The Popular Chain Restaurant You Should Avoid If You're Craving Buffalo Wings - Tasting Table

"We sampled wings from six popular chain restaurants, judging their classic buffalo wings based on flavor and consistency of the sauce, and the taste and texture of the chicken meat and skin. The clear loser of the bunch was Chili's bone-in buffalo wings. To begin, we felt shortchanged as half the wings weren't the meaty drumettes we so desired. The wings were fried, giving them crispy skin, which we enjoyed. However, the meat itself was chewy, tough, and dried out."

"The worst offender, however, was the buffalo sauce - if you could call it that. Instead of a zesty, smooth, spicy sauce, we got an oily mess that tasted almost floral. Suffice it to say, the texture of the chicken, along with an abomination of a sauce, put us off Chili's wings forever. Customers on Facebook back up our opinion about their subpar texture, with one even going as far as to say they were "frozen and raw in the middle.""

"Others experienced the same raw, rubbery texture. According to another customer, "there was very little sauce. They just tasted like chicken ... I'm pretty sure most of my wings didn't actually have sauce on them." Even the boneless wings were described at best as "like the frozen ones you buy at the store, just fried.""

"In our ranking of every Triple Dipper appetizer, the bone-in wings unsurprisingly came in last place despite the many saucy variations. They certainly weren't worth the $1.50 surcharge you have to pay to include them in the appetizer. If you're looking for a better chicken option from Chili's, we recommend the honey-chipotle chicken crispers. You can make the chicken crispers into a meal by ordering our favorite Chili's entree, the Nashville hot"

Six chain restaurants were sampled for classic buffalo wings, judged by sauce flavor and consistency and by chicken taste and texture. Chili's bone-in buffalo wings were the clear loser. Half the wings were not the desired meaty drumettes. The wings had crispy fried skin, but the meat was chewy, tough, and dried out. The buffalo sauce was described as an oily mess with an almost floral taste instead of a zesty, smooth, spicy flavor. Customer feedback echoed complaints of raw, rubbery texture and very little sauce, with some wings tasting like plain chicken. Even boneless wings were criticized as similar to store-frozen wings that were simply fried. Chili's honey-chipotle chicken crispers were recommended as a better option.

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