The One Ingredient You Should Be Using In Your Buffalo Sauce

Whether you like it tossed with your chicken wings or find yourself craving it drizzled on pizza, tangy-spicy Buffalo sauce adds a big boost of flavor to food. But if you've ever wished you could add just a little bit of complexity to it, there's one secret ingredient you should try adding to your homemade Buffalo sauce: roasted garlic. 

Making Buffalo sauce at home is pretty simple: just mix Frank's RedHot hot sauce with melted butter, and you're good to go. It's got a rich flavor thanks to the fat from the butter, and the acidity of the vinegar and punch of salt in the hot sauce can liven up all manner of fried foods. But if you've ever felt that it's too one-note to work with ingredients like veggies and tofu, which don't pack the same umami punch as crispy chicken wings and can't always stand up to stronger flavors, then adding some garlic can bring that extra punch.

The story goes that the first Buffalo sauce was served at Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1964, the invention of one Teressa Bellissimo.

Apparently she whipped up the sauce with ingredients on hand and tossed it with chicken wings, which the restaurant had a surplus of. Time reports she served the spicy, tangy wings with the iconic blue cheese and celery that's so often found served with Buffalo-sauced items to this day. 

One of the typical ingredients in Buffalo sauce is Frank's RedHot. This cayenne pepper is even older than the original Buffalo wings it's been in production since 1920, and has become so synonymous with Buffalo sauce that the company released their own Frank's RedHot Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce in 2009.

While the tangy blend of Frank's and butter is still a favorite coating for crispy fried chicken wings, you can alter it so it can be used with all sorts of foods without overwhelming them with the punchy, spicy flavor. So why, as Food52 advises, add roasted garlic, or garlic confit if you're feeling fancy? When garlic is cooked low and slow, it loses its pungent flavor, instead becoming sweet, earthy, and savory as it caramelizes and softens.

Roasted garlic gives an added dimension of flavor to your Buffalo sauce, so even if you're using it with something meatless, you still get a powerful punch of umami. According to Lucky Peach, it's part of the recipe they use at the famous Italian restaurant Parm in New York City. Even better? This added flavor enables you to swap the melted butter with olive oil if you so choose, so your Buffalo sauce stays liquid when chilled. FYI: Butter, which is a saturated fat, is solid when refrigerated, and your Buffalo sauce will be, too. if you use it.

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