Bang Bang Cauliflower

Bang Bang Sauce

• 1 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise
• ½ cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Hot Sriracha
• 1 teaspoon honey

Bang Bang Cauliflower

• 3 cups bite-sized florets of cauliflower
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 6 green onions, chopped
• ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

First, make the sauce by measuring and adding all of the sauce ingredients into a medium bowl. Whisk the ingredients together with a fork, scraping sides down with a spatula periodically, until the sauce is perfectly smooth. Cover the sauce and refrigerate it until needed.

Make the batter by combining the flour, cornstarch, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix it thoroughly with a spoon, taking care to make sure that all of the dry ingredients are well-combined. Add the buttermilk and make a smooth, thick batter.

You’ll use 3 medium bowls, one for the batter, one for the Panko bread crumbs, and one for the cauliflower florets. A lot of recipes ask you to dip the florets one at a time, but this is BEYOND tedious, and it works just fine to dump all of the florets into the batter and turning them over and over again with a large slotted spoon. As soon as all of the florets are coated with batter, lift out one spoonful at a time and draining the excess batter before dropping the coated florets into the breadcrumbs. Coat all the sides of all the florets with breadcrumbs and place them in the air fryer basket. Make sure to leave space between each floret in the basket.

Air fry the cauliflower at 400° for approximately 15 minutes. It should be golden brown and crispy around the edges and soft from the inside. You could bake these in a regular oven as well – turn the heat up to 425° and bake them for 20 minutes, turning them over with tongs halfway through.

When you take the cauliflower out of the air fryer basket, drizzle the Bang Bang sauce on top. Serve the cauliflower hot out of the oven garnished with chopped green onions and toasted sesame seeds.