Hot n' Saucy Wings

Texas Land & Cattle - Arlington, TX

These wings were an unexpected surprise in an otherwise fairly generic "pseudo-Western" steak house chain along the lines of Longhorn or Lone Star.  The rest of food was good, but the wings wereaboe average. 

They have a pleasant smoky flavor and are clearly actually smoked using, you know, real wood and stuff.  THe skin is tender and somewhat crispy for smoked wings, and the sauce is spicy, balanced with some nice sweet BBQ flavor.  The only two issues is that the wings a bit puny, and the sauce is salty.  However, I would have them again if I found myself at the restaurant in the future.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

United BBQ - Providence, RI

United BBQ is a small little restaurant on the East Side of Providence that does mainly take out - they have only a few tables and some bar stools that allow you to eat on a ledge looking out the window.  However, they do some authentic barebcue, as evidenced by the visible smoker and the penetrating smell of real wood being burned. 

For wings, they offer two variations: one with a traditional buffalo style suace and one with with their spicy BBQ sauce.  Both have wings that have been smoked, not fried.

Whenever you have smoked wings, they run the chance of being fatty and/or having tough skin.  In fact, I've had some pretty gross barebcued chicken wings.  However, United does a good job with theirs, cooking them until the fat is rendered out, and keeping the skin fairly tender.  It isn't crispy like a fried wing of course, but it also has more flavor, thanks to the smoke and rub. 

I tried the spicy BBQ variety, since I know what buffalo wing sauce tastes like.  The sauce lives up to its name - it is a very sweet, but nicely spiced sauce.  It won't blow you away with heat - if you're a chile or pepper-head, this may not be your choice - but it does have a lot of flavor and it is two staged, with the sweetness hitting you up front, but the heat coming in after and lingering for a bit.

Overall, these are some really good wings.  Not the best barbecued or grilled I've ever had, but maybe they would be better with the buffalo style sauce.   I wouldn't object to trying them!

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Anchor Bar - Buffalo, NY (Update)

I previously reviewed the Anchor Bar, but a short business trip gave me the opportunity to revisit this mecca of buffalo wings.  I stand by my original rating, though I will expand upon it based on a few more years of wing experience.  I think the key to the success of the Anchor Bar's wings is that they are fresh - nearly all wings are frozen now, and the Anchor Bar's wings have the juiciest, tastiest chicken meat I've ever had at any restaurant.  The skin is perfectly crispy but the meat retains all of its natural juices.  I guess when you fry millions of wings a year, you get really, really good at it and you have the supplier pull to get super-fresh chicken wings.

A new item on the Anchor Bar's menu is Buffalo Chicken Soup.  The best way to describe it is to think of a New England Clam Chowder with chicken and buffalo flavors instead of clams, bacon and potato.  It is very, very thick and creamy - perhaps almost too much so; it borders on gelatinous.  It could also use just a bit more heat in my opinion.  It is a very intersting concept with some potential I think.

Barley's Smokehouse - Columbus, OH

Needing a welcome respite on a three-day marathon business trip, I chose Barley's for some good beer and food.  The beer was indeed good, and the food was good overall, though the ribs were a bit dissapointing (see full review here on Yelp.com).  The highlight of the visit, however, were actually the wings. 

Billed as their "famous grilled wings" I simply had to get them and chose to go with their buffalo sauce.  The wings were delicious - lightly seasoned and then grilled enough to get some flavorfull char, with all of them being juicy, tender and surprisingly crispy.

But a well-cooked wing is only half the battle, right?  The sauce is the other half, and it is here where these wings really stand out.  At first taste, I was worried that it was going to be another round of sweet BBQ sauce being passed off as wing sauce.  Then I tasted the garlic... then the heat hit me.  It is a late heat that allows the other flavors to come through and when the heat does come, it is just the right amount.  The heavy hand with the garlic in the sauce (visible pieces int he sauce I believe), was a nice touch.  It was an intersting and flavorful sauce and would love to get my hands on the recipe!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!!

Bones Grille - Lansdale, PA

I had been to Bones Grille once before and wanted to try their smoked chicken wings, but couldn't that last time.  This time I didn't have to worry about messing my shirt up before a meeting, so I went for them.

The description on the menu says they are "appled brined chicken wings, dry rubbed and slow cooked in the bones hickory pit."  I couldn't pick out any particular apple flavor in the meat, but it was tender and juicy.  The wings were plump and good size and well cooked.  When I first looked at them, I was afraid that there couldn't be any crispiness to them at all, but there was.  My biggest issue with the wings is that they were slathered in a sauce that was nearly all sweet and no heat, and for a "smoked" wing, there was really no smoke flavor to speak of.

Overall, it was just kind of lackluster, but not bad. 

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars

New Wings List on Pig Trip

Gary over at PigTrip.net has posted a listing of his favorite smoked wings.   The only one I've made it to is Bubba's, though I have to admit I don't know if I've ever had their wing's - now I will have to!  I'm hoping to make it to nited BBQ soon and I'll keep this list handy for future reference.

Bar Louie - Foxboro, MA

It took us over a month to pull it off, but my friends and I finally got together to have our annual Christmas dinner and exchange Christmas presents on January 12.  Since we were coming from all over, the new Patriot Place shopping center provided a convenient central point for us to convene.  Bar Louie also seemed like a logical choice for dinner, since it offered a wide array of option and not too expensive.

Bar Louie features an eclectic American-style cuisine menu, filled with comfort foods that have been infused with a few regional and international flairs.  The decor is classic American sports bar meets classic American steakhouse with a little TGIF and Applebees middle America thrown in.  We started with a few appetizers, including "Buffalo Calamari" and Szechwan-style chicken wings.

First the calamari - yes, I know it isn't chicken wings, but it is deep fried and slathered in hot sauce, so I'll just keep it brief: it was quite good, with tender small pieces of calamari in a crispy batter tossed in a spicy buffalo sauce.  Pretty straight forward, with a heat that was good but not overpowering.

The Szechwan wings were sneaky - they arrived the table looking like innocent soy-glazed fried wings, and as you're eating them, they have a pleasant heat and lots of flavor, including everything you would expect from a Szechwan flavor wing: soy, ginger, etc.  However, the heat builds.  It is a "late heat" that doesn't fully hit you until after you finish the wing and sit there contentedly, as you slowly realize that the slight heat is turning into a stronger burn.  It makes for an interesting and flavorful wing.  Being a chain-type place, the wings are standard size and are well-cooked. 

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Abington Ale House - Abington, MA

Once in a while I like to take a break from the traditional buffalo wing dish and try something else that is buffalo wing inspired.  I did so twice on a recent trip to the Abington Ale House.

First up was their Buffalo Chicken Dip, a cheesy dip with hot sauce and chunks of chicken served with tortilla chips, carrot sticks and celery sticks.  It was good in a comforting Velveeta-sorta-way.  Basically it was Nacho cheese with some hot sauce and chunks of chicken in it, which isn't too bad of an idea.  I wish it had been a bit hotter though.

Then I went for the complete buffalo chicken meal and had their Buffalo Chicken pasta.  This was penne pasta with sauteed chicken pieces, tomatoes, and a spicy cream sauce.  Unfortunately, it fell far short of my expectations.  The sauce was thin and watery and just wasn't that great - not enough spice, not enough creaminess, and relatively bland chicken.  It didn't help that when I asked the waitress for more hot sauce, she brought me a bowl with more of the sauce the pasta was in.   

If they reduced the sauce some more and/or thickened it with some roux, added more hot sauce, served it with grilled chicken instead of the bland lightly sauteed chicken, then  sprinkled some blue cheese crumbles on top to finish it off, they would have a winner.  As it is, it is a watery chicken scampi with hot sauce instead of garlic. 

Wing Dipper Review

A few months ago I was sent a sample of something called The Wing Dipper.  I've been meaning to try it out for a while now, and this week, the magic combination of wings and remembering to bring the Wing Dipper finally worked out!

It is meant for dipping the wing into the blue cheese dressing that accompanies most hot wings, but I actually used it for dipping it into more wing sauce.  I have to say, it works quite well. The unique shape fits the wing perfectly.

The next day, when eating my leftovers, I used The Wing Dipper for its original purpose, and it again worked quite well. 

Its a clever little thing that any wing-focused restaurant should be using instead of the stupid little round dishes.  It makes sense and probably results in less waste for the restaurant, as the customer can make better use of their blue cheese dressing. 

Ideally, I'd love to see a restaurant get really clever with it and offer a wing sampler: a basket of dry, cooked wings with several sauces for dipping.  I've been to a number of restaurants that have multiple wing sauce offerings and had a difficult time deciding, especially when there is something really different that I'd like to TRY but not necessarily eat a whole order of.  It works for beer and wine - sampling flights - why not wing sauces???  How much fun to not only try a few sauces, but perhaps be able to adjust your own heat as well or share a basket of wings with people who have different tastes and spice tolerances?

Please note: I expect royalties for this idea, but will gladly take them in exchange for wings!   

Thinking About Wings

I recently exchanged emails with my cousin Matt, who is also a wing aficionado, and we got to talking about "crispy wings."  He asked for a clarification about what I mean by that, and I came up with the following:

When I - and other wing reviewers - refer to "crispy wings" we are talking about the skin.  Not unlike good barbecued chicken, a hot wing should be cooked enough that the fat which lies under the skin of the wing (either section - the wing or drumstick) has been rendered out, leaving a nice crispy skin.  You This can be a delicate balance: you can go from "crispy skin" to "crispy chicken" to "burnt" relatively quickly.  But when you do get a well-cooked wing, you should have meat that comes off the bone easily, is still moist, with chicken skin that is crispy and not flabby and/or soggy.  At least that's what I think. 

The crispy skin seems to also provide a barrier of sorts against the sauce making the wing soggy.  That's why I don't get wings that are breaded and then served with a sauce.  Typically you have about 30 seconds before the sauce penetrates the breading and makes for a soggy, disappointing mess.

This then led to me thinking about how do I actually judge wings.  I don't have a formal "point scale" but if I did, I think this is what I would use:

Wing rating guide (100 Points = Perfect Wing)

Size of wing - Are they very small and puny or large and plump? Too large for sauce for good sauce to meat ratio
10 points

Texture of wing - Is it 100% cooked through so that it is tender and juicy? Or is it overcooked and dry or undercooked and tough?
30 points

Texture of skin/exterior - Is the skin crispy and the fat rendered out, or is it fatty and flabby? If breaded, is it crispy and flavorful or soggy and bland?
30 points

Quality of sauce - Overall flavor? Spiciness? Spiciness vs. flavor - is it too hot to taste anything else? Is it an original tasting sauce, or just another Frank's Red Hot and margarine? (not that there's really anything WRONG with that) Quantity of sauce: are they floating, a bit on the dry side (leaving you wanting more) or just right?
30 points

I don't know if I'll start using this officially on this blog, but I wanted to give everyone an idea of what I'm thinking about when I review wings.