Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

by Sarah De Heer, Posted Jan 29th 2010 @ 1:30PM

Rachel Been, AOL

Buffalo Wings -- the perfect three bite appetizer for any game, but especially for the Super Bowl. If you're throwing a party at home and don't feel like doing take-out or making them from scratch, there are numerous frozen varieties available, and Slashfood's panel of wing connoisseurs will help you pick the best of the bunch.

Find out which wings caught their attention after the jump.

Using good 'ole wings from their local bar(s) as the gold standard, the judges considered the following categories when scoring:

Buffalo flavor: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 having almost no Buffalo flavor and 5 having the strongest.
Heat: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 having almost no spice and 5 having an incredible amount of heat.
Saucy-ness: Did the wings need more sauce?
Blue cheese factor: Did the wings taste better if they were dipped in blue cheese?
Messy: Did the wings require a stack of napkins?

But what's a Buffalo wing without blue cheese? We paired each of these wings with our favorite blue cheese from a recent salad dressing taste test for best results.

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Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Fourth Runner-Up: Weaver Buffalo Style Wing Flats

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 2.5
Heat (1-5): 2
Needs extra buffalo sauce: No
Better with blue cheese: Yes
Requires a lot of napkins : No
Our panel says: "I was surprised that these wings were frozen." "The quality of the meat is great, it's tender and moist and falls off the bone." "But, the issue here is the sauce -- it's oily and very buttery."

Rachel Been, AOL

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Third Runner-Up: Tyson Any'tizers Buffalo Boneless Chicken Wings

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 4
Heat (1-5): 2.5
Needs extra buffalo sauce: Yes
Better with blue cheese: No
Requires a lot of napkins : No
Our panel says: "For a boneless wing, it's good -- it has the right amount of heat and your hands stay clean." "However, the ground up chicken inside is off-putting and resembles more like a crabcake." "The crust on the outside remains crunchy."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Second Runner-Up: Trader Joe's Buffalo Chicken Wings

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 3
Heat (1-5): 4
Needs extra buffalo sauce: No
Better with blue cheese: Yes
Requires a lot of napkins : Yes
Our panel says: "I feel like I could easily get this wing at a bar." "The skin wasn't as crisp as I would like it to be and they were oily."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

First Runner-Up: T.G.I Friday's Buffalo Chicken Wings

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 3.5
Heat (1-5): 3.5
Needs extra buffalo sauce: No
Better with blue cheese: Yes
Requires a lot of napkins : Yes
Our panel says: "It looked the most appealing out of the group and it had a good ratio of heat to flavor." "While the meat was good, there just wasn't enough. "It did have the best crust out of all of them."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Winner: Bell & Evans Buffalo Style Chicken Wings

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 2
Heat (1-5): 4
Needs extra buffalo sauce: N/A
Better with blue cheese: Yes
Requires a lot of napkins : No
Our panel says: "Instead of a sauce, there's a spice rub similar to mesquite on these wings, which gives it an incredible heat." "The skin is crispy and the quality of the chicken is unbeatable."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Worst: Perdue Buffalo Style Chicken Wings

Buffalo Flavor (1-5): 2.5
Heat (1-5): 3.5
Needs extra buffalo sauce: No
Better with blue cheese: Yes
Requires a lot of napkins : Yes
Our panel says: "All breading and no chicken -- this wing needs a better batter recipe." "The extreme orange color is a little scary." "Besides mushy breading, the wing was fatty."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Best Blue Cheese Trader Joe's Organic Creamy Bleu

Calories per serving: 90
Total fat per serving: 9 grams
Creamy (1-5): 3
Chunky (1-5): 4
Our panel says: "Did I strike a vein of mold?" "I want to take this home -- the cheese is the perfect strength with a buttermilk afterbite."

Best Frozen Buffalo Wings

Filed Under: Taste Test
Tags: best buffalo wings, best hot wings, blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, buffalo wings, chicken wings, frozen buffalo wings, super bowl

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-29-2010 @2:27PM boss sauce said... Never thought to buy them pre-made, but hey this is fattening American snack food, so it seems appropriate! Frank's Red Hot has all the info you need on the bottle to make perfectly authentic wings btw, and the results of baking them are surprisingly awesome, nearly indistinguishable from correctly fried wings, with 1/10 the mess and none of the fry smell. Buffalo should be capitalized btw-- it's the name of a (er, my home) city, after all...:)
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1-29-2010 @7:24PM Stephen said... I almost picked up a bottle of Frank's this afternoon, but decided not to. So it actually has a recipe for wings right on the bottle? If it really does, I might pick it up sometime this weekend. I would LOVE to have a non-frozen, low processed wing for Super Bowl Sunday.