The best homemade buffalo sauce recipe. Made just as you like it with the right amount of spice. Perfect for buffalo wings, pulled pork, burgers and chicken fingers.
Homemade Buffalo Sauce Recipe
Over the past week I’ve been whipping up my husband’s love language. All things buffalo.
Matt pours buffalo sauce over everything. Pulled pork. Wings. Burgers. Potatoes. Popcorn. Salad. You name name the food and he’s probably put his favorite sauce on it.
He’s perfectly content with his store-bought sauce but I wanted to see what he thought of a homemade sauce. His reaction after these buffalo wings? He was in love. With the sauce itself and me for making the sauce. The homemade buffalo sauce allowed him to control the amount of spice for what he was feeling at the moment. And the rich buttery flavor? Delicious.
Where Does Buffalo Sauce Get Its Name?
Rumor has it that buffalo wings were first served in a restaurant in Buffalo, NY, created by the owner. Pretty amazing that her special sauce became something that millions love so much!
What is Buffalo Sauce Made Of?
Traditional sauce is made of cayenne pepper sauce (we used Frank’s RedHot), butter (to cool down the hot sauce a little), vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and spice. My favorite ingredient? Butter. 🙂
How to Make Buffalo Sauce
This spicy sauce is really easy to make. You’ll simple add the ingredients to a saucepan and allow the butter to melt over medium heat. When the sauce starts to simmer, remove the pan from the stovetop and allow it to cool. In less than 15 minutes you’ll be ready to dip, dip, dip!
Storing Homemade Wing Sauce
This recipe makes enough to cover 5 pounds of wings with several layers of sauce and then still have sauce leftover for dipping. Be sure to cover and refrigerate any leftovers. If the sauce separates and becomes “chunky”, it’s just from the butter hardening. All it takes is a minute in the microwave to soften that butter and make a smooth sauce again.
What Goes with Buffalo Sauce?
- Buffalo Wings (of course!)
- Chicken Fingers (this is a gluten free recipe and is great for paleo diets!)
- Homemade Chicken Nuggets
- Smashed Potatoes
- Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels
Buffalo Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup Frank's red hot sauce
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the hot sauce, butter, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.
- Whisk often as the butter melts and allow the mixture to come to a simmer.
- Once the sauce comes to a simmer, remove the pan from the heat.
- Allow the sauce to cool slightly. Add a dash or two of salt, to taste.
- The sauce will thicken as it cools. Whisk the sauce before serving over wings, on pulled pork or as a dipping sauce.
- Refrigerate any leftovers. As you refrigerate the mixture, some of the butter may separate and harden. Simply reheat the mixture on the stovetop or microwave to make the sauce smooth again.
- This mixture makes enough to cover 5 pounds of wings and have extra for dipping. Yields about 3 cups of sauce.
Video
Nutrition
Recipe slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com
Deborah says
My son has high cholesterol AND he doesn’t like butter, so I try to avoid it for those reasons. However, he LOVES Buffalo Sauce and has a difficult time finding ones that don’t taste buttery (I love the butter, as well!). Would Canola oil work in place of the butter?
Julie Clark says
It might, but I might try using a little less just so it doesn’t have a strange oil flavor. The butter definitely adds to the flavor, so it will change it a bit!
Anonymous says
You could also try substituting ghee for the butter.
Paige says
I used to run a chicken restaurant that did wings as a main stay! We used sunflower oil & whatever brand we bought for hot sauce that I can’t remember now! I was told by someone from Buffalo NY, we had the closest to true BUFFALO wings they’d had since moving. They got our 4x hot wings every week. Even I couldn’t taste that sauce! But our cajun wings…
kat says
how did you prepare the sauce with sunflower oil and still turn out authentic-tasting buffalo wings? i’d love to know! i want to try making it that way! i’m lactose-intolerant, but I loooooove buffalo wings.
Danielle says
I’m right with you on the butter, it’s almost my favorite part. My boyfriend tells me all the time how he doesn’t like buffalo sauce (what???). I’m pretty sure he’s just never had a good one. I’ll have to give this a shot and show him how delicious it is!
Elizabeth says
This really is the best buffalo sauce. I love to make my own marinades and sauces instead of buying them pre made and we happened to have had all the ingredients already at home. We made the sauce with Louisiana Hot Sauce and dipped the raw chicken wings in then baked on 375 in a glass pan with some sauce on the bottom for 10 mins, then grilled 2 mins on each side, then baked some more for 25 mins and then finished it off with custom broil set at 500 F for 5 mins. My fiance said it was the best wings ever: fall off the bones, didn’t even need ranch though he did like the homemade ranch too that we dipped celery in. Started off with no hormone added and antibiotic free wings. Great ingredients plus love equaled the best wings ever so now he’s wanting more family members in on the amazingness. I didn’t think it tasted buttery but I don’t mind the taste and it was probably a main reason why it was so awesome but we basically just used it as a marinade not so much a dip after the chicken was cooked so the flavor really rang through.
Anne says
Delicious! I followed the recipe almost exactly – but left out the paprika. (because I was in a hurry)
Loved it! So did my son. Saving this one! Thanks!
Paige says
I do a dry rub first, then marinate them for 2-6 hours depending on my timeline. And I use Sweet Baby Rays hot sauce for a reason and garlic, red pepper and seasoned salt for the dry ingredients. Season and sit. Then do wet sauce marinade before baking. We fried in the restaurant I worked in, then tossed them in sauce. Both are good, but I like letting the sauce infuse in to the skin at home. You never get restaurant flavor at home so you’ve gotta figure out your own!
Julie Clark says
Great ideas!!! Thank you!
Tiffany says
What would be the serving size????
Cheryl says
How long does it keep for in the fridge?
Julie Clark says
We’ve kept it for about 2 weeks in the fridge.
Nicole says
Made this for the first time tonight. As much as I love heat, I was a little worried as to how hot it was going to be. But it was perfect. Served then with a homemade ranch dressing. Will definitely be making this again!!
Debra Y says
This sauce is amazing! LOVE IT! Simple and uses common ingredients. Great flavor. Kiddos loved it as well! A keeper in my recipe box/Pinterest board. Thank you!
Ai says
This is the best buffalo sauce I have ever encountered. When I made this batch for the first time I tasted it and thought oh my Loki I need to double the batch so I could use it for tomorrow’s lunchboxes for my husband and kids! And guess what, I still have to make extra batch because they devoured everything! Even when the extra chicken were gone they just poured it on top of white rice and ate that!
Thank you so much for this recipe. This is going to be my go to recipe for buffalo sauce from now on
Go Bills! says
Could you use red wine vinegar rather than white vinegar?
Julie Clark says
We’ve not tried that. I think it would change the flavor slightly, but it would probably work.
Jc says
The reason your sauce is broken in every picture is because you simmer the butter and hot sauce. Butter and pan need to be just warm, if not cooler when you add hot sauce and other ingredients. You’ll get a smooth, consistent and non-oily sauce
Wally says
You actually want the dry spices to “bloom” in the hot butter. The water in the hot sauce and vinegar is the issue.
Peter says
I love buffalo sauce flavor but it’s neveractually HOT, so needed my own take. This was the perfect “everyone gets a trophy” recipe. I dont love Frank’s so dug up another recipe to make my own pepper sauce base, rounded 1/4 up to 1/2 mostly to accomodate my 1/2 tsp min. Sauce is better than I anticipated & happily sweating from endorphins that think my head is being attacked by fire breathing buffalo’s. Thanks so much!
KTFO Ranch says
Great recipe, but it needed considerably more heat! I only made a half batch, as we are “empty nesters” (YAY!) and made enough sauce for a dozen full air fried wings – 24 pieces. I ended up adding two tablespoons of “El Yucateco” red habañero hot sauce to give it the painful, blistering, endorphin fueled rush I love.
Lynn says
Delicious!! I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used Louisiana Hot Sauce. This is a keeper!! Thank you so much!!
Shayla says
This sauce is AMAZE BALLS!!!! Question? U list the nutritional facts but not a serving size??