The 6 Best Substitutes For Buffalo Sauce

What can I use instead of buffalo sauce? Homemade buffalo sauce or adding a dollop of butter to Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce is the best way to match the flavor and creaminess of store-bought buffalo sauce. Hotter, tasty substitutes are tabasco and Sriracha, whereas mild replacements are Mumbo and BBQ sauce.

Home to Buffalo, NY, deep-fried chicken wings are famously slathered in spicy, rich buffalo sauce to create iconic buffalo wings. Buffalo sauce works on anything and everything, from traditional chicken wings to tacos, toasties, and more.

Consider making your buffalo sauce or using a close alternative if you can’t find the buttery hot sauce at the store.

The Best Buffalo Sauce Substitutes

Homemade Buffalo Sauce

It sure helps to have a trustworthy buffalo sauce recipe in your back pocket when the bottled stuff runs out (it happens faster than you think!).

Traditional buffalo sauce is a silky-smooth hot sauce that is enhanced with rich, buttery.

Gob-smacking buffalo sauce is simple as combining ⅔ cup hot sauce, ½ cup butter, 1½ tablespoons vinegar, ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, ¼ teaspoon cayenne, and ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder in a pot.

Bring the ingredients to a simmer, and whisk to blend the sauce until it reaches a thick consistency.

Serve the buffalo sauce with fried chicken wings, tacos, egg rolls, skewers, and quesadillas, or use it as a glaze or BBQ sauce to brush over chops, brisket, ribs, and chicken.

Frank’s Red Hot Original Sauce

Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce is the next best thing to buffalo sauce. Some even argue that it’s the only proper hot sauce suitable for buffalo wings.

Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce has similar ingredients, including aged cayenne red peppers, vinegar, water, kosher salt, and garlic powder. However, it lacks the distinct creamy taste of the missing butter.

The tartness and bite of Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce are perfect for buffalo wings. However, you can also add it to chicken chili, beans, spicy meatballs, pizzas, or nachos.

Use equal amounts when substituting buffalo sauce with Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce.

You can add melted butter to Frank’s Red Hot Original sauce to match the creaminess and smoothness of buffalo sauce. Alternatively, opt for Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce.

Tabasco

Tabasco sauce gets its name from the tabasco pepper variety. Believe it or not, this outlandish, spicy hot sauce consists of three simple ingredients – tabasco chili peppers, distilled vinegar, and salt.

You can use tabasco to spice up your wings when you run out of buffalo sauce.

Use tabasco to replace buffalo sauce when making buffalo wings or to splash over a breakfast skillet, fried rice, pizza, tacos, or Cajun food.

Buffalo sauce is typically around 450 SHUs on the Scoville scale.

In comparison, tabasco reaches 2,500 to 5,000 SHUs. So, you’ll want to use tabasco in moderation when replacing buffalo sauce.

Sriracha Sauce

Sriracha sauce is a versatile, bright red hot sauce primarily associated with Thai and Vietnamese cuisine.

Sriracha is made from red chili peppers, distilled vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic – lots of garlic! You can use Sriracha to replace buffalo sauce with a garlicky, spicy alternative.

Sriracha is ideal for glazing fried chicken wings in a tangy and spicy sauce. However, you can also use Sriracha as a dipping sauce or stir it into rice and chicken noodles.

Sriracha is thicker and spicier than buffalo sauce. Sriracha sauce ranges between 1,000 and 2,500 SHU compared to buffalo sauce’s 450 SHUs.

So, we recommend using less Sriracha to replace buffalo sauce.

Mumbo Sauce (Mambo Sauce)

Mumbo sauce is a versatile sweet-sour sauce that you can use as a non-spicy buffalo sauce alternative.

Mumbo sauce is highly versatile. You can use Mumbo sauce as a dip for your fried chicken wings, fries, fried seafood, and egg rolls. Alternatively, use mumbo sauce as a glaze or marinade for pork ribs and chicken.

You can substitute buffalo sauce with mumbo sauce using equal amounts. You can also increase the spiciness level by adding a dash of cayenne pepper.

BBQ Sauce

BBQ sauce is another non-spicy substitute for buffalo sauce. Barbecue sauce boasts varying degrees and combinations of sweet, tangy, smoky, and spicy elements.

Use BBQ sauce as a dip for chicken wings, onion rings, meatballs, chicken nuggets, burgers, and fries. You can also use it as a pork, chicken, and steak marinade.

You can substitute buffalo sauce with BBQ sauce using equal amounts.

However, even the spiciest BBQ sauce doesn’t resemble buffalo sauce. So, you can add a dash of cayenne pepper to increase the spiciness.