Dessert Chicken Wings?

"Would you like to see the dessert menu?”

It’s a question usually posed to me after I’ve eaten a 20-ounce steak, baked potato and token vegetable, which followed either a sausage and broccoli rabe or candied slab bacon appetizer. 

As a true Wingaddict, though, the entire word “dessert” has taken on an entirely different meaning to me lately. I don’t think of dessert like normal human beings. In my mind it’s no longer the closing curtain to a meal. Oh, no. To me, it can be the life of the party. I’m talking, of course, about dessert wings!

Have you ever tried dessert-themed chicken wings? 

The thought of chicken wings covered in chocolate, or peanut butter and jelly, or marshmallows, or all of the above probably isn’t the first thing on your mind when you walk into a restaurant. And, frankly, you’d probably even recoil a bit just seeing it on a wing menu. Until you try it.

I remember my very first step over the line. It was back in early 2020 at the legendary Dew Drop Inn in Derby, CT. After demolishing four of the 130-something flavors on the menu, I looked up at Doni The Cleaner, raised my eyebrows and tilted my head. Telepathically, that meant . . . . "should we?”

Grinning and wide-eyed, we peered at the bottom of the menu where we saw dessert wing options like Nutella, Smores, Peanut Butter Smores, Reese’s Cup, Black Forest and Mississippi Mud. My peanut allergy instantly eliminated three possibilities and we placed an order for Smores wings.

Even as I type this, my common-sense brain is screaming “NO!”  It doesn’t make sense. Chicken should not taste good when topped with melted chocolate and marshmallow and topped with a graham cracker crumble. 

But it did. And it does.

In case you need some convincing (and we assume you might), consider wing flavors you’ve already eaten with a sweet sauce that might easily be considered dessert-like. You do realize that literally every single BBQ sauce on the planet is made with sugar, honey or molasses. Have you eaten Sweet Chili wings? How about Maple Bacon? So, while the “Buffalo wing traditionalist” is probably pitching an actual fit right now, it really isn’t all as far fetched as it seems.

I know. It’s that word “chocolate.” I get it. 

Along our subsequent journey to try 1,000 different chicken wing flavors (and since that fateful Smores wing) we’ve eaten the following wings that could all be classified as “dessert" wings:

Scrolling through our hit list it occurred to me that I wasn’t adding in many of the “fruit-based” wing flavors (ie Angry Peach) that could easily be classified as a dessert wing, also.  But you get the picture. 

I was recently researching highly-regarded wing spots in Charlotte, NC and came upon a spot called Noisy Wings. I was immediately drawn in by their extensive menu and then my eyeballs opened wide when I saw their "dessert menu!" What are your thoughts about Cookies & Cream wings with Oreo Crumble? Strawberry Pancake? White Chocolate? How about Waffled wings with syrup and powdered sugar? 

Groggy Frogg, the top-ranked dive bar in Connecticut (and one of THE best wing joints in the country), also has a huge wing menu and frequently fires off dessert wings for annual wing competitions. With 80 flavors and nearly as many first-place trophies, they copped the top spot again at a recent festival with a pink "Barbie Wing" spoofing on the popularity of the Barbie movie. It was a strawberry marshmallow fluff with Rice Krispies and editable pink glitter. To me, it was a little beyond the pale (not my favorite). But to the 500-plus other people who voted, it took home "Best in Show."

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of my favorite wing chefs in the country, Matt Mager from Center Street Grille outside of Harrisburg, PA. He's a mad scientist with his wing game and he's an entire blog post for another time. His dessert wings actually make your eyes bleed as he has an entire segment called "Cereal Killers" where he combines different cereal brands with hot pepper dust. His award-winning "Hellfernutter," a combination of pleasure and pain, is kind of self-explanatory. 

Your resistance is futile. Just like those stubborn smart-ass purists who insisted they’d never get rid of their flip phones, it's time for you to restructure your chicken wing paradigm and upgrade your tastebuds! Like my parents used to tell me when I was a little kid, "If you don't like it you can spit it out!" Haha.

So the next time your server asks, “Can I bring you something to get you started?” The correct answer is, “Yes, we’ll start right out with the dessert menu please.” 

Wings up!

* Have YOU had an interesting dessert wing? We'd love to see it and/or hear all about it on our Wingaddicts App! You can post reviews there for all of your wing adventures!  

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Tommy Wyatt is co-founder of Wingaddicts and author of  this “Under the Wingfluence" blog. He can be reached directly by email at tommy@wingaddicts.com 

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