Vegan Buffalo Hot Wings Questa ricetta è disponibile anche in italiano
Crispy, spicy and gorgeously good, these Vegan Buffalo Hot Wings are seriously easy to make and will please any of your cravings.
Among all the assorted foods that people say they miss when they’re turning Vegan, hot wings are usually pretty high up the list. These vegan buffalo wings are sure to help out with that, scratching the itch for some meat without actually making a trip to KFC.
Without further ado, let’s talk about our vegan buffalo nuggets!
What Is Buffalo Sauce?
Buffalo sauce, while super popular in the US, is less heard of in other places around the world.
At the heart of it, buffalo sauce is a tangy, rich, and spicy sauce.
Normally, it features a lot of chilies as the primary ingredient to get that heat, as well as tangy ingredients like vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.
When combined, all these distinct sauces and ingredients form a sauce that’s rich, indulgent, and sharp up front, with a heat that will last on your lips and fingertips for longer than you’d expect.
While we’re talking about buffalo sauce – there’s often some confusion about the difference between buffalo sauce and hot sauce. This is understandable – they’re really similar! The difference is that buffalo sauce has butter (or vegan butter in our case) featured as a primary flavor. In turn, the sauce is much richer and more luxurious – less harsh overall.
This less harsh flavor is perfect for using with vegan buffalo hot wings, as it allows the seitan (or whatever meat substitute you’re using) to shine as it carries the amazing sauce effortlessly.
What Chilies and Hot Sauce Should You Use?
This amazing recipe calls for chilies and hot sauce. These are some classic ingredients for buffalo sauce, so it’s only natural that you might want to get the perfect ones.
Well, you can’t really get better hot sauce than sauce you’ve made in your home. It will always be hotter, sweeter, and sharper than anything you can track down at the store, which is one reason why we love to use it.
However, if you wanted to go for a store-bought sauce, there are plenty to choose from:
– regular
– green
– super hot
– or even chipotle
I would suggest going with the one you like the most.
Having a bottle of hot sauce it in the kitchen is such a handy pantry staple. It’s bright and hot while also being sweet and citrusy.
The chipotle ones have a lovely, smoky taste, ideal for people who adore some spicy barbecue flavors.
There are a crazy number of different types of chilies out there, there’s no secret about that. From really hot chilies like Bird’s Eye from Thailand to more mild and traditional chilies like Jalapenos from Mexico.
For this recipe, I’d recommend using chillies with a medium heat level as the sauce will also be enriched with some cayenne pepper powder for that extra hot kick. Whatever chilies you can get your hands on at the supermarket or you particularly like will be amazing for the cause.
One thing we would suggest avoiding to replicate buffalo sauce as closely as possible is pickled chilies, such as jarred jalapenos. While they would make a delicious sauce, the flavor wouldn’t be as close to buffalo sauce as what you might expect. Therefore, always try to get fresh chilies!
What vegan wings or nuggets to use/make
The beauty of this recipe, that is mainly about the sauce, is that it works magically well with any vegan nuggets or wings you like or have available.
You can use store bought vegan nuggets for a quick & easy fix, or even make your very own from scratch using seitan, tofu, tempeh, pea protein or any other vegetable protein of your choice.
For the basic recipe for vegan nuggets you can follow this recipe.
And if you’d like to attempt making your own vegan wings or seitan nuggets, I’ve got this Seitan and TVP wings recipe while in this post you will find a detailed guide about making your own seitan and achieving the best texture for your taste buds.
Do you want to try something different?
Give these Cauliflower hot wings a go too!
Enjoy!
Vegan Buffalo Hot Wings Recipe
Ingredients:
350 to 500 g Vegan Nuggets
…for the buffalo sauce…
150 g Hot Sauce (store-bought or homemade)
100 g Water (or vegan butter for non oil-free version)
1/2 tsp Vegan Worcester Sauce
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Corn Starch
…for homemade hot sauce…
6 Chili Peppers (medium heat)
125 g Apple Cider Vinegar
2-3 Garlic Cloves
1/4 tsp Salt
Method:
1. For the hot sauce: Remove pepper tips, chop the peppers and add to a pan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
2. Allow to cool then blitz into a sauce. If you have a ninja blended start with pulse 4-5 times, then blend on low for 15 seconds and on high for 3-4 sessions or until you can no longer spot seeds or pepper bits.
3. For the buffalo sauce: In a pan, Measure the corn starch, stir in the water a bit at a time, then stir in the hot sauce and the remaining spices. Bring to a boil and allow the sauce to thicken slightly for a minute or so. Beware of the hot fumes.
4. Deep fry, oven bake, or air fry the vegan nuggets according to your taste. If using store-bought nuggets follow the instructions on the back of the box; remember to cook for half the time if you want to bake them in the air fryer, and flip them halfway through. For homemade seitan nuggets follow this recipe and if you want to learn how to make seitan from scratch follow the tips in this post.
5. Whilst hot, toss the vegan nuggets into the sauce and serve with your favorite dips and some refreshing celery sticks.
