Fast Food Review: Wendy's Boneless Buffalo Wings

Back in June I tried Wendy's boneless Asian wings and thought they were very good, if not exactly great. I planned to try the buffalo wings at a later date, which I thought would be a week or two. But then the weather finally turned nice and I started grilling at home much more, and I just didn't have any desire to go out and get fast food for dinner, so it turned into almost a couple months.

I love hot sauce, so I usually love a nice buffalo flavor. But lots of restaurants, both fast food and casual dining, use a type of buffalo sauce that I can't stand that contains high fructose corn syrup. Instead of a vinegary, spicy flavor, it tastes like an over-sweet, fake butter with a tiny amount of spice. When I was 21 I would sometimes help out my buddy who managed a restaurant. (By "help out" I mean do half of his chores so we could make it out to our favorite bar in time for Trivia Night.) I once walked in to the pantry and saw what happens to those gallon containers of sauce when they are dormant: they separate into a sediment and a liquid, neither of which are colors of this world.

I cannot recall any fast food joint ever serving a buffalo item that I thought was any good... until I came across the Wendy's "flavor-dipped" chicken sandwich last fall. Now there was a sandwich that didn't mess around: it was spicy without any of that cloying aftertaste of inferior, buffalo-drenched items. Unfortunately it was a limited time offer and when I went back a couple weeks later it was gone. I was hoping the boneless wings would use the same sauce.

I ate at the Wendy's in Alhambra. Anyone who doubts that fast food restaurants are booming during the current economic crisis should have been with me that day. It was only 11 AM and the place was packed. There were only two tables available in the dining room and a line of about 15 cars snaking out of the parking lot and down the street. Unfortunately, it was obvious that a lot of these people eat fast food every day, possibly more than once. I was one of the smaller people in the house, and that doesn't happen often.

Happily, this was the buffalo sauce I was hoping for. (Of course, reading the ingredients on the Wendy's website, I see the first one listed is "corn syrup," but I promise you it does not taste that way.) There was the biting, sour taste of vinegar and a buffalo flavor that was actually quite spicy. The quality of the chicken is relatively poor. If you're expecting more than that for $3.99 at a fast food joint, I'm not sure what to tell you. It would be ideal if you could get this exact buffalo sauce as a side for Wendy's chicken nuggets. Those are only 99 cents on the value menu and better quality chicken.

I do not anticipate eating these again. The sauce was very good, the chicken was not. I enjoyed the buffalo flavor more than the Asian. I don't plan to try the honey bbq.

Fast Food Review: Wendy's Boneless Wings

Over the weekend I went down to Oceanside to hang out with my friend Zach, go to some wineries in Temecula, and watch sports on his 100 inch HDTV. And, as has become our tradition, we did a fast food marathon, trying all the most recent fast food promotions. The one I was most looking forward to was Wendy's boneless buffalo wings.

I am always excited to try boneless wings, especially when you have a choice of flavors. Wendy's offers the chicken in three flavors: honey barbecue, bold buffalo, and sweet & spicy Asian. I considered ordering one of each flavor, but since we were going to so many other places I decided just to try one flavor, the Asian.

My first bite was not impressive. The chicken was good but the sauce was too sweet. I did not taste any of the spiciness. I realized the sauce had gathered at the bottom of the cheap plastic container, so before the next bite I dragged my chicken through the sauce. It was much better that way. But there is nothing special about these, they are just re-formed chicken nuggets. That's not necessarily a bad thing; Wendy's has some of my favorite fast food nuggets. But these aren't as good as KFC's "Tangy Terriyaki" boneless wings that resurface every few years.

I will most likely be trying out the other Wendy's flavors at a later date. Probably when I don't have 6 other fast food joints to visit.

Chili's

My brother and I were out the other day, trying to decide where to go, when I remembered a recent article I had read somewhere about Chili's new "sweet chile glazed" boneless wings being one of the unhealthiest foods in America. I remembered the article, not because of its point (who cares?) but because sweet chile sounded like a nice flavor and I wanted to try them.

I've always "kind of" liked Chili's. I don't eat there more than once a year or so, and I don't think most of their food is very good, but I've always liked their boneless wings. They are definitely unhealthy, but they taste really good. My friend Min and I once at a Chili's in Rapid City, South Dakota, after a very long day of driving. We'd started the day in Denver and on our way we spent hours looking at both Mt. Rushmore and Carhenge (I couldn't decide which made me love my country more) and by the time dinner came around I was famished. I ordered three orders of boneless wings in different flavors. I couldn't finish them all, but I'm sure what I did eat was around 2500 calories or so.

Chili's has the "Triple Dipper Combo" that allows you to select any three appetizers as your meal. My brother and I both did this. I got the boneless buffalo wings, boneless sweet chile glazed wings, and "Buffalo Chicken Crisper Bites" (basically fried chicken sliders.) My brother opted for the boneless buffalo wings, chicken crispers, and hot spinach and artichoke dip.

My boneless buffalo wings were just average. I've had better at many, many places. But the chicken sliders were much better than I expected. They had bacon on them which was completely unnecessary but still appreciated. And the sweet chile glazed boneless wings were fantastic, maybe even the best thing I have ever had at Chili's.

I tried a bite of my brother's spinach and artichoke dip. It was good but I didn't love it, although I have never been a huge fan of artichoke. He ate the whole thing, though, and was hungry for more.

Hopefully the sweet chile wings will be around for a while, because I would definitely like to have a large order of them sometimes soon.