What Kind of Hot Sauce Should I Use to Make Hot Wings?

A plate of tasty hot wings.

Wings are a popular dish in the U.S. and many other countries too. And, although there are many varieties of wing dressings, from plain old salt to lemon pepper to BBQ, the most popular is without a doubt the hot wing. Many different choices of hot sauce are available.

Commercial Hot Sauce

One simple choice is to use a commercial sauce for your wings. Franks Red Hot Sauce, for instance, is a commercial hot sauce common to most parts of the United States and other countries too, but a quick look at the local grocery gives you all kinds of different options. Commercial hot sauces make preparing hot wings simple. There's no recipes to mess around with; just apply the hot sauce to the wings and cook them.

Home-made Hot Sauce

The second obvious choice deciding on a hot sauce for your wings is a home-made sauce. A home-made hot sauce is more complicated than a commercial sauce, but you're extra work pays off with a better flavor. And hot sauce really isn't all that hard to make. In fact; most hot sauce recipes use a commercial hot sauce as the main ingredient and only add a few ingredients like butter, maple syrup, or onion powder for flavor. Home made hot sauce can be tailored however you want, so you get your desired flavor.

Dry Spice Hot Sauce

Another hot sauce option most people don't consider is a dry spice hot sauce. You can use a variety of spices such as cayenne, chili powder, or ground pepper to coat the chicken wings. Other spices like onion powder, garlic powder, or cumin powder can be added to give the flavor more depth. To cook the wings better, add a bit of butter or oil to the recipe, which gives the wings a crispier skin.

Hot Sauce Dip

If you don't have any say in the cooking of the wings, or if you're the only one at a gathering who wants hot wings, you can opt instead for a hot sauce dip. With this option, it is important not to have wings with a great deal of flavor on their own. Wings with only salt and pepper on them, for instance, are a good option, while something like lemon pepper wings are not. A commercial hot sauce or a home-made hot sauce works well as a hot sauce dip.

References

• History of the Buffalo Wing