Buffalo Parmesan Sauce

Best Used on Buffalo Chicken Pizza! Recipe Posted Below

Buffalo flavored food is a trend that is ever growing, and it is one that I have bought into whole-heartedly. I have loved buffalo wings ever since I was a child, and I will continue to be tempted every time I see a new buffalo recipe or item on a menu. 

When I was in college I saw a jar in the grocery store labeled buffalo pizza sauce. Of course, I had to buy it, and it was delicious. Unfortunately, after about a year, I was unable to find the sauce sold anymore. I was so disappointed. This was before I was making my own homemade crusts, but we were still enjoying the occasional buffalo chicken pizza rolled out on Pillsbury Pizza Dough. 

As soon as I started making my own homemade pizzas this summer, I knew I had to figure out how to make a buffalo chicken version. Even though it has been four years since buying the jarred buffalo pizza sauce, I did a quick memory recall, and could remember a distinctive Parmesan taste in the sauce. This led to the creation of my Buffalo Parmesan Sauce. The sauce mimics an Alfredo sauce, but with an addition of the buffalo flavor. I haven’t tried this sauce on anything but pizza yet, but I honestly think it would taste amazing on pasta too. 

If you love pizza, and want to change things up from the classical version, I highly recommend making this sauce and following the instructions at the bottom of this recipe for whipping up a delicious Buffalo Chicken Pizza. 

Ingredients – Buffalo Parmesan Sauce

1 ½ cups Heavy Whipping Cream

⅓ cup Buffalo Sauce (I always use Frank’s Hot)

½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1 tbsp Parsley

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Directions

1. The first step to making Buffalo Parmesan sauce is to simmer the whipping cream. This can be a tricky process. The goal is to keep the cream at a light boil for the entirety of the 15 minutes, not letting the boil stop or get too rapid. By simmering it for a full 15 minutes the cream will thicken up nicely. Make sure to stir the whipping cream the entire time. This will stop clumps from appearing along the side of the pot. 

Kitchen Tip 1: If you decide to double this recipe you will need to simmer the cream even longer. The more cream you have, the longer it takes to thicken. It can be easy to be impatient with this, but thin sauce is a pain to deal with, especially when spreading it on pizza. It’s worth it to take the extra time. 

2. After the cream has been thickened add in the buffalo sauce and stir to combine.

3. Once both liquid ingredients have been combined, this recipe finishes off quickly. Add in the seasonings and Parmesan cheese. Stir the sauce until the Parmesan is completely melted. 

Kitchen Tip 2: Do not panic when the sauce has a slight gritty texture. There is a lot of Parmesan cheese in this recipe and it causes a texture change to occur. While this is off-putting when testing out a spoonful by itself, the problem goes away when the cheese melts down even further after combining the sauce with pizza. I’ve haven’t tried this with pasta yet, but I would suspect the same thing would happen when adding the sauce to hot pasta noodles. 

4. After the sauce is complete, keep it warm until serving. Sauces with a whipping cream base can be difficult to reheat, so it is best to avoid cooling it off too much. If you do need to reheat the sauce, make sure to do this on a low heat. It will not reheat well over high heat. 

Ingredients – Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Pizza Crust 

Buffalo Parmesan Sauce

12 oz Shredded Chicken

¼ cup Diced Green Onion

1 cup Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

*These instructions follow the steps for baking my Homemade Garlic Pizza Crust. If you are using a different crust, make sure to follow the baking instructions for the product you are using. If you are using the homemade garlic pizza crust, preheat the oven to 400 degrees

1. Before building the pizza, the chicken and green onions need to be prepped. Personally, I like to grill the chicken breasts up ahead of time, but they can easily be baked in the oven too. Shred the chicken and dice the green onions up into small pieces.

Kitchen Tip 3: I like to cut up both my chicken pieces and onion chunks pretty small, especially the onions. This is just a personal preference because I like to have a little bit of each ingredient each time I take a bite of pizza, but it is entirely up to you depending on your own tastes. 

2. After the ingredients are prepped, put the rolled out pizza dough in the oven for 5 minutes by itself. Since my garlic pizza crust recipe creates a thicker crust, it needs a little time to prebake before putting the other ingredients on. 

3. Take the crust out of the oven, and spread the sauce out to the edges, leaving about a ½ inch plain along the entire circumference. It is possible that some sauce will be leftover depending on how saucy you like your pizza to be. I usually make the layer thick enough for the crust to be hidden beneath it because the sauce is my favorite part of the pizza. After the sauce is spread out, add the chicken and onion pieces over the top of it. 

4. Bake the pizza for another 15 minutes then take it out and add the cheese over the top. Using the full amounts of cheese listed will create an ultra-cheesy pizza. This is the way my husband likes it. Feel free to lessen the amount of cheese depending on your own preferences. Put the pizza back in the oven for another 4 minutes to melt the cheese. 

This pizza is a super cheesy concoction with a slightly spicy flavor. Even though it is a buffalo recipe, do not expect your taste buds to burn off. The cream in the sauce and the cheese on the pizza do a great job of balancing everything out. This is a new favorite in my house, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!