Rescue Thin Buffalo Sauce With This Foolproof Technique

If you're planning to make some Buffalo sauce, either for tossing some wings in or to fold into a Buffalo chicken dip recipe, keep this tip on hand in case it turns out runnier than you'd like. To make a thicker Buffalo sauce, simply add a cornstarch slurry.

To thicken 1 cup of sauce, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of cold water. Stir until the ingredients form a paste, then gradually whisk that paste into your cup of heated Buffalo sauce. Simmer until the starch taste is gone. And voilà! You now have a nice, thick sauce.

This tip works thanks to the process of gelatinization. Mixing the cornstarch with water removes the starch's clumps. Then, when you mix the paste into the simmering Buffalo sauce, the starch granules burst, and the amylopectin molecules in the starch become a part of the sauce, forming a clear, soft gel. The flavor of cornstarch tends to be clean and won't interfere with your sauce the way flour would. Just be careful not to overheat your sauce — keep it at a gentle simmer during this process, as it'll break if it gets too hot.

Another option for thickening your Buffalo sauce is the often-misunderstood ingredient xanthan gum. This common food stabilizer and thickener isn't just for food scientists — you can find it in most grocery store bakery sections, and it's an easy way to give your sauce some oomph. A little goes a long way, so add a small amount at a time while mixing your sauce to fully hydrate the powder. Stop and check the texture as you go to ensure it doesn't get slimy. Start with around ⅛ teaspoon per cup of sauce, and stop when it coats a spoon. Unlike with cornstarch, you don't need to heat everything up to make this method work.

Another option to give your Buffalo sauce a bit of extra thickness — not to mention some additional flavor — is mustard. Just make sure you don't let the concoction come to a boil, as it'll break both the mustard and the sauce's butter emulsion. If you don't have cornstarch or xanthan gum on hand, reaching for mustard is a fine alternative that you likely already have. Once you get the sauce to your desired thickness, you'll be ready to make the ultimate Buffalo wings for the big game!