The Best Chicken Wings in Every State

There is no denying America's love of chicken wings. Americans eat more than a billion chicken wings during Super Bowl celebrations alone, according to the National Chicken Council. Yet the nation's palate has expanded beyond fried, barbecued, and butter-and-hot-sauce-dipped wings to include Thai chili, thin Korean batter, and Jamaican jerk varieties. There is no one recipe for chicken wings in the U.S., which is why we've laid out a road map to the best wing spots in all 50 states. 

Related: I Tried 11 Frank's RedHot Sauces — This One's Best For Your Super Bowl Wings

Multiple locations
Wings to get: Buffalo, lemon pepper, and Jamaican jerk

In a state with culinary tradition as diverse as Alabama's, there is no consensus on what makes a good wing. Fried wings, smoked wings, Jamaican jerk chicken ... there's a lot to process. Former Miami Dolphins nose tackle Bob Baumhower brought the Buffalo wing to this state in 1981, but his Baumhower's restaurants offer perhaps the broadest sampling of Alabama's wing repertoire. 

Anchorage
Wings to get: Flame or lemongrass

Alaska doesn't have a whole lot of options when it comes to wings, nor is it particularly known for its chicken dishes. The folks at 907 Wingman get a bit more experimental than the competition by emphasizing heat, varying its milder sauces, and enhancing the menu at its tiny spot with smoothies, teas, and other meaty offerings.   

Multiple locations
Wings to get: ATL style

Arizona has a diverse array of wing options, with heavy emphasis on Asian styles. But when it came to finding consensus on the state's trademark wing, the ATL Wings mini chain came through. You're going to see a lot of sauces on this list, but the ATL Style wings with its dry rub, crispy skin, and unique blend of spices is best enjoyed with no sauce at all. 

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Fayetteville
Wings to get: Acid rain and habanero sweet barbecue

There are now five locations of this wing-centric chain featuring 50 sauces. The televisions are big, and there's a Hooters-lite vibe, but Foghorn's roots as a sports bar catering to University of Arkansas students and fans still rings true. If the Razorbacks don't put up much of a fight, the fiery, flavorful wing offerings will.

Los Angeles
Wings to get: Medium spiced

This LA landmark looks like it did on opening day in 1971, though by now Ye Rustic Inn has achieved the coveted status of dive bar — one treasured by insiders for its cheap, yet meaty and perfectly sauced and seasoned wings. (And pitchers of beer to go with them.) No fancy sauces and varieties on this stripped-down menu. Just get the wings crispy and medium spicy, with a side of vinegar-based hot sauce to customize.

Related: Best Hole-in-the-Wall Spots for Fried Chicken in Every State

Denver
Wings to get: Tiger wings

Colorado has an abundance of hot wings, barbecue wings, and sweet Asian-influenced wings, but Ace Eat Serve's triple-fried wings with sweet-and-salty fish sauce tilted the axis of Colorado's wing world. Their cocktails are a nice complement, but we can't recommend you drink to many of them if you're going to try the $25-an-hour pingpong. The table tennis gets awfully serious here.

Plainville
Wings to get: Buffalo Dirt Wings

The building dates back to 1789, it's been a tavern since 1795, and it's been in its current incarnation since 1985. But its "Dirt Wing" method of frying its wings, saucing them, frying them, and saucing them again breathed new life into the Buffalo wing and keeps it a standout even as J. Timothy's Taverne remaining wing menu drifts toward teriyaki and Thai chili. With reserved beer taps for nearby Beer'd Brewing, Fox Farm Brewery, Firefly Hollow Brewing, and New England Brewing, as well as multiple televisions for folks sitting in the gray area between Yankees and Red Sox country, J. Timothy's has given Buffalo's wings a decidedly Nutmeg State flavor.

Multiple locations
Wings to get: Triple Play and PB&J

Founded as a catering company in 2004, 2 Fat Guys American Grill expanded on the back of its steak burgers, ribs, and wings. Its Buffalo sauce are a combination of bourbon barbecue, and poached pear and molasses sauces to make the Triple Play. As for the PB&J, don't get too grossed out: Grape jelly finds its way into some of the better barbecue sauces, while the peanut butter simply evens it all out.

Wings to get: Mango habanero

Wingo's offers a convenient chart of the hotness of its 25 wing sauces (ranging from smiling mild to screaming hot) and reviewers rave about the variety as well as the heat (the suicidal sauce is dubbed "no joke"). Favorites are conveniently marked with an asterisk, but Wingo's mango habanero is an unrecognized fan favorite.

Miami
Wings to get: Jerk

Florida is a big state with no dearth of wing joints, and Miami is saturated with them. The best of the bunch lean heavily on a crisp, charred exterior and house sauces and dry rubs, but House of Wings has been throwing everything it has at its wings since 2003. Its sauce menu features dozens of dry rubs (lemon pepper, Cajun), barbecue sauces (honey hickory smoke, habanero mango), sweet sauces (sweet and sour, Jamaican wine), savory sauces (mumbo sauce, bourbon) and hot sauces, but the combination of jerk seasonings and Buffalo sauce. 

Atlanta
Wings to get: Buffalo or lemon pepper

For 23 years, Jamal's Buffalo Wings operated out of an actual shack in the shadow of the Georgia Dome. It moved in 2017 into a larger, full-service restaurant, but the foil trays of spicy Buffalo wings, crispy (but not overly salty) lemon-pepper wings, and crinkle-cut fries remain.

Honolulu
Wings to get: Stuffed Chicken Wings

Hale Vietnam makes exactly one chicken wing, but it chose well. Based on a recipe the chef encountered in Vietnam more than 30 years ago, these wings are boned and stuffed with ground pork, carrots, and long-grain rice before being lightly breaded and pan-fried. They're served with fish sauce, but a peanut satay is also available. 

Boise
Wings to get: Hibachi Wings

Wings are a tough proposition in Idaho. When you aren't being pointed toward a national chain, you're being told about pub's wings that are billed on the menu as "Buffalo's Anchor Bar Wings." Boise is a long way from Buffalo, but the Latin/South American fusion restaurant Barbacoa offers wings on a tiny hibachi grill on a board accompanied by polenta logs and "Latin dipping sauce." It's the most unique wing option in a state that doesn't have many.

Chicago
Wings to get: Buffalo or applewood smoked

Any sports bar in Chicago can get people in to stare at a Blackhawks or Bulls game, drink Goose Island, and stick around for the DJ set. The Fifty/50 puts more into it, with a Buffalo sauce that ages eight months and takes on a hint of honey, while the hormone-free wings' breading is made up of whole-wheat flour, cracker meal, and a custom spice mix.  

Indianapolis
Wings to get: The Hermanaki Wings

Ale Emporium has become synonymous with Indiana wings, reducing the dozens of beers on tap (including from Indiana brewers) to a footnote. So what do the locals eat while watching the Pacers, Colts, or March Madness? The Hermanaki wings, named after the owner and involving dry rub and a final grilling after a trip through the fryer.

Iowa City
Wings to get: Original barbecue

Taking the barbecue approach, Jimmy Jack's coats its wings in house rub, smokes them for 2½ hours over hickory, and fries them once they're ordered. Four styles of sauces are offered, but the tangy, vinegar-based original feels just right.

Lawrence
Wings to get: Bigg Buffalo Wings

Bigg's BBQ near the University of Kansas puts its smoker on display outside and lets customers know just how it's going to go down. The wings here are huge, treated with Bigg's own rub and smoked before getting Bigg's own sauce. Barbecue sauce isn't even offered as an option, so you're getting a take on Buffalo wings that's specific to Jayhawks country.

Louisville
Wings to get: Spicy Party Wings

The state that lent KFC its name is swamped with chicken chains. Chicken King has Buffalo wings, but just as you wouldn't go to Buffalo to sample fried chicken, it's kind of odd to come to Kentucky and bypass the chicken that the state made famous. Chicken King isn't the biggest chicken place in the state, but its wealth of spices and huge portions make it hard to miss.

New Orleans
Wings to get: Sweet Heat and Arizona

Given the many other things you could eat during your time in New Orleans, chicken wings seem as if they should be pretty low on the list. But Wing Snack and its Wing Snack Express location make it worth the trip with 20 flavors of wings, ranch fries, crawfish balls, hush puppies, and mugs filled with sweet peach tea and punch.

Portland
Wings to get: Black Fly Stout Barbecue or salt and vinegar dry rub

Founders Ed Stebbins and Richard Pfeffer opened their first brewpub in Portland in 1988 and watched the city turn into a beer mecca all its own. Though Gritty McDuff's may not get the same beer-geek love as its neighbors at Allagash or Bissell Brothers, it's been cranking out its Best Bitter and Black Fly Stout for 30 years while not-so-secretly making the best wings in the state. Gritty's treats its customers to wings tossed in Buffalo, Thai chili, teriyaki, smoky barbecue, garlic parmesan, "XXX" hot sauce, and cinnamon chipotle or Cajun dry rubs. We're partial to the beer in the barbecue sauce and the simplicity of a salt-and-vinegar rub.

Baltimore
Wings to get: Honey Old Bay

Putting the mid-Atlantic's favorite crab seasoning on wings in a state synonymous with blue crab was a stroke of genius, but we give Kisling's Tavern even more credit for just flat-out using baltimoresbestwings.com as its website. Kislings thinks enough of its standard sauce to bottle it, but its master stroke was taking the red pepper flake, paprika, and celery salt of Old Bay seasoning, cutting it with honey and applying it to wings. A more than 20-year-old wing joint doesn't stick around that long by missing the simple connections, and that was a big one to make in this region.

Amherst and five other locations
Wings to get: Jet fuel and sweet chili

Any UMass student who's ever ordered 48-wing B-17 bomber with their friends, played in the arcade, or ordered a pint from the in-house brewery Amherst Brewing knows why generations of alumni love The Hangar. It launched dozens of Wings Over pickup and delivery locations in the Eastern U.S., but there's still nothing like the occasional homecoming.

Related: 20 College-Town Restaurants That Are Worth a Splurge

Detroit
Wings to get: Sweetwater Wings

There's rarely consensus about a state's best wing, but just about every ranking in Michigan puts Sweetwater Wings at the top of the pile. The reason is simple: Using chicken from the Eastern Market, Sweetwater Tavern bathes its wings in a secret sauce for 24 hours before dousing them in spice and frying them up. All of the ingredients above leach deep into the wings that make it into your table, leaving hints of spice and vinegar. They'll offer you celery and blue cheese, but you won't need the latter. Sweetwater offers barbecue technique executed to perfection.

Oakdale
Wings to Get: Black Widow

The D-Spot's motto could well be "Volume! Volume! Volume!" with its more than 70 different styles of wings. In fact, the D-Spot has a separate menu devoted entirely to its wings, with categories like "Safety First," "Just a Tiny Kick," and "Yikes! Now That's Hot!" The "Hot" category includes versions dubbed "Black Venom," "Brimstone," and "El Loco." Diners are advised to wash their hands before touching their face and using the restroom after eating these, and these menu items also won't be served to kids. You get the idea.

Related: The Spiciest Foods Around the World

Southaven
Wings to get: Seasoned or honey hot

Southaven has multiple wing joints, but Supreme Hot Wings points out that there's one downside to making wings in Mississippi: They often share a fryer with catfish. That's why Supreme Hot Wings puts its chicken, fries, and catfish in separate fryers and feels confident enough to offer a sauce-free version of its wings. Made with only its house-concocted seasoning, those wings stand out among a lineup of sauce options that can easily be found elsewhere.

Kansas City
Wings to get: Buffalo

The Peanut likes to remind customers that it's been around since 1933 and has the oldest liquor license in Kansas City, but its wings are a somewhat newer development. The hefty wings are peppered, deep fried, and dipped in a house-made sauce, served with house-made blue cheese that, like the sauce, is available to take home. In the barbecue-heavy state of Missouri, The Peanut gives tremendous respect to the Buffalo wing.

Missoula
Wings to get: Spicy hot

Montana is not exactly wing country. You can count the number of the state's independent wing joints on your hands, and few would resemble anything a visitor from the South or Northeast would see at home. A standout: The Double Front, built in 1909 and possibly home to a bootlegging operation before selling its first chicken in 1935, which offers its own take on wings. It cooks everything to order and uses house-made batter. That's not a quick process, but if you get impatient, there's an underground bar through the Double Front's second entrance where you can kill time.

Omaha
Wings to get: Hot or hot ranch

Omaha has its own approach to wings. The "char-buffed" method at the city's eateries involves frying the wings, dipping them in sauce, grilling them and, in some cases, dipping them again. Addy's, for example, will char buff and dip your wings again for an extra $1. In a packed sports bar with the Cornhuskers game on, we can't recommend making that big a stink about the sauce.

Las Vegas

Wings to get: Snow Cheddar Wings

Located in a busy strip mall, Jong-Ro stays true to its Korean roots with unique flavors like its bulddak spicy wings and gochujang Buffalo wings. Yelpers praise Jong-Ro's clean cozy atmosphere and its attentive service.

Related: A Guide to the Best Korean Food in America

Dover
Wings to get: Blueberry chipotle BBQ

Wing-itz offers about 20 sauces and four dry rubs, but we aren't going to recommend any. Instead, we suggest getting your wings fried up extra crispy and see if you can taste the difference a fresh chicken makes. Since 2007, Wing-itz has butchered its own antibiotic-free, hormone-free chickens and cuts its wings fresh daily. 

Clifton
Wings to get: Hot or chili lime

New Jersey has a wealth of wings, but it keeps them obscured from view. Tucked in a sprawling New York City suburb just off the spaghetti-bowl intersection of three major roadways, Sharky's is a neighborhood place that makes its own wing sauces including Old Bay, pineapple habanero, and salt and vinegar. 

Portales
Wings to get: Teriyaki or honey chipotle barbecue 

A former food truck that grew into a full-fledged restaurant on the strength of juicy wings. AJ's Wings' signature menu items don't stint on crispiness before coming drenched in 16 kinds of sauce or a mixture of any — most on the sweet side (even the Mango Habanero), at least before you venture into ghost pepper territory.

Multiple locations
Wings to get: Between mild and medium hot

If you go to Buffalo, you'll be reminded at the airport and in the city about how the Anchor Bar bestowed the butter-and-Franks-Red-Hot-slathered Buffalo wing upon the world in 1964. What you'll likely hear more of, if you listen carefully to the locals, is a pitched debate over which is better: Anchor Bar's wings or Duff's, which made its first wings just north of Buffalo in Amherst, New York, in 1969. We're going to side with the meatier, similarly spicy Duff's. Now the official wing partner of the Buffalo Bills, Duff's has expanded to several locations in New York state, as well as outposts in Texas and Canada.

Charlotte
Wings to get: Uncle Donnie's Famous Blackened Wings and Hemo-Goblins

There is no room for complacency when making wings in Charlotte. A North Carolina address is no guarantee that customers will like your barbecue, while introducing a Korean, Thai, or Vietnamese take on your menu will only bring the crowds if you execute it correctly. Moosehead Grill walks that line deftly by sticking to its regional legacy with blackened chicken and chipotle barbecue, but bringing into the mix flavors such as blood orange and ghost pepper.

Multiple locations
Wings to get: Jameson sauce and kickin' bourbon

The original Sickies Garage in Bismarck looks like an actual garage and gas station, while the other locations look as if they've taken over vacant Ruby Tuesdays or Carrabba's locations. (There are also stores in Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Kissimee, Fla., and Omaha, Neb.) Yet the aesthetics matter little once wing-craving patrons see the more than 20-deep list of wing varieties. Just about everyone is doing Thai Peanut, Teriyaki, and Barbecue, but spiking wing sauce with Jameson whiskey is a bold move for this growing chain.

Multiple Locations
Wings to get: Fat Head's dry rub and Fat Head's original Buffalo

This Great Lakes brewpub chain shuttered a location in Portland, Oregon, but only because that market wasn't as enthusiastic about its menu as fans in northeast Ohio and Pittsburgh. Though known at all its locations for a solid lineup of German-style beers and more U.S.-friendly experimental batches, Fat Head's wins hearts and minds in its home region by making massive portions of sandwiches and wings. Be warned that a little garlic-Parm or honey chipotle goes a long way on Fat Head's chicken-sized wings.

Oklahoma City
Wings to get: Teri-que and honey love

It's an Oklahoma City staple as of 2015, but this wing spot was founded in Washington, D.C., by two Howard University students almost 30 years ago. The fact that Old Bay remains a menu option despite blue crabs being a half a continent away suggests the transition isn't quite finished at Wing Supreme. But is it really so bad to give Oklahoma a taste of Washington's wings-and-sides combo culture? Apparently not, as Oklahoma City seems quite content with its Teri-Que wings and helpings of macaroni and cheese.

Portland
Wings to get: Uncle Og’s Sticky Icky

White Elephant Asian Fusion is a family-owned food cart specializing in Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese street eats, with wings that come naked or with seven sauce options, most on the sweet side (Peanutty, teriyaki sesame, and even the mango habanero and sriracha mayo). You'll want to experiment with the more distinctly Asian-style sauces, including salt and pepper and Saigon (with a Vietnamese fish sauce) — and not miss the family's signature Uncle Og’s Sticky Icky Wings, which are basted in a savory Laotian fish sauce.

Related: Best Chinese Restaurant in Every State

Pittsburgh
Wings to get: Coyote (ranch and cayenne rub) and Lou-Q (barbecue and bourbon)

Bigham Tavern has more than 30 sauces for its wings, with about 10 of them are some variation on hot — great for eaters who love ascending the Scoville scale. That still leaves plenty of offerings for folks who might want more subtlety. Bigham Tavern takes great pride in mixing and matching its flavors to come up with combinations that work for different palates, and is at its best when it brings a flavor such as the balanced Coyote into existence.

Providence
Wings to get: Pink vodka and chicken parmigiana

Setting up shop in an Italian-American club, Tomaselli's doesn't fit a wing-joint mold. There's Buffalo sauce, barbecue sauce, and other familiar wing standards on the menu, but there are also some strong deviations. The French toast and Buffacue wing sauces are a fine start, but using Caesar dressing, balsamic vinegar, garlic parmigiana, red pepper relish, and other familiar Italian-American culinary fixtures gives this wing joint an identity and sense of place that dozens of other places emulating Buffalo will never have.

Charlotte
Wings to get: Dry rub

Hubee D's won't be rushed, but will give you some options. Its wings are smoked for hours over hickory until they are ready to fall off of the bone. Then they are served dry-rub style with nothing but celery sticks, ranch, or blue cheese. It's worth the wait, but for those who just can't stand the sight of a naked wing, Hubee D's offers low country Buffalo, Old Edisto honey barbecue, black tie bourbon, and Wadmalaw Island jerk sauces.

Brandon
Wings to get: Gold or sweet heat dry rub

Just outside of Sioux Falls is this gem — ready for sprint-car racing season with 17 screens as well as video lottery, video games, and a digital jukebox that makes 212 Boiling Point less of an event space than a neighborhood hangout. That explains the dedication to the wings, complemented by 10 sauces and three dry rubs.

Nashville
Wings to get: 3 whole wings (medium, for starters)

Thorton Prince is credited with creating Nashville Hot Chicken during the Depression, and his namesake Prince's Hot Chicken eateries are still in family hands. The spicy dry-rubbed, battered, and fried chicken that's become a Nashville calling card (even for some Kentucky-born chicken chains) scorches unwitting eaters with a blend of paprika and cayenne, which means Prince's customers have to use the accompanying slice of bread and pickles judiciously.

San Antonio
Wings to get: Jacob and funnel cake

All of the examples so far show just how many options wing places have used just to distance themselves from competitors and stay relevant. Wayne's Wings somehow managed to find the ones they missed. Even as it offers Buffalo, barbecue, garlic, Parmesan, lemon pepper, and other go-to wing sauces and spices, Wayne's manages to blend Sriracha, cilantro, and lime into a palatable wing, while giving other wings the state fair treatment with funnel-cake batter and powdered sugar. By chasing flavor rather than pure kick or burn, Wayne's found a way to bring new elements into the wing shop without evicting its essence.

Salt Lake City
Wings to get: Loco lime and peanut curry

The greatness of Wing Coop lies in the things it didn't have to do — such as use fresh pineapple and Sriracha in its Spicy Teriyaki sauce, real chipotle peppers in its Raspberry Chipotle, and coconut milk in the Peanut Curry. That it does indicates just how much potential Wing Coop has.

Burlington
Wings to get: Thai Chili and Curry Ginger Dry Rub

Ruben James set itself up as a sports bar with loads of televisions (including one roughly the size of the bar), trivia, bands, and drink specials. So a simple lineup of Buffalo and barbecue wing sauces likely would've gotten the job done. But it also offers garlic, Thai chili, and spicy Szechuan sauces, and even something called the kitchen sink. Combine that with beers on tap from Vermont breweries, and you have a sports bar with a kitchen that's playing well over its head.

Herndon
Wings to get: Buffalo

It's a bit of Buffalo in Virginia without moving a Duff's or some lake-effect snow into the area. Jimmy, Maureen, and Kelsey Cirrito opened Jimmy's more than 20 years ago, with Jimmy using the wing sauce recipe from the Anchor Bar in his native Buffalo. Not only did it take off, but Jimmy's Old Town Tavern had to expand into a large adjacent space just to keep up with demand. Is it a Virginia wing? No, but when you draw enough Buffalo folks to sell that many wings and become a Buffalo Bills bar, there's no reason to change course.

Kent
Wings to get: Fried butter garlic wings

Hue Ky Mi Gia would likely still be living a quiet existence as a Chinese-Vietnamese noodle house if not for the Seattle Seahawks introducing these "crack wings" at CenturyLink Field a few years back. Crunchy and meaty with salty bits of scallion and chiles mixed in, these are the wings Hue Ki Mi Gia was never supposed to be known for. We're glad the secret is out.

Charleston 
Wings to get: Gorgonzola 

Yes, it's a multistate chain. But the Pies & Pints on Capitol Street (the second site to open) knows what it's doing. The char-grilled wings from the appetizer menu come dry rubbed and smacking of Sriracha, garlic, lime, and cilantro. They're served with a gorgonzola sauce for a wing good enough that customers make up words to describe it. "The wings are literally THE BEST I have eaten in my life," one wrote on Yelp. "Get the wings. GET THE WINGS. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, GET THE ANGELIC, OTHER-WORLDLY, SCRUMPTRULESCANT WINGS!"

Sun Prairie
Wings to get: Dry rub wings

On a country road just outside of Madison, this little bar has been packing in the customers based largely on its dry rub wings. The dry rub contains 23 ingredients and has been so popular that customers have asked for it on their fries and tater tots. Chicken Licks — until 2019 called Chicken Lips — is an establishment where the sides still (thankfully) include cheese curds and whose publicity has come from word of mouth. It's a minor miracle, with major wait times.

Jackson
Wings to get: Buffalo or honey chili garlic

In a bustling resort town that's quickly outgrowing its blue-collar beginnings, Eleanor's is a comforting, reliable standby.  The eight-piece wing plate comes with a choice of five sauces, and the wings are regularly named the best wings in town despite some strong, artisanal competition. 

Related: Best Hole-in-the-Wall Burger Joint in Every State