I Tested Every Wingstop Flavor. My Top Choice Might Surprise You
The Wingstop menu provides plenty of choices for wing lovers. But determining the best flavors at Wingstop is no easy task-especially because finding a good chicken wing is already hard.
I'm a big fan of Gabriel's Gate in Buffalo, NY. Juicy, crispy, meaty, double-fried wings are slathered and tossed with the perfect proportions of hot sauce and butter, then served with a rich blue cheese dressing (Sure, they certainly don't fit into a fat-burning meal plan , but life is short enough already).
Good wings-like delicious ribs or tender brisket -are all about good process. Is the chicken fried at the right temperature? Are the wings brined? Are the ingredients of high quality? For a local wing joint, the answers to these questions matter.
Then there's fast food wings, which are an entirely different beast.
Fast food wings are smaller, and usually supplied by industrial farms. You can make your own assumptions, but in all likelihood, these chickens didn't have a great life , and that often shows in the quality of the wing itself.
The wings at Wingstop are small, less plump, and often less flavorful. By all means, it's not the platonic ideal of a chicken wing. But, if there's one thing I learned in my years of taste testing fast food and grocery store products, good flavor engineering can save just about any food-even the humble chicken wing.
Below, check out the best Wingstop flavors ranked from worst to best. And if you're interested in more food content from Men's Journal, check out our roundups of the healthiest sushi rolls and leanest cuts of beef .
Related: The New Golden Age of the Fast-Food BurgerWingstop Flavors, Ranked from Worst to Best
All nutritional facts refer to a single bone-in wing.
Kicking off my own private wing extravaganza is Wingstop's mild flavor, which proved to be mediocre by every possible standard. Honestly, the mild wing at Wingstop would be better if it had no seasoning at all.
There's something pleasant about a crispy, crunchy, plain-fried wing at Wingstop, but the mild wings are just inoffensively offensive. They do taste a little on the buttery side-there's probably some sort of liquid margarine used in the mild sauce-but they're not crispy and they have kind of a soft, soggy texture.
Upcoming flavors on this list deliver better in flavor and texture. The mild wings are at the bottom of the barrel simply because they're too blank. They desperately need good ranch or blue cheese, which you're better off buying on your own and keeping it stocked in the fridge. Both the ranch and blue cheese at Wingstop fall short.
The good news about the hickory smoked BBQ wings at Wingstop is that they have slightly more flavor than mild. The bad news is they still taste pretty bland. Plus, there's the same lack of texture.
The flavor here reminds me of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. While there's nothing inherently wrong with Sweet Baby Ray's, it's also best used as a base meant to be improved upon with additional vinegar, seasonings, and flavor enhancers.
I detect some liquid smoke in these hickory smoked BBQ wings, but overall, the prevailing feature is sweetness. It needs tang, and maybe even a little more heat. In short, these wings are crying for help.
: 4g
: 10g
Wingstop's Hawaiian wings come glopped with a sweet, fruity sauce that has a concentrated pineapple taste. The wings first conjure up the feeling of General Tso's chicken at a Chinese takeout joint, but that nostalgia wavered as I was overall gobsmacked by how insipid the flavor was.
It's sweet and saucy, but somehow only further illuminates just how bland the chicken wing itself is. Wingstop wings need help in the form of acid and heat; sweetness just isn't the move. Additionally, the sauce robs the chicken of crispiness, and the whole thing feels kind of gummy.
These atomic wings are as advertised: overwhelmingly spicy. Still, that heat is manageable. Wingstop says its atomic wings are made from a tandem of habanero peppers and vinegar, but there's a little more to it than that.
I noticed some black pepper flecks on my wings, which deepened the flavor and kept it from feeling too one note. The heat is pure and concentrated with grassy undertones, all of which lingers on the tongue and mouth.
It's not the best texture, but if you want your hot wings to wallop you across the face, Wingstop makes good on that promise with their atomic version.
In terms of flavor construction, the blaze BBQ wing, which was introduced just a few months ago, is a step in the right direction.
A clear upgrade from the monotony of the hickory smoked barbecue wing, the blaze BBQ flavor is a sweet heat with a bit of tang to boot. "Blaze" is too strong of a word to describe the taste here-it's more mild than anything-but for the people who like barbecue but want a tad more heat, it's a good play.
Nutritional information is not yet available for this flavor.
These are dangerously close to being plain ol' wings. There's no pronounced garlic or parmesan flavor. Wingstop is likely using mass-produced versions of both ingredients. Jarred minced garlic pales in comparison to the flavor of the fresh stuff, and whatever parmesan cheese the joint keeps on hand doesn't cut it.
However, the garlic parmesan wing is crispy, tender, and pops with a fatty, oily taste. At this point, I notice that the texture of Wingstop's dry-rubbed wings is excellent. I found the crispy little edges that crunched in my mouth delightful, while the meat itself was relatively tender and juicy.
Distilling the flavor of Korean BBQ into a single flavor is a tall task that nobody ever really gets right. There's a wide spectrum of Korean flavors, too many to meld them all into a single concept. Typically, Korean BBQ is a branding tactic that insinuates generic "Asian flavors." The wings at Wingstop are no different.
It's a concoction of soy sauce, sugar, and gochujiang. It's tangy and sweet-much better than the Hawaiian flavor-but still nothing world-bending. If anything, this has more of a stir-fry vibe. The wing sauce itself is not very spicy, however, despite what the name implies.
Unfortunately, the best Wingstop wing flavor is not hot, but it ranks high for a reason: it hits all of the proper flavor notes.
It's a standard hot wing through and through. It's spicy, vinegary, tangy, buttery, fatty, and salty. I'm not exactly sure what hot sauce Wingstop uses to make their hot wings, but it feels like Cajun Chef Louisiana Hot Sauce .
There's better hot wings out there, but there's also a lot worse. Props to Wingstop for making a good hot wing.
Hot honey can fix a lot of mediocre foods: pizza, fried chicken, roasted vegetables, and now chicken wings.
Wingstop's hot honey flavor is quite subtle. There's a dry heat emanating from the wing, as well as a nuanced, baseline sweetness from the honey. The sweet heat here plays in the background, so much so that I still get the vibes of a plain chicken wing.
Again, there's that distinct fryer oil taste that is both good and bad. The fat is lovely, but also, the wing itself should probably have a more pronounced hot honey vibe.
The wings are as advertised. It's definitely a hot honey "rub," meaning they aren't sticky-sweet like somebody poured a ton of honey and cayenne pepper onto a batch of wings.
Nutritional information is not yet available for this flavor.
Related: How to Make Salad Dressing That Goes With Practically EverythingSometimes, restaurants just need to let a good ingredient do its thing. Such is the case with tangy lemon pepper seasoning.
Lemon pepper seasoning is much more than lemon and pepper. It's a salty, umami bomb that works great with fried foods. As such, these wings were bright, salty, and mouth-smacking.
Check most store-bought lemon pepper, and the ingredients include salt, garlic, onion powder, and sugar. It's a very purposeful alchemy of ingredients, and a strong flavor enhancer that doesn't need much else to be enjoyed.
The cajun flavor wings at Wingstop are surprisingly complex. They're spicy, fruity, peppery, and tangy with good cayenne pepper flavor. There's depth, too, which is why they rank ahead of the lemon pepper.
Interestingly, this wing flavor is a mixture of dry and wet. It comes tossed in a Cajun hot sauce, but it's also flecked with some dry seasoning, too. It's a great one-two punch of heat and flavor.
Wingstop's Louisiana Rub has a powerfully salty, umami flavor. There's also a wonderful combination of herbs at play here. With both oregano and thyme seasoning, it's a great dry wing and a step up from cajun.
Too many hot wings are one note, but this flavor has great depth of flavor. It looks appetizing, too-seasoned, dark, and lovely.
For my money, mango habanero is the overall best flavor at Wingstop.
The fruity, dry, and complex heat of the habanero is wonderful, but the best part is it mostly plays in the background. These wings seduce you with their sweet and fruity qualities without being too saccharine.
The habanero balances out the mango really well for an awesome punch of sweet heat. The texture is great, too, as the wings are crispy and juicy. It's the wing I was craving most after the taste test. This is how you do a hot wing properly.
How We Ranked Each Wingstop Flavor
To determine the best Wingstop flavors, I conducted a taste test in the comfort of my own home. I ordered two of each wing flavor-one drum, and one flat, to evaluate the taste and texture of both styles. So, if you're keeping score at home, that's 13 wing flavors, and 26 wings total.
My process for taste testing is simple: I eat the food and take notes. Some taste testers spit out food after they taste it, but to me that feels like a waste. Plus, one thing I want to judge is how each wing makes me feel. What does it feel like to eat an entire atomic wing? That's important.
I also really geek out on ingredients and how they come together, so once I assess each wing's texture, that's when the fun begins. I set out to investigate each ingredient used in the best Wingstop flavors-what works? What doesn't? How could they be improved? There's a whole catalog of flavor enhancers used by Wingstop, and some of the choices are super interesting.
Why You Should Trust Me
I started working in kitchens at the age of 15. Currently, I'm a food critic for Hour Magazine . Perhaps most importantly, however, I used to taste test food for a living over at the website Sporked , and even spent a couple years traveling the country and eating fast food for The Takeout . I've been writing about all things food for the past 7 years. This is my job, and I love it.
Also, not for nothing, I wrote my own hot wing recipe , too.
Related: How to Smoke Pork Belly, the Best Bite of BBQThis story was originally published October 17, 2024, 2:12 PM.
