I am not a fan of Buffalo wings. I like the flavor, but do not like whatever little meat you can manage to pick off, in between the tiny bones and tendons of those little suckers. Yuck! Haha, personal opinion of course. The amount of people who love them would obviously disagree with me. Like my parents. They can pick a wing, drumstick, whatever, absolutely clean! The difference between my wing and theirs. Mine looks mangled and as if I just sucked off the wing sauce. (Which is what I do) They have just bones in their hand! No thanks! So a great solution to that, you ask? Cauliflower!! I love cauliflower raw, riced and baked, anyway really. When you bread it and add wing sauce, you don’t even know it’s cauliflower. My kids even love it! Sometimes the wing sauce is too spicy, and my middle one get kind of pissy that it’s too hot for her to eat. My bad!!
This is great side or appetizer. Not just for football season either. We eat it regularly. Tends to be for parties or a Sunday meal or mid-day snack. Little bit of prep work, but super easy non the less. I made it last night with our French Dip Sandwiches. (My husband made it and I didn’t take notes, DANGIT!!)
This is how I bake my cauliflower. Foil down first, then a baking rack. That way, it raises the cauliflower up out of the mixture, so it crisps it on the bottom too.
You can take the step to bread it, with the flour and milk mixture, or you can skip that step for a healthier version. I have also used almond flour as a substitute for white flour. Use what ever you have. You can add Panko at the end when you dip it in the wing sauce and throw it back in for 5 min. That pretty delicious also. Wings your way! Play with the recipe. It’s easy and hard to go wrong and mess it up.
Once I bake it with just the flour and milk mixture, I like to bake it again after I toss it in the Buffalo Sauce. This is a step you can easily omit. I like to bake the sauce into the flour mixture to get it nice and absorbed. If you don’t want to bake again, you can toss it and its ready to serve. Just cook it a bit longer initially. Make sure your cauliflower is the tenderness you like. Don’t cook too long or it gets mushy. About 20 min in total. Depending on your oven too, of course. I’ve made too hard of cauliflower, and too mushy. So there is that!
Let me know how you made it and how you liked it!! I love to hear from you guys!
Keep Cookin’ ~Jeanne <3
Buffalo Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 head Cauliflower
- 1 cup Flour
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 tbsp Avocado Oil
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Pepper optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425. Line a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) with aluminum foil. Place a cooking rack in/on cookie sheet. Spray baking rack with non stick spray.
- Cut head of cauliflower into chunks or bite size florets.
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, milk, garlic powder, pepper and oil. Whisk together.
- Add cauliflower to flower and milk mixture. Toss and coat completely.
- Using a fork or fingers, place cauliflower on top of rack. Discard excess milk and flour mixture. Bake for 15 min.
- In a mixing bowl, pour in about 1/2 cup of Buffalo sauce. Then add the baked cauliflower and toss in the Buffalo sauce. Add more sauce as needed. Coat completely. Using fork or fingers, place cauliflower back on rack and back for 5-8 min longer.
- Serve with Blue Cheese Dressing, Ranch Dressing or serve as is.
