Hot Wing Sauce

     The term “hot wing sauce” is often used interchangeably with “buffalo wing sauce”. Both are vinegar-based sauces with cayenne pepper or a combination of chili peppers as the primary seasoning.

     History says that the original Buffalo wings were first cooked at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1964. Friends of Dom Bellissimo, son of the owners Teressa and Frank Bellissimo, came in and were served the wings by Teressa because the wings were “too beautiful” to be put in the stock pot.

     Traditionally hot wings are deep-fried, drenched in hot spicy sauce and served with celery sticks and blue cheese salad dressing. The city of Buffalo prides itself on being the home of the original “buffalo” chicken wings.

Off the Shelf

     Sometimes the sauce comes fully prepared and ready to pour over the wings, as there are usually several brands ofhot wing sauce available in the grocery store. If you prefer the easy-to-make hot wings, then purchase one of the prepared sauces for hot wings.

Franks RedHot and Crystal also both make a hot sauce that is just one component of the hot wing sauce you would pour over the cooked wings. Read the label carefully to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want. There is a tremendous difference in the hot wing sauce, and the hot sauce.

Some restaurants, such as Hooters, which serves hot wings, sell their special hot sauce for wings. The bottled Hooters Wing sauce is available in Hooters restaurants or online.

Store-Bought or DIY Sauce

     The first decision is whether you want to use a prepared hot sauce, such as Crystal, or make your own hot sauce. In either case, you have to decide if you like a Tabasco chili pepper-based sauce, or if you prefer other chili peppers, such as Jalapeno or Serrano. Some of the bottled hot sauces use a blend of chili peppers to get their unique taste. The only way to learn what you like is to try several hot sauces or combination of chili peppers, should you decide to make your own.

Homemade Wing Sauce

     Now, if you want to do it yourself and feel adventurous, a casual search on the Internet for“hot wing sauce recipes” will return more recipes that you could prepare in a lifetime. Not only will you find the standard cayenne and vinegar-based hot buffalo wings sauce recipes, but you will also find a variety of other wing recipes. This may include recipes with an Asian theme, such as Teriyaki Wing sauce and even Pineapple wing sauce.

     In addition to the hot sauce for wings, there’s also the decision on how to fix the chicken. Some hot wing recipes require the chicken to be breaded, while others do not. Some recipes insist deep-frying is the only way to get a true hot wing, while other recipes insist that oven cooking is the only way to get truly delicious hot wings.

     If you enjoy hot wings, you may want to try several recipes until you find the one, you like best. Then experiment with it to make it your own special recipe. Then remember, fried or baked, a delicious hot wing sauce will be the star of the recipe, not the wings themselves.

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Homemade Hot Pepper Sauce