Chicken wings scream flavor
From hot to sweet, chicken wings are still in high demand and operators are going bold with flavors.
January 19, 2017
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Other than pizza or possibly hamburgers, there’s hardly another menu staple that’s been so widely and consistently re-flavored as the chicken wing.
For decades Americans were content to eat them deep fried and tossed in tangy Buffalo sauce. Over that stretch, Buffalo wings, became — and remain — the top flavor by a wide margin.
Then the demand for more heat entered the picture, followed by flavors of barbecue and smoky honey and jerk seasoning. Today, wings have achieved levels of extreme heat, helping to catapult them from popular appetizer status to core-of-concept stardom. Formerly a castoff cut, chicken wings are as in demand as any poultry part, and now they’ve become a versatile bite with which chefs test bold flavors drawn from international influences and even liquor cabinets.
“Wings are excellent flavor carriers because they absorb whatever you put on them,” says Elliot Jablonsky research and development chef at 70-unit, Cincinnati-based Buffalo Wings & Rings Cincinnati. “Customers want bolder flavor and they’re comfortable getting that from wings.”
The numbers bear out Jablonsky's flavor claim. According to Chicago-based Datassential, the use of sriracha on wings rose 68 percent last year, and peanut use (most often in Thai-flavored renditions) climbed 48 percent. Dry rub applications — including a range of spices like jerk and Cajun seasoning to mere salt and pepper — are up 30 percent.
The data doesn’t surprise Jablonsky, who says spicy and salty applications are always the building blocks for popular wing flavors. Now he says people also expect heat to be an essential element in most wing presentations, meaning diners’ palates continue to crave more and more bold flavor.
“We’re not eating subtle food; we’re eating big flavors,” Jablonsky says. “Over time people’s palates require more flavor, and they move beyond what used to interest them. Everywhere you look, flavors are big and loud.”
In some cases, they're even screaming. That's the case at Dallas-based Wingstop, where Atomic is the name of its maximum heat level, followed by habanero. Less searing but still flavorful options include lemon pepper and a sweet and tangy Hawaiian sauce. Industry leading Buffalo Wild Wings maintains a 21-sauce lineup altered occasionally with seasonal LTOs. The Minneapolis-based chain’s Blazin’ sauce utilizes the fiery and fearsome ghost pepper, though several heat levels lower, a Thai curry sauce offers a bit of a buffer with flavors of coconut and less-potent chiles. Both make BWW’s bourbon honey mustard seem soothing by comparison.
Trip Kadey, director of culinary at The French’s Food Co., has helped lead the adaptation of Frank’s RedHot® sauce to this bolder flavor trend. In addition to some predictable offshoots of its RedHot® Buffalo Wings sauce, the company has extended its 11-sauce line to include Sweet Chili®, Sriracha Chili Sauce, Stingin’ Honey Garlic™ and Rajili® Sweet Ginger Sauce.
And while Kady acknowledges bolder flavors are increasing wing consumption, he believes variations on “the carrier” is helping usher in new flavors.
“The boneless wing is playing a significant role in that growth,” he says. That’s due in part to Generations X and Y being raised on chicken tenders, and “it keeps people from having to navigate the bone, skin and fat if they don’t want to.”
Kady also says healthful eating is driving the move to boneless wings that aren’t breaded.