Easy, healthy, perfectly spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites prepared in the Air Fryer!
Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Cauliflower stands as a delicious vegetarian alternative to chicken wings in this recipe for spicy Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. Prepared with a flour breading and a buttery hot sauce, these cauliflower bites are low carb, Keto-friendly, and truly delicious!!
If you’re looking for the classics, click over to this creamy Stovetop Buffalo Chicken Dip.
Also? Grab this recipe for Sticky Sesame Cauliflower Bites – it’s a GOOD one.
Actually, this dish tastes like you’re sitting at your fave hangout and having the best appetizer of EV.errr. Hot sauce and garlic set the tone for the cauliflower, a side of celery sticks join in, and some incredible bleu cheese dressing ties it ALL together. HOT DAMN! 🔥
How To Make Cauliflower Bites in the Air Fryer
- Start with cutting up a head of cauliflower into florets and put those in a large mixing bowl.
- Next, melt some butter and mix in a good dose of hot sauce into it. I use Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. It’s DA best.
- Pour the hot sauce mixture over the cauliflower florets and mix them around. I use my hands for this part, but I make sure to wash my hands three times after mixing because it would freakin’ HURT if I touched my eyes without washing off the hot sauce, first. Been there, done that… still remember it. 🙄
- Then, you’ll want to whisk together a bit of all-purpose flour or almond flour with seasoning salt, garlic powder, and dried parsley.
- Sprinkle that over the cauliflower florets – use a handful of almond flour mix at a time and just gently stir them around so that all florets are coated.
- Air Fry HALF of the cauliflower bites at 350˚F (no need to preheat) for about 15 minutes. Stop and shake a couple of times during the cooking process. If you want them crispier, try cooking for 2 to 3 minutes longer.
- Remove cauliflower from the air fryer and keep covered while you cook the second batch.
- Serve immediately with a side of celery sticks and bleu cheese dressing. And more hot sauce. 🙃
Tips for Making Cauliflower Bites in the Air Fryer
- DO NOT crowd the air fryer pan. If you crowd it, the cauliflower bites will turn out soggy. This is why you want to cook the cauliflower in two batches. You need to have enough airflow to go around each piece.
- If you’re not satisfied with the crunch, put cauliflower bites back in the air fryer for 2 minutes, then serve. You can also put them under the broiler for a couple of minutes.
How To Make in the Oven
- Place prepared cauliflower florets on a foil-lined pan and bake for 15 minutes at 450˚F. Gently stir the cauliflower halfway through cooking.
How To Make Ahead
- Buffalo Cauliflower Bites are also great to make ahead. Prepare each element beforehand – cut up the cauliflower, make the sauce, prepare the breading – and keep them in separate containers until ready to use.
- You WILL need to heat up the hot sauce and give it a good stir before using.
How To Store Leftovers
- While Cauliflower Bites taste best when served immediately, you can still refrigerate the leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Now, let’s stuff our faces with cauliflower that pretends it’s chicken, and really, really LOVE IT! I think you will. This hot mess doesn’t even taste like cauliflower.
For real, though – in this recipe, wings or cauliflower, they just serve as the gateway, or the vessel, into Buffalo sauce. 😀
More Cauliflower Recipes
- Cauliflower Tots
- Lemon Paprika Roasted Cauliflower
- Instant Pot Loaded Mashed Cauliflower
- Cauliflower Cheese Soup
ENJOY!
Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets (you'll need about 4 to 5 cups)
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
- ½ cup almond flour, or all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons dried parsley
- ½ tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Instructions
- Place cauliflower florets in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
- Melt butter; stir in olive oil and hot sauce until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the hot sauce mixture over the cauliflower; mix around until all cauliflower florets are coated.
- In a separate bowl whisk together almond flour, dried parsley, garlic powder, and seasoning salt.
- Sprinkle about a handful at a time of almond flour mixture over the cauliflower; gently mix until everything is coated.
- Transfer half of the prepared cauliflower to the air fryer.
- Air fry at 350˚F for 15 minutes, shaking a couple times during the cooking process. Cauliflower is done when the florets are a bit browned, but not mushy.
- Remove cauliflower from the Air Fryer; set aside and keep covered.
- Repeat the same process with the remaining cauliflower florets.
- Serve with celery sticks and bleu cheese dressing.
Notes
- DO NOT crowd the air fryer pan. If you crowd it, the cauliflower bites will turn out soggy. This is why you want to cook the cauliflower in two batches. You need to have enough airflow to go all around each piece.
- For more crunch, put cauliflower bites under the broiler for 2 minutes, then serve.
- Place prepared cauliflower florets on a foil-lined pan and bake for 15 minutes at 450˚F. Gently stir the cauliflower halfway through cooking.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Delicious!!! Did you add additional sauce when taking that main picture? Mine turned out a lot drier.
Can you tell me how much is considered a serving? 🙂
About 1 cup.
Delish! Made exactly to the recipe.
Thank YOU! I’m very glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
How do you get the breading to stay on the cauli? Mine didn’t stay on and majority of it fell off in the air fryer
Hi there, can you give me an equivalent for hot sauce – we’re in the UK and can’t get Franks? Sriracha?
Yes, Sriracha is great! Any hot sauce will work, just use your favorite.
Fiancé said these were the best ones we’ve ever made! Delicious!
WOW WOW WOW the flavor is unreal!
I messed up and shook the basket too soon and most of the breading came off but it is still amazing! Thank you for the recipe!
That’s great! I’m very happy you loved it! Thank you for chiming in! 🙂
What can I use to substitute if I don’t have almond flour? Spelt, brown rice, coconut? Thank you
Yeah, in fact I do use coconut flour if I don’t have almond flour.
This was so yummy! I’m a huge fan. I put it in the air fryer for 15 minutes shook it every 5. Stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes. Very good. I even topped it with some cheese before serving and it was a hit. The posts that talk about how it doesn’t look like the pictures had me rolling my eyes. Disregard those comments this is great !!
Thank you so much! I am very happy you loved it! 🙂
They don’t come out like the picture, as people have said. But they were freakin DELICIOUS. I made a half batch and ate it in one sitting by myself. I’ll be making these all the time now. Thanks for the recipe!
The flavor was pretty good, it’s buffalo sauce and cauliflower, of course it’s delicious. Next time I would add less parsley and no seasoning salt because it was already very salty with Frank’s buffalo sauce. Also I would make an actual dredge mixture with eggs and coat each cauliflower separately.
This was a great recipe but I have to know, did you add more buffalo sauce to the cauliflower after you fried them? When I made mine it didn’t look nearly as appetizing as your photo! My husband ate a vegetable, so i’m absolutely making this again!
You can make extra sauce on the side and just pour it over once they’re done cooking. The reason you don’t want to dredge the cauliflower in sauce before cooking is because they will get real mushy.
Does not turn out anywhere near the picture. I tried it verbatim in an air fryer. It has been completely a misleading recipe.
Hi,
Exactly what is misleading? The recipe or the photos? Is the 1 star because the recipe didn’t work out, or because your cauliflower florets didn’t look like mine? This is a recipe website, not a photography site.
I tried this tonight and fell in love!! I did some in air fryer and some in oven. I preferred the oven because the cauliflower seemed softer and it wasn’t as saucy as the picture but I liked it the way it turned out!!! I will be eating this a lot since I am on a diet and that’s a perfect snack,lunch,dinner anytime!!! Yummy!!
That’s great! I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Followed the recipe but thawed out frozen cauliflower. Didn’t take much time at all and tasted amazing! Definitely a make again! Love that it is keto friendly! Chicken what?
Wish I could post a pic of my results on here. But follow my IG for the pic! @tabilw
I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I really liked this recipe! It made a fantastic Super Bowl snack (with so few things to clean up afterwards!) and we are excited to make it again soon. I’m interested though, have you tried making an Indian version? I was thinking of swapping the almond flour for gram flour and maybe switching out the Frank’s for something with ginger/garlic/garam masala/chili vibes. Anyone explored this option and have ideas to share? I would love to hear them. Thanks!
I’m very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I’ve been looking for a cauliflower recipe like this and finally found this one! So delicious! I didnt even want to give any to my family just so I could eat them all LOL
😀 I am very glad you enjoyed them! Thank YOU! 🙂
Turned out great! Didn’t have parsley so used about a tablespoon of dried basil instead. Thanks for the recipe. I’m glad to be the only keto person in my household so that I could have these all to myself. (The other half of the batch is in the fridge waiting for me.)
For the blue cheese dip, I used 1/4 cup sour cream mixed with about 3 oz of blue cheese, a tablespoon or two of mayo, a bit of fresh lemon juice and a dash of garlic powder, with salt and pepper to taste. Delicious.
Thank YOU! I am very glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Lovvvved it! It was really delicious! We both said we’d prefer this over wings!
That’s great! I’m very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Honestly I had lower expectations on the air fryer cauliflower wings, but wow they were great. I did use regular flour and I added a bit of onion powder and paprika. These bad boys are amazing. I’m not a cauliflower lover by any means , I usually avoid it, but we will be making this as a dish for New Years. Best recipe I’ve tried this COVID year.
Thanks
Good flavor but extremely salty
I just want to say that these are THE most PERFECT buffalo cauliflower wings on the planet. I used regular flour and it came out perfect. Just the right amount of crispy. I have eaten them for lunch for the last 4 days (tossed all of the florets in the sauce mixture but only coated with flour the portion I was going to eat that day, saving the rest of the flour mixture for future portions). Thank you, thank you!
I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much! 🙂
Outstanding made this today. This is definitely a game day appetizer for the crowd.
Thanks so goooood 🤗
CJ
That’s great! I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Hi! How many pieces is the 7 net carbs for?
Hi!
Cauliflower florets come in all sizes so I can’t say exactly how many, but it’s roughly around 1 cup to 1-1/4 cups of cauliflower florets. I hope that helps. 😊
Can you use regular flour instead of almond flour? My son is allergic to tree nuts.
Hi!
Yes, regular flour will work. 😊
Too salty
These turned out delicious but yours look way more sauced than mine! Did you add extra once they were done?
These were delicious! I used regular flour this time and will try almond flour next time. Recipe is a keeper tho!
That’s great! I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for chiming in! 🙂
Fabulous! This recipe is excellent.
Thank YOU! 🙂 I am very happy you enjoyed it!
These were probably the best cauliflower bites I’ve ever done!
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank YOU! 🙂
Followed the recipe exactly. Mine didn’t look anything like the picture but the flavor was really good. This is my very first time using my Cuisenart air fryer; they didn’t really seem that crispy. Maybe my expectations of the air fryer are too high. I’ll keep trying to work out the kinks. Will make this again.
Same! Once we mixed all the ingredients together at ONCE and then dipped the cauliflower — they were perfectly coated and the taste was stronger.
Yes I did the same. Really good!!
I cooked 8 min at 350, shook them up and then back at 390 for 4-5 more minutes!
These were SO GOOD!!! I did add a little too much seasoning salt, but that was my bad and I’ll know better for the next time…which will probably be tomorrow!
I love how easy and mess-free this recipe is! Gave this 4-stars because it was too salty for my taste. Will need to modify next time I make it.
Really enjoyed this recipe! Curious though, I used regular flour instead and felt like I thoroughly coated in the prep process but didn’t seem to bind as well as I’d hoped and seemed a little dry. Could this be due to the regular flour &/or not enough?
Mine didn’t turn out as saucy but still tasted good
Hi! Is it really 3 tablespoons of parsley in with the almond flour? I did 3 and it was so much my cauliflower was mostly green and looked nothing like the photo. Just wanted to check to see if I’m missing something
The amount of flour listed ended up making it too dry. The sauce just turned to dust when put in the air fryer. But good flavor
Could almond flour be substituted for coconut flour or would that throw off the flavor
Hi! Yep, there will be a bit of difference in taste and texture, but almond flour does work in this recipe.
These are amazing! My go-to for game day grub!
These tasted absolutely delicious! Looking forward to making these again
These were fantastic. I just used Italian breadcrumbs for the seasoned almond flour and it was still great. Super quick and easy to put together and definitely satisfies that buffalo craving!
What a savory side dish! A restaurant worthy recipe, indeed! Delicious!
I know what I will be having with dinner tonight! This looks hands down delicious; a great side dish!
Looks seriously good! You’ve made me put an air-fryer on my amazon wishlist now 😉
I’ll definitely be game day ready with these! Love this healthier twist.
Yum! At first glance I thought this was a recipe for boneless chicken wings. I definitely need to give this cauliflower recipe a try!!
Could this be made without the butter to make it slimming world friendly?
Hi! Yes, you can definitely do without the butter, but you will need to add more liquid (hot sauce or oil) to make up for it. You can also use extra virgin olive oil in place of butter.
The perfect guilt free appetizer idea!
We just got an air fryer and have been wanting to use it more. This looks like next on the list to try. Perfect for game day!
If I could give this 10 stars, I would! My husband and I LOVED this!
What a great alternative to fried snacks.