With an explosion of chicken-centric restaurants in central Ohio over the past few years, it is getting difficult to make a choice when you are craving some fried – or smoked, grilled or baked – chicken.
Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, claims to be the creator of the chicken wing. The bar’s owner, Teressa Bellissimo, needed to quickly put something together to feed her son and his friends. She had a box of chicken wings, which were used primarily for stock or soup rather than served on their own. That night, she turned them into the sports bar staple that we eat by the dozen each football season – fried, with bright orange sauce, served alongside blue cheese and celery.
Courtesy of Hot Chicken Takeover
Hot Chicken Takeover wings
Because chicken wings are my favorite food, I felt it was only right that I finally made the wing lover’s pilgrimage this year to try the plate that started it all – and it was perfect. I shared my review with a friend in our years-long discussion regarding the best wings around, only to realize how many debatable qualities surround the beloved finger food.
Are boneless wings real wings, or are they just dressed-up nuggets? Are drums or wings the superior appendage? Should wings be breaded before frying or is it best to crisp the skin itself? Should the meat sit atop a pool of sauce or does a little go a long way?
From massive chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop to the Whole Foods hot bar – which has surprisingly great sauce – chicken wings are everywhere.
Jay Horvath, Roosters’ director of kitchen operations, says wings have replaced ribs as the “ultimate finger food.”
“After 32 years of being here, there isn’t a day that I come in here and say, ‘Ugh, I’m tired of chicken wings,” Horvath says. “Every single day, I can come in here (and) eat some chicken wings and be as satisfied as I was 30 years ago.”
Are boneless wings just nuggets?
If you hang around sports bars regularly, you’ve probably heard one patron shame another for ordering boneless wings. You can even buy T-shirts online to broadcast your feelings on the matter.
Some even consider the term “boneless wings” to be a misnomer, given that they are usually made of white meat, typically a tenderloin or breast.
This form of meat is perfect for those who don’t want sauce all over their fingers or lips. For some, the humbling inevitability of getting sauce all over yourself is crucial to the experience.
Once upon a time, Roosters did not offer boneless wings. The options were traditional or tenders.
“Some people just do not like chicken on a bone,” Horvath says. “To satisfy a guest like that, we wanted to come up with a way they can get the experience of a chicken wing without having to eat off the bone.”
Roosters’ boneless wings have a sterling reputation, which Horvath says is thanks to the ingredients he puts in the boneless wings that recreate the signature taste of traditional wings.
Hot Chicken Takeover (HCT), another Columbus favorite, doesn’t offer boneless wings, instead opting to call its bite-sized pieces nuggets. If you ask for “boneless” at HCT, you will get a single large chicken breast.
Your local sports bar likely has its own stance on the matter. Squeek’s Bar and Grill in Pickerington is well known for juicy wings with a signature “Bubba” sauce, with no boneless wings on the menu.
King condiment
Anchor Bar serves blue cheese alongside the original wing basket, showing it has been a foundational companion from the start. More recently, however, ranch dressing has emerged a key accompaniment to good wings.
Courtesy of Roosters
Roosters wing options
Ranch’s power in the food industry has grown so significantly in the past decade that some Midwesterners claim their love of ranch as a personality trait. Take a walk around The Ohio State University campus and you can see novelty T-shirts and phone cases sporting Hidden Valley’s iconic ranch bottle.
Ranch dressing was invented by Steve Henson, a plumber from Nebraska, who mixed buttermilk, herbs, shallots, Miracle Whip and MSG to make his fellow workers’ meals more appetizing while on a job in Alaska.
Hot Chicken Takeover, a Columbus favorite, favors ranch over blue cheese as a side.
“I do think that ranch, in relation to blue cheese, is more cooling when you’re applying a lot of heat,” says Avi Szapiro, vice president of culinary and innovation at HCT’s parent company. “It’s a good marriage.”
Blue cheese has a stronger, more pungent flavor than ranch. The mold that gives blue cheese its flavor breaks down the fat in the cheese, giving it its earthy, funky flavor.
Passion is at an all-time high for the ranch vs. blue cheese debate.
“I don’t hate ranch, but I think blue cheese elevates (chicken wings),” says Megan Brokamp, who works in our sales department.
“Ugh, I hate blue cheese; it’s mold!” says CityScene President Kathy Gill. “I love ranch. It’s the cooling agent you need with hot wings.”
Taking shape: drums or flats?
There can be nothing more satisfying than meeting a friend at a bar and finding out that they like drums and you like flats, making the experience of divvying up your order much easier.
Many establishments offer the option to get all drums or all flats for an upcharge. Drums are cheaper than flats because each drum has more meat, which means a pound of drums requires fewer chickens.
Courtesy of Hot Chicken Takeover
Hot Chicken Takeover wing options
The extra meat is the biggest perk for drum lovers, followed by ease of handling.
“The benefit of drums that I see is that there is just a good bone-to-meat ratio and it provides a more even cook,” Szapiro says.
The three parts of a chicken wing are the tip, the wingette (or flat), and the drumette, not to be confused with the drumstick, which comes from the leg. Some establishments – including many barbecue joints – choose to keep the whole wing intact. Others slice them in three for easier cooking and to cater to customers who favor one piece over another.
“What I’m looking for when I fry a really crispy wing is that the meat of the chicken will just fall off the bone like (the end of a popsicle),” Szapiro says. “I want the meat slipping out of the bone with no friction. That, to me, is a telltale sign that that wing was beautifully cooked.”
Battle of the chains
Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop are two of the most recognizable names in wings.
Buffalo Wild Wings, which was founded in Columbus, is known more for its atmosphere than its food.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are optimal days for a “B-Dubs” visit, thanks to BOGO specials on traditional and boneless wings on those nights, respectively.
Texas-based Wingstop falls on the other side of the deal-centric wing franchise model, with an emphasis on hastily fulfilling wing cravings.
When Wingstop offers flavor combinations, such as hot lemon or garlic lemon – weird, I know, but trust me – it really shines as the king of franchised flavor. Its heavily seasoned fries and Cajun corn pack a great punch when it comes to sides.
Fried, breaded or smoked, oh my!
When you order traditional wings at your favorite spot, it is usually safe to assume they will come fresh from a fryer.
The process leading up to the chicken’s boiling-hot bath is the key to crispy skin. Restaurants such as CM Chicken and bb.q Chicken Columbus offer Korean fried chicken, which has grown in popularity in recent years because of a crunch that you have to hear to believe.
Courtesy of Roosters
Tossing Roosters wings
Most wing recipes, however, drop wings directly into the fryer and rely on the skin to create the crispy coating. When chicken goes into a deep fryer, the oil boils the water inside it, creating the bubbles, cracks and pops you see when you fry something. Juicy fat and encapsulating skin are vital to keeping chicken wings greasy and tasty. For wings that highlight the natural flavor of chicken, I recommend Winking Lizard Tavern, which typically cooks high-quality pieces of meat to perfection and limits the sauce atop each plate.
While messing up a basket of wings seems difficult, there is a careful balance that comes with the frying process. If a wing is fried for too long or gets too hot, it loses much of its moisture and flavor.
“We want a nice crisp without having too much breading,” Horvath says. “The breading shouldn’t be necessarily part of the wing to give it flavor; it’s almost more that it absorbs the sauce. Too much breading, and you lose the flavor of the chicken in the sauce.”
Smoked wings are available at countless locations around central Ohio. They are popular at barbecue joints such as Smoked on High and Pecan Penny’s – the latter offering $1 wings on Mondays – as well as some places like OX-B’s, which offers them alongside excellent fried traditional wings. Smoked wings can feel like a less gluttonous choice, though they are often even more juicy and offer a greater umami flavor than fried wings.
Which sauce is boss?
Buffalo sauce, widely known to be equal parts hot sauce and butter, is made differently at each location. Some opt for a thicker, heavier sauce, where others use a runnier mixture with more vinegar or less butter.
Getting the right coverage can be tricky for a basket of wings, and sauce rationing is dependent upon the sauce’s viscosity.
Courtesy of Roosters
Serving Roosters wings
“The thing is, there are different sauces that are going to give different coverage,” Horvath says. “Our donkey sauce is red hot, and it’s vinegar-based, so it will cover different from our mild, medium, hot, garlic, that are butter-based, so they’ll get heated up and spread and drip. Barbecue is a thicker type of sauce where we have to put a little bit more.”
Barbecue sauce is a common substitute for buffalo sauce for those seeking a sweeter, less spicy alternative. Some wing spots, such as Wing Snob in Dublin, take this a step further and have incorporated a chicken and waffles flavor of sauce, heavy on the maple flavor. bb.q Chicken once offered a maple sauce that was so full of comfort-food sweetness it could warm the soul, but it no longer appears on the menu.
The ultimate chicken spreadsheet
Columbus local Austin Yochus famously creates a spreadsheet each year that includes more than 100 Columbus eateries’ wing deals and includes recommendations for his personal favorites. The meticulously crafted list is updated each year for accuracy.
Thinking inside the bun
Photo by Tyler Kirkendall
Wingburger
If you are looking for an inventive way to satisfy two cravings at once, try out A & J Wingburger in Pickerington. The wingburger, named after the owner’s sons, is as simple as it sounds: it’s a burger with boneless buffalo wings on top. Onions, mushrooms and pepperjack cheese give the wingburger a complex flavor with a variety of indulgent savory flavors.
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
