Elevate Store-Bought Buffalo Sauce With This Expert-Approved Ingredient

If you're making Buffalo wings at home but don't want to prepare the sauce from scratch, we won't blame you for taking a shortcut with store-bought sauce. But there is a hack for elevating that bottled Buffalo sauce, according to chef Michael Vignola, Catch Hospitality Group's corporate executive chef. Vignola, who is currently running the show over at The Corner Store, Catch, and Catch Steak, told Mashed, "Mount in salted butter to round out the spice."

Traditional Buffalo sauce is typically a mix of hot sauce and butter, but not all commercially-prepared Buffalo sauces actually use butter. For example, bottles of Buffalo Wild Wings medium Buffalo sauce and Frank's RedHot Buffalo sauce don't list butter as an ingredient (although Frank's does have "natural butter type flavor" — whatever that means). Instead, they use oil to achieve the silky, emulsified texture.

Incorporating real butter into your bottled Buffalo sauce will give it a velvety finish and a smoother mouthfeel (since when has butter not made something better?). The salted butter also adds depth to the sauce's tangy heat and improves the whole flavor profile. This is particularly useful with sauces that have an overpowering tang or spice to them, as it makes them more balanced. Whether you're making copycat Buffalo Wild Wings for the Super Bowl or using it as a dip, mounting your bottled Buffalo sauce with butter will make it taste restaurant-quality without a lot of effort.

Mounting butter, or "monter au beurre" in French cooking, is a classic technique that gives finishing sauces a rich, glossy texture. Slowly incorporating the butter results in emulsification. This happens when substances that don't typically mix, such as fat-based butter and water-based sauce, blend together in a stable way.

To mount salted butter into store-bought Buffalo sauce, start with chilled butter so that it breaks down slowly in the sauce. Once the sauce is warm (not too hot, or it can break the emulsion), whisk in the butter pieces until well incorporated. The warmth of the sauce will naturally melt the butter, and the whisking will help disperse all those lovely fat droplets throughout the sauce, making it creamy and smooth.

Not only will mounting butter into store-bought Buffalo sauce improve its overall flavor, but the luscious texture helps the sauce cling perfectly to whatever you're putting it on. Try this with Buffalo wings, cauliflower, celery, smashed potatoes, French fries — whatever you want. If you're looking for ideas, check out our list of the best recipes to try with your favorite Buffalo sauce