Buffalo Wing Sauce

By
Leah Maroney
Leah Maroney
Leah Maroney
A recipe developer and food photographer, Leah Maroney is an ardent home cook and food blogger who has written over 300 recipes for The Spruce Eats.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
Updated on 01/27/21
Buffalo wing sauce recipe

The Spruce / Leah Maroney

Prep: 3 mins
Cook: 1 mins
Total: 4 mins
Servings: 2 servings
Yield: 1 cup

Buffalo wing sauce can be as easy as hot sauce and butter, but if you add a few special ingredients you can take this basic sauce from boring to amazing. This sauce has a medium heat, but we've included variations for how to make it milder or spicier below. 

This recipe on its own makes enough for a dozen wings but can be easily doubled or tripled to make more. Impress your guests with this super flavorful sauce and a pile of crispy wings. 

You can store the sauce in a sealed container in the refrigerator if you want to, but it works best when you make it fresh, and because it comes together quickly, it's not hard to do it that way. Simply plan it so you are making it toward the end of baking or frying your wings. Because of the way the sauce is emulsified, it will not separate at room temperature; this means after you make it, it can stay at room temperature until the wings are ready.

Buffalo wing sauce is totally a keto-friendly ingredient, and can be used in any recipes such as non-breaded wings or drizzled on top of cauliflower mac and cheese.

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons butter

  • 3/4 cup cayenne pepper hot sauce

  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

  • 1/2 clove garlic

  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar

  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather your ingredients.

    Buffalo wing sauce ingredients

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney

    Melt the butter in the microwave or saucepan until completely melted.

    Melted butter in a bowl

    The Spruce / Leah Moroney

  2. Add the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, brown sugar, and cider vinegar to a blender. (You can mince the garlic ahead of time if your blender does not mince well.)

    wing sauce ingredients in a blender

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney

  3. Turn on your blender on medium speed and slowly pour in the butter while blending to emulsify the sauce.

    blended wing sauce

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney

  4. Toss your favorite fried or baked wings in the wing sauce and serve with celery and blue cheese.

    buffalo wing sauce

    The Spruce / Leah Maroney

Recipe Tips

  • This sauce is also delicious to toss with chicken over a salad or with popcorn shrimp. Or use it in Buffalo chicken pizza or in Buffalo chicken sandwiches.
  • You can also prepare this in your food processor if you are doing this as a small batch. If you double or triple the batch a blender works best as food processors can’t hold excess liquid.
  • To keep your wings at a nice temperature you can heat the sauce in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds before tossing with your wings. 

Recipe Variations

There are many ways to vary this basic Buffalo sauce recipe to suit your tastes.


Mild Sauce: Change the butter and hot sauce ratio to 1/2 cup hot sauce and 8 tablespoons butter and keep all of the other ingredients the same.


Hot Sauce: Reduce the butter to intensify the heat: 1/2 cup hot sauce, 4 tablespoons butter.


Out of garlic? Omit it, or substitute it with 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. 


Vegan: Replace the Worcestershire with soy sauce and replace the butter with a vegan butter substitute.
Add a dash of hot sauce for another level of flavor.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
350 Calories
35g Fat
10g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories 350
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 35g 45%
Saturated Fat 22g 110%
Cholesterol 92mg 31%
Sodium 327mg 14%
Total Carbohydrate 10g 4%
Dietary Fiber 1g 2%
Total Sugars 8g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 28mg 141%
Calcium 28mg 2%
Iron 1mg 4%
Potassium 567mg 12%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)