Buffalo wings are a dish made from fried chicken wings that are coated in a mixture of hot sauce, vinegar, chili peppers, and melted butter. They are often served as an appetizer, and their spiciness will vary significantly depending on the hot sauce to butter ratio in the coating sauce. The wings tend to be accompanied with celery or carrots, as well as a dipping sauce. When choosing a buffalo wings dipping sauce, it is a good idea to look for ingredients that counteract the spiciness of the hot sauce on the wings themselves in order to enhance the flavor of the dish without becoming overwhelmingly spicy.
One of the most commonly recommended ways for counteracting spicy flavors is consuming a dairy product. When choosing a buffalo wings dipping sauce, it may be advised to look for sauces that have a dairy base. A traditional accompaniment to buffalo wings is bleu cheese dressing. Bleu cheese is a cheese that is aged with a pungent taste. The dressing typically consists of sour cream, mayonnaise, or plain yogurt that is blended with crumbled bleu cheese and served cold.
For those that do not like the distinctive flavor of bleu cheese dressing and prefer a milder taste, it may be recommended to use a more delicately flavored dairy based sauce. When choosing buffalo wings dipping sauce, a widely used alternative to bleu cheese dressing is ranch dressing. Consisting of buttermilk, mayonnaise, and herbs, ranch dressing tends to have a lighter flavor than bleu cheese dressing, but can produce the same desired cooling effect.
When choosing buffalo wings dipping sauce, it may also be advised to look for one containing an acidic ingredient. Acid is thought to help partially neutralize the spiciness in buffalo wings and add a fresh, tangy flavor to the rich butter and spicy hot sauce from the wings. Dipping sauces with citrus juice or zest undertones are often recommended. Wine, tomatoes, and vinegar are other acidic ingredients commonly utilized in dipping sauces for buffalo wings.
A slightly sweet sauce is often paired with hot buffalo wings in order to provide a more complex overall taste and prevent overwhelming spiciness. Sweet buffalo wings dipping sauce may contain molasses, honey, or sugar, along with more savory sauce ingredients, and may be recommended for people who dislike overt spicy flavors. Fruit-based sauces, such as fruit salsas or glazes, may also be served with the wings as another sweet dipping option.