a small pan, melt the butter, then add in the paprika, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pour the butter mixture into the chili sauce. Keep the sauce in a food container.
- Store the buffalo sauce in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
- Try to keep everything as clean as possible because you do not want to introduce harmful bacteria which could ruin your fermentation.
- Having the right proportion of salt (2 percent over the weight of chilies) to water is essential. Unhealthy bacteria can grow in a lower-salt environment, however, these bacteria might be killed when there is too much salt.
- You can add a few sweet peppers, like bell peppers, to the jar to temper the spiciness of your sauce.
Nutrition
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