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make dinner for himself to help his mother, who worked. “She’d get home tired and say let me rest my eyes. And I knew what that meant. So, I just started tinkering around with stuff and trying stuff.” As he got older, he took various jobs, including working in kitchens around the Lexington, Kentucky, area where he grew up. It was there he developed recipes for various sauces. But he credits his son for coming up with the idea of bottling and selling his Sunday game day chicken wings sauces. “We took it to one store, and she hit me back maybe like eight hours later,” Higgins said. “And was like, ‘This is great, can we get 12 cases?’ And I said man, we only have two bottles, not 12 cases.” It wasn’t long after that his sauces began gaining a reputation around Lexington — with at least one store packaging their name brand wings with Higgins’ sauce already on them. His move to Buckeye was the result of his marriage to his wife, who had family here. It quickly became obvious that Arizona was going to be his new home, he said. His shift into the restaurant business was a slow migration that began with a trailer selling chicken wings outside a bakery in Glendale. Again, it didn’t take long for the word to get out about his wings and sauce. From there, he came up with an idea to set up shop in a bar that was normally closed on Sundays and Mondays. That led to a brick-and- mortar restaurant in downtown Phoenix. “So, in May of 2020, we opened Jupiter Rings, Wings and More,” Higgins said. The name came from his son, who had a passion for planets. Jupiter Rings came to Buckeye last year and set up shop in a food trailer owned by Chilling Fusion at Monroe Avenue and 7th Street. Higgins said that owner “has been a great partner.” “I came in here to eat one day and saw the trailer and asked him what he was going to do with it,” Higgins said, “and he said to take it, fix it up.” It wasn’t long before Higgins was invited to move his wings — and his customers — from the outdoor food trailer into the restaurant itself. Local food fans can enjoy Jupiter Rings in Buckeye 4-9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 6-10 p.m. on Saturdays and 12-4 p.m. on Sundays. And, at various public events from Old Buckeye to Tartesso. You can get his buffalo sauce locally or online at JrRings.com.
IT’S IN THE SAUCE
J ASON HIGGINS WAS JUST A YOUNG BOY when he discovered a talent for creating in the kitchen. Today, his Jupiter Rings Buffalo Sauce is quickly becoming a household staple in Arizona and throughout the country. “I was doing sampling at a nutrition center in Avondale and the manager of the store said, ‘I keep hearing good things about your sauce, but I can't try it because I’m vegan.’” Wildly popular Jupiter Rings found success almost by accident BY DAVID KENNARD
WASH & FOLD SERVICE 24 HR TURN AROUND!
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Jason Higgins prepares some of his renowned Jupiter Rings chicken wings at his restaurant in Buckeye. Below: NASCAR fans are used to seeing Jupiter Rings on the racing curcuit.
He said after the orders just started pouring in. After doing the sauce for a while, Higgins said he started catering and “doing food for vegan events.” He said people loved the cooking, so he started buying vegan products and “people started putting the vegan sauce on my vegan wings. Higgins’ plant-based vegan chicken wings — which have a sugarcane center in place of a chicken bone — continue to be a hit among the vegan crowd. At his Jupiter Rings restaurant in Buckeye, visitors can order the vegan wings and varying grades of buffalo sauce from mild to very hot. The vegan wings are fried in a separate fryer to keep them separate from real meat wings. Higgins said as a child, he would regularly
So, Higgins said he went home and formulated a recipe to remove all the animal byproducts with substitutes. “The next time I went up to do sampling, I took it to [the manager] and she said, ‘this is amazing, I let the owner try it and the owner said the vegan is better than the original.” That’s when he knew he may have something. He started Googling vegan stores. “I didn’t know there were all-vegan stores in the United States – and throughout the world. And so, what I did was send samples to all of them.” It wasn’t long before he got a hit back. “A guy called me from Veg News , which is a big vegan magazine and he said, ‘I think you hit something.’ And I said, ‘Yeah what’s that?’ and he said, “I think you created the first vegan buffalo sauce. Get ready to get busy.”
OPEN DAILY 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. (last wash at 8 p.m.) Locally Owned and Operated
Buck’s Laundromat (Desert Laundry)
InBuckeye.com | January/February 2026
January/February 2026 | InBuckeye.com
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