Buffalo Wild Wings Honey Sriracha And Honey Garlic Wings Review: 2 New Bold Flavors Perfect For Wings Fans

Right in time for March Madness, Buffalo Wild Wings added two limited-time sauce flavors to its lineup on February 28 to give fans of the chain even more to love as they flock to their neighborhood location to watch their favorite teams. One of the limited-time options is actually a returning sauce flavor — honey garlic — while the other — honey sriracha — is brand-new. However, can these two sauces live up to the hype?

To help you decide if you should stick with your stand-by order during your next trip to Buffalo Wild Wings, or if you should give one of these new sauces a try (it's a big decision, after all; if you're like me, you have your staunch favorites and trying something new is risky), I accepted B-Dubs' gracious offer of a few orders of wings doused in the new honey garlic and honey sriracha sauces. So, whether you're a B-Dubs fan, just a wings fan in general, or simply looking for a good spot to watch the big game while you chow down on wings and sip a few brews, here's what you need to know, from a fellow wings fan.

Read more: The Best Wings In Every State

Buffalo Wild Wings' Returning Honey Garlic Sauce

In a press release that Buffalo Wild Wings issued announcing the two sauces' addition to the menu, the chain described the returning honey garlic sauce as "rich, tangy garlic perfectly balanced with honey and soy for a sweet, salty and garlicky flavor" — and I can see it. The combination of garlic and soy adds a savory, umami flavor that contains no heat whatsoever. If you shy away from even Buffalo Wild Wings' original mild buffalo sauce for fear of a little spice, good news: You've got another mild option on the menu. That said, the "honey" aspect of "honey garlic" isn't very strong, so don't expect a very sweet wing. This sauce definitely leans more toward garlic than honey. Though you do still get that honey stickiness factor, so be sure to grab a few wet wipes. You'll need 'em.

It's worth noting that the self-described "salty" element does get a little extra salty after a while. If you're eating a few wings in a row, they're going to start to feel overwhelmingly salty. As such, you're going to need something else to break up the flavor (I'll go ahead and suggest my favorite B-Dubs' options: the fried pickles and potato wedges).

Buffalo Wild Wings' New Honey Sriracha Sauce

Sriracha has maybe fallen slightly out of the limelight; there was a time when just about everything came in a sriracha variant, and every trend-loving foodie had a bottle in their fridge. However, currently trending or not, sriracha's brief shot of stardom did bring the condiment to the broader public's attention, which is a great thing, especially since it means you can get menu items like  Buffalo Wild Wings' new honey sriracha wings.

This new sauce had a little heat, but nothing over the top. Don't expect an overbearing heat, by any means. If you like the spice of an average buffalo sauce, you'll find something similar here. There's also a nice smoky element and, again, as with the honey garlic sauce, this sauce's honey aspect didn't take center stage; the honey shows up as a minor note as the heat recedes. The sauce's texture is on the thicker side and that's more noticeable on the boneless wings than the traditional, bone-in wings (though I do hold the theory that you get more sauce overall on the boneless wings than the traditional, even if I can't prove it). The thick sauce paired with the thick boneless breading does make the wing feel overall heavy for a quick-bite finger food, so I prefer this sauce on the bone-in wings instead.

Nutritional Content And Ingredients

While Buffalo Wild Wings' nutrition and allergen guide has yet to be updated to include information for the honey garlic and honey sriracha sauces, the Buffalo Wild Wings online menu does list the calories for each. The honey garlic sauce is listed as 80 calories for an order of six traditional wings, while the honey sriracha sauce is listed as 90 calories for an order of six traditional wings.

In comparison to other sauce options on the menu, this puts the honey garlic sauce at about the middle of the pack in terms of calories per wing, among the other mild sauce and rub options, which range from 5 calories per six-wing order for mild dry rubs to 180 calories for the lemon pepper sauce. In the menu's medium heat category, the honey sriracha sauce sits at the top of the pack, calorie-wise, with the most calories per six-wing order, alongside the chain's Asian Zing sauce and Jammin' Jalapeño sauce.

How Do These Sauces Compare To Buffalo Wild Wings' Other Sauces?

So, how does the returning honey garlic and new honey sriracha compare to the other, staple sauces on Buffalo Wild Wings' menu? I'll admit that I have not tried all 25-plus signature sauces and rubs that the menu offers. However, I have tried enough to say that if you like some of the milder, sweeter-leaning wing sauces on the menu, like the honey BBQ or the sweet BBQ, then you'll probably also like the honey garlic sauce. Similarly, if you like some of the medium-heat sauces and rubs on the Buffalo Wild Wings menu — those with just a small amount of heat that can be easily cut through with a little ranch, carrots, and celery, such as the classic medium sauce or the buffalo dry rub — then you'll probably like the honey sriracha sauce as well.

And if you're going to compare the two, limited-time sauces against one another? They may have the honey in common, but little else. As mentioned, the honey garlic sauce has nothing in the way of spice and really leans salty and umami-esque rather than sweet, and the honey sriracha leans more into the smoky spice than it does the honey, even if some of those sweet notes are there in the end.

The Verdict?

While only available for a limited time, I could easily see either or both of these sauces taking up permanent residence on the Buffalo Wild Wings menu. I could also see both of them reappearing on the menu as limited-time offerings, as is already the case with the honey garlic sauce. Both feel completely at home among the chain's other offerings, and it's just up to personal preference whether or not these will become some of your new favorites.

As for me, I far preferred the honey sriracha to the honey garlic sauce. I even preferred the honey sriracha sauce to my normal classic medium buffalo sauce standby. As someone who likes heat paired carefully with other flavors (not just heat for heat's sake alone), I appreciated the smoky and slightly sweet notes with the sriracha warmth. Also, I found that the honey sriracha offered almost an addictive mild-heat/smoky flavor, as compared to the honey garlic sauce, which felt increasingly salty the more wings I ate. Lastly, as someone who is normally traditional, bone-in wings all the way (flats are superior to drums, by the way), I also enjoyed trying these two sauces on the boneless wings since both sauces were a little on the stickier, viscous side, and the boneless option made for less mess. Though, really, isn't the mess part of the wing experience?

Where And When To Find Buffalo Wild Wings' New Sauces

While both the honey garlic and honey sriracha sauces rolled out nationwide on Feb. 28, 2024, the press release nor the website states an anticipated last date on which you'll be able to order these bold sauces; the website simply states, "limited time offer, while supplies last." However, it's anticipated that you'll be able to get your hands on these two sauces for at least the next few weeks, as the brand's press release specifically tied the new sauces' availability to March Madness. The announcement also mentioned B-Dubs' BOGO March Madness deal, available on Thursday, March 21, as the perfect time to try both sauce flavors. (Note that the buy-one, get-one deal only applies to boneless wings.)

Not a wing fan? That's no problem whatsoever. The sauces are also available on Buffalo Wild Wings' other menu items, including chicken sandwiches and wraps.

Methodology

Buffalo Wild Wings provided a $50 gift card to try the new sauce flavors, on Feb. 28, launch day. Both the honey garlic and honey sriracha sauces were reviewed on both Buffalo Wild Wings' boneless and bone-in wings.

Read the original article on Mashed.