they originated in the city of Buffalo, NY back in the ‘60s.

a wing sauce with a Cayenne Pepper Sauce base to it. While many establishments call what they serve Buffalo Wings, the reality is that if the base of the sauce is something other than a cayenne pepper sauce, or perhaps a very closely related pepper sauce of another variety of pepper in extending that latitude, then the sauce is not technically a Buffalo Wing sauce. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with other wing sauces. Let’s just call them what they are, eh.

Answer: Wrong. The truth is that from a culinary perspective deep-fried wings contain less fat than baked wings assuming that both are cooked from their raw state. When properly deep fried in soybean oil, which many if not most restaurants use these days in varying soybean oil frying blends, the fat fries out of the wings to a much greater extent than baking bakes it out. That’s why when you bake wings they come out as we say, “all spongy and greasy.”

Vegetable oil (soybean oil in almost every case) has no Cholesterol, no Sodium, has no Trans Fat, and is relatively low in saturated fat. When wings are deep-fried in soybean oil or soybean oil blends, much of the fat in the chicken (which resides in the skin) cooks out. The key is hot enough oil, 350° commercial, 375°-400° consumer.

When wings are placed into hot enough oil, the outside of the wing is seared which “seals” the wing keeping the grease from penetrating the food and allowing the fat from the skin to cook out. Very little oil is then “absorbed” by whatever is being fried. This is why oil needs to be changed, largely because the chicken fat accumulates in the oil. Baking barely forces any of the fat from the skins leaving it in there. So unless you believe that chicken fat is healthy, or soybean oil unhealthy, deep-frying your wings is the healthier option when done properly.

the oil in which they are fried is either not hot enough or has not been changed when it should have been for optimal quality frying. If a deep fryer has fresh oil that is hot enough, food fried in it will be nice and crisp, dry, and tasty and in the case of wings will contain less fat than it did when you dropped them into the fryer.

Reality: That depends upon how they are prepared. Most people think “deep fried,” bleu cheese, etc. = unhealthy.

The fact of the matter is that a good wing sauce made with good ingredients and no “artificial junk” should actually be pretty healthy. Our sauces are! Peppers, which we include a lot of in our sauces and which are also a substantial ingredient to any Cayenne Pepper Sauce base, have many healthful properties.

Peppers are rich in antioxidant vitamins A & C, as well as vitamin K. Peppers also contain Capsaicin which is good for arthritic joints, the circulatory system, for lowering cholesterol, and for boosting immunity and preventing ulcers. A good wing sauce will contain peppers in one form or another. This goes for dry pepper spices as well. Other spices have other value also.

The celery, and often carrots, that come with an order of wings traditionally need no explanation as to their health value. Celery is also an antioxidant food, has vitamin C, and fiber among other benefits. Carrots are also rich in fiber and are an antioxidant food as well.

Bleu Cheese dressing is usually where people hang up on health regarding wings. Granted, bleu cheese dressing made from mayonnaise and sour cream cannot possibly be placed into a health category. However, two of our favorite bleu cheese dressings specifically for wing dipping, like many dressings, are made from Soybean Oil and Vinegar as the first two ingredients with the third being Bleu Cheese itself. While the Bleu Cheese has some fat as all cheeses do, the amount of Bleu Cheese contained within 2 oz. of dressing, the standard portion size with an order of wings is extremely nominal.

Fat is not something to be eliminated from a diet altogether which would be all but impossible and very impractical to say the least. Rather it should simply be regulated. As such, wings are a relatively well balanced meal when served with a good quality sauce, carrots/celery, and a good quality bleu cheese.

Tastes vary, clearly. “Jumbo” wings are wings typically sized in the 6-7 per lb. range. When discussing wing sizes the count-per-pound refers to pieces, not whole wings, and refers to pre-cooked weight typically speaking unless purchasing pre-cooked wings in foodservice packaging.

We recommend wings in the 8-10 per lb. count range for both restaurants and consumers. Granted, consumers have fewer choices that are limited to what their area supermarkets carry in their respective poultry sections.

Our extensive yet informal surveying of consumer preferences for wing sizes over the past few decades suggest that most people like a good sized wing but not enormous (Jumbo) wings. The problem with Jumbo Wings is that they suffer from what we affectionately term “the candy apple affect” here at Wy’s Wings.

While as adults we all eat apples as apples, we have all eaten candy apples as children. Naturally the first order of business is to eat the caramel coating off of the apple. Once that is gone however the rest of the apple loses its luster, literally, and the remainder of the apple along with the stick gets tossed into the trash by any child worth his/her salt as a child regarding childhood culinary practices.

All humor aside, people eat wings for the sauce which is where the flavor is, generally speaking and less so for the actual chicken. The quality of the chicken is important, but places rated for their wings are largely highly rated due to the taste of the wings regardless of size.

We have run scientific experiments regarding the amount of sauce that needed to be applied to three varying sizes of wings; 6-7/lb. (Jumbo), 8-10, and 10-12. The 8-10 took the most per pound of wings, the 10-12s the next greatest amount per pound, and the Jumbos (6-7) the least. What this means is that the sauce-to-chicken ratio for the Jumbos was the lowest, and that it was the greatest for the 8-10s, which is why we prefer the 8-10s. And for you restaurants, isn’t that why most customers buy wings, for the flavor of the sauce on them!

Answer: It isn’t. Wing Anatomy: A whole chicken wing is made up of three parts. First, the tip. This would be the equivalent of the hand on a person. Second, and connected to the tip, is the winglet or the piece with two bones in it. This would be tantamount to the forearm on a person. Third, and connected to the winglet, is the drumlet which is often mistaken for a chicken leg because it has the same basic shape as a leg. This is the equivalent to the upper arm on a person.

The biggest difference between a chicken leg and a wing drumlet is the fact that the leg is dark meat while the drumlet is white meat as is the winglet. White meat tastes much better deep-fried.

Many wing consumers prefer the drumlets because they seem to be meatier and are definitely somewhat easier to eat to lesser experienced wing eaters. The drumlets also only have one bone to eat around whereas the winglets have two bones making eating them slightly less convenient to eat.

We prefer the winglets because they have more flavor inherently. The flavor on a wing prior to adding sauce comes from the skin and fat. Deep-frying in soybean oil enhances that basic flavor. Since winglets possess more skin/fat, they have a superior taste to drumlets all by themselves when deep-fried. Upon adding sauce the difference in flavor goes along for the ride. Deep-frying in soybean oil adds a nice buttery flavor in and of itself otherwise.

Reality: This could not be more untrue! For detailed instructions on how to prepare wings, please check out our “How to make the Best Wings in America…” links.

Otherwise, all you need is a decent consumer deep fryer, vegetable (soybean) oil to fry with, chicken wings from your poultry case, and a good sauce and Bleu Cheese dip. The “How to…” sections above will provide you with all the cooking details otherwise. Let’s just say that making the best Buffalo Wings in America is easier to do at home than good BBQ is and it’s much easier to avoid making mistakes. Wings are one of the easiest things to prepare at home.

Answer: So you ventured too far and now your lips and mouth are on fire, eh? Wanna quench the burn?

Here's what the Wy's Answer Chicken says:

Forget the bread, water, beer, soda, ice, butter, or anything else. Get milk! Milk is the only thing that will cool the burn. Not only is it cold, but in it is a protein called casein which counteracts the effects of capsaican, the compound found in peppers that produces that burning. Of course, some of us like that burning. So no milk for us please. We'll take our wings straight! Bleu Cheese and creamy dairy dressings also seem to help if they contain casein.

Drinking beer or any other form of alcohol prior to eating hot foods merely adds to the burn. The alcohol in the beverage dilates the tissue in the mouth allowing the hot stuff to penetrate deeper. Or so it seems. The alcohol also aids in dissolving the oils from the peppers which have the heat. This then assists the oils spreading out within your mouth and thereby intensifying the heat as well. So if you really want to heat things up, have a beer before eating those Wy's Guys. The eating of salty foods prior to eating hot spicy foods has a similar affect.