Wing Country

Wing CountryStyles (13)

City by city: who tosses, who breads, who claims it.

Alabama (1)

Alabama white sauce wings

white barbecue sauce wings, white sauce wings, Decatur-style

Wings smoked over hickory and then coated or dunked in white sauce — a mayonnaise-based barbecue sauce with vinegar, lemon juice, black pepper, salt, and in many versions cayenne and horseradish.

District of Columbia (1)

Mumbo sauce wings

mambo sauce wings, wings and mumbo, carryout wings

Fried chicken wings, usually whole and uncut, sold through the window of a Washington carryout and drowned in mumbo sauce — red, sweeter than barbecue sauce and by turns sharper or more sour, depending whose kitchen…

Georgia (1)

Lemon pepper wings

lemon pepper dry, lemon pepper wet, LP wings

A wing cooked without breading and finished in lemon pepper — granulated lemon zest mashed with cracked black pepper, then baked and dried, usually with salt and sugar in the blend. Atlanta orders it two ways.

Illinois (1)

Chicago mild sauce wings

mild sauce wings, South Side wings, fried hard with mild

Wings fried hard — left in the oil past golden until the skin goes dark and brittle — then handed over a counter in a box with french fries and a slice of white bread, the whole box doused in mild sauce.

Maryland (1)

Old Bay wings

Chesapeake wings, crab-spiced wings, crab seasoning wings

A wing finished in Old Bay — a blend of eighteen herbs and spices built in Baltimore in 1939, celery salt first, with red and black pepper and paprika, and bay leaves, mustard, cardamom, cloves and ginger among the…

New York (2)

Buffalo wings

Buffalo-style wings, hot wings, wings

A chicken wing cut into a drumette and a flat, deep-fried bare — no batter, no flour — then shaken in a bowl with melted butter and a vinegar-based cayenne pepper sauce, and served hot with celery, carrot sticks and a…

Rochester breaded wings

Rochester-style wings, breaded wings, Country Sweet wings

A chicken wing dredged in seasoned flour before it goes in the oil, fried until the coating sets hard, then glazed rather than tossed loose — most often in Country Sweet, a sweet-and-tangy sauce a Rochester kitchen…

Tennessee (2)

Memphis dry-rub wings

dry wings, dry rub wings, dry heat

A wing finished with the rub that Memphis puts on ribs — salt and a spice blend, house by house, usually paprika-led — and handed over without sauce.

Nashville hot wings

hot chicken wings, hot wings, Nashville style

Hot chicken's method put on a wing: marinate in a water- or buttermilk-based seasoned blend, flour, fry, then paint with a cayenne paste loosened with fat drawn from the fryer.

Other (4)

Garlic parmesan wings

garlic parm, parm wings, garlic parmesan

A fried wing tossed in melted butter or oil with garlic and grated parmesan, often with dried herbs and black pepper, sometimes finished with more cheese out of the bowl so it sits in visible flecks.

Jerk wings

Jamaican jerk wings, jerk chicken wings

Wings dry-rubbed or wet-marinated in Jamaican jerk seasoning and cooked over fire until the outside blackens.

Korean fried chicken wings

KFC (Korean fried chicken), yangnyeom wings, soy garlic wings

Chicken fried twice so the crust comes out thin and brittle — Julia Moskin of The New York Times called it "thin, crackly and almost transparent" — then hand-painted with sauce by brush rather than shaken in a bowl, so…

Smoked barbecue wings

barbecue wings, smoked wings, pit wings

A wing cooked on a barbecue pit rather than in oil: rubbed, smoked over wood until the fat renders, then finished — brushed with a tomato sauce and set over higher heat to tack up, or dropped briefly in the fryer so the…

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