Buffalo wings are deep-fried chicken wings tossed in a sauce made from cayenne pepper hot sauce and melted butter, served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing. Invented in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, they have become one of America's most consumed bar foods, with over 1.4 billion wings eaten during Super Bowl weekend alone.

What Is Buffalo Wings?

The buffalo wing was created on October 30, 1964, by Teressa Bellissimo at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. The commonly told story is that her son Dominic arrived late at night with friends, and she improvised a snack by deep-frying chicken wings (then considered a throwaway part) and tossing them in a mixture of Frank's RedHot sauce and butter. The wings were served with celery from the kitchen and a side of blue cheese dressing from the salad station. The combination was an instant hit. The Anchor Bar began serving them regularly, and the format spread across Western New York before going national in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, buffalo wings are a cornerstone of American bar and sports culture. The traditional preparation uses the whole wing separated into two pieces: the drumette (the meatier part resembling a small drumstick) and the flat (the thinner, two-boned middle section). The wing tip is discarded. Variations now include boneless wings (breaded chicken breast pieces), grilled wings, and smoked wings, but the classic deep-fried, sauce-tossed format remains the standard.

What Does Buffalo Wings Taste Like?

The first sensation is heat: the cayenne pepper in the hot sauce delivers a sharp, building burn that starts at the lips and spreads across the tongue. The butter in the sauce mellows the heat and adds a rich, fatty coating that helps the sauce cling to the crispy skin. The fried chicken skin itself provides a crackly, salty crunch that gives way to juicy, tender meat underneath. The celery serves a functional purpose: its cool, watery crunch provides relief between bites, resetting the palate. Blue cheese dressing adds tangy, creamy richness that dampens the heat further. The overall experience alternates between spicy, fatty, salty, and cool.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken wings -- separated into drumettes and flats, deep-fried unbreaded until the skin is crispy and the interior reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Frank's RedHot sauce -- the original cayenne pepper sauce used in the 1964 recipe; Crystal and Louisiana Hot Sauce are common substitutes.
• Butter -- melted and combined with hot sauce at roughly a 1:1 ratio to create the signature coating.
• Celery sticks -- served alongside as a palate cleanser and textural contrast.
• Blue cheese dressing -- the traditional dipping sauce in Buffalo; ranch dressing is the alternative preferred outside New York.

How Buffalo Wings Is Traditionally Served

Wings arrive in a basket or on a plate lined with wax paper, glistening with orange-red sauce. Celery sticks and a ramekin of blue cheese or ranch dressing sit alongside. They are eaten with the hands, and a stack of napkins or wet wipes is essential. In bars and sports restaurants, wings are ordered by count (10, 20, 50) and come in escalating heat levels from mild to medium to hot to "inferno" or challenge-level sauces. They are a communal food, typically shared among a table during a game or gathering.

Ordering Tips for First-Timers

Start with "medium" heat if you are unsure of your tolerance; "mild" often lacks the characteristic buffalo flavor, while "hot" can overwhelm the chicken taste. Always choose bone-in wings over boneless -- the bone conducts heat during frying, resulting in juicier meat and crispier skin. Flats have more surface area for sauce but less meat; drumettes are meatier but harder to coat evenly. Order both. Blue cheese is the traditional and correct dipping sauce in Buffalo, New York, but ranch is acceptable everywhere else. Ask if the wings are fried fresh to order or pre-cooked and reheated.

Buffalo Wings vs Similar Dishes

Buffalo wings differ from Korean fried chicken wings in that Korean versions are double-fried for extra crunch and glazed in a sweet-spicy gochujang or soy-garlic sauce rather than a butter-cayenne sauce. Compared to Southern fried chicken, buffalo wings are unbreaded and tossed in sauce after frying rather than being seasoned before cooking. Nashville hot chicken uses cayenne-laced oil painted onto breaded fried chicken, producing a different heat distribution than the tossed-sauce method. Teriyaki wings replace the hot sauce with a sweet soy glaze, eliminating the heat entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pairs Well With

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