National Culinary Review

IT’S ALL IN THE SAUCE

restaurants, including at the Southern-style Delta’s Restaurant in New Brunswick, N.J. “Turkey wings have been on our menu since day one,” says chef Willie Stafford. “When you’re putting together a Southern menu, there is a limited number of things to choose from to keep it original. Wings are very popular in Southern cuisine, and in the South, people have turkey more often, not only at Thanksgiving.”

Customers at Equus & Jack’s Lounge in Louisville, Ky., love the traditional Jack’s Buffalo wings. Chef/owner Dean Corbett’s housemade sauce is a reduction of crushed tomatoes, sugar, Frank’s RedHot sauce, maple syrup, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, shallots and rice wine vinegar. “It’s sweet/hot and has tons of flavor and a little heat,” Corbett says.

Peanut/soy dressing is an out-of-the-box pairing with chicken wings at Big Daddy’s Burger Bar in Charlotte, N.C. Chef Adam Long experimented with wing seasonings and sauces, and paired a salad dressing with a new idea for garlic wings. “You wouldn’t think the two would go together, but when you try it, it’s amazing,” he says.

THE CLASSIC WING

Buffalo-style is the classic and most widely known chicken wing offering, popularized by large chain restaurants. Equus & Jack’s Lounge has its own version of the classic, Jack’s Buffalo wings. An order is eight or nine wings tossed with a hot sauce made from scratch, a little butter and fresh lemon. The wings are served with chunky housemade blue cheese dressing and celery sticks.

While the Bully! Porter wings on the menu at 12 Baltimore Café in Kansas City, Mo., are served undressed to let the beer flavor come through, chef Jason Bowers created a trio of housemade dipping sauces—blue cheese, ranch and classic hot wings—to allow customers to control the amount of coating.

Gravy can also top wings, and works especially well with braised turkey wings, says Willie Stafford, chef at Delta’s Restaurant in New Brunswick, N.J. “The gravy is made from the braising liquid used to cook the turkey wings,” he says. “You skim the fat off, and use a roux to make a gravy. We finish it off with onion for more flavor. It’s a Southern thing to call it a gravy rather than a sauce.”

Bowers was inspired to develop a new
wings offering after 12 Baltimore Café
partnered with Kansas City-based
Boulevard Brewing Co., and added eight
menu items influenced by the company’s
brews. The Bully! Porter wings are jumbo
uncut extra-large wings marinated for
“Customers love our wings,” says Corbett.
“They get very upset when we change
them. A classic example of this is that
we recently tried switching to a boneless
version. We have changed back, and our
original wings are here to stay.”
flavor of wings and the accompanying
sauces. For one, there are the garlic
wings served at Big Daddy’s Burger Bar.
“A lot of places do garlic wings, but ours
are different because they’re served with
peanut/soy dressing,” says Long. “We
wanted to add another wings option to the
menu. We already had the dressing for
salads, so we tested it on wings and ended
up liking it.”
Big Daddy’s Burger Bar, in Charlotte, N.C.,
also has a classic version of Buffalo wings
on the menu. “We sell more of the Buffalo
wings, but everyone who tries our garlic
wings loves them and comes back for
more,” says chef Adam Long.

The wings are jumbo bone-in, and a serving is 1 lb., 9-11 wings. They are fried, tossed with one of the restaurant’s special spice blends—roasted garlic pepper, garlic powder and kosher salt—then coated with a butter mix that includes crushed red pepper, garlic, olive oil and parsley. The wings are served with the peanut/soy dressing on the side.