The World Championship Hot Wing Festival is back, and it's better (and messier) than ever
For most of my life, I've never been a big fan of wings. Sure, I'd have some fast-food chicken legs every now and then, but I never really got the fascination with creating all these unique sauces and rubs for such a small cut of meat.
Until I went to 2022's World Championship Hot Wing Contest and Festival.
Back then, I only meant to take a few quick photos of the event for a college class, but ended up staying for hours. No matter if a wing team represented a professional restaurant or it was just a couple guys cooking for fun, they were passionate about what they created, and that passion came through in every delicious bite of chicken. Frankly, I can't bring myself to eat KFC again.
Now nearly two years later, Wing Fest finally returned for its 22nd year on April 20; this time at River Garden Park in Downtown Memphis, instead of Tiger Lane. And it's just as good as I remembered.
Mango, pickle and honey, oh my!
Instead of going for the usual wing flavors like barbecue or buffalo, this year I tried to seek out the most creative flavors possible. My first stop led me to Take 2, where I tried two wings, one called Tropical Punishment and another called Seoulful Serenade.
Tropical Punishment was the opposite of punishing, having a sweet and spicy base taste with a hint of mango. I'm a firm believer that mango flavor improves anything it touches, so this was a win in my book. Seoulful Serenade was great too; the sauce was a combo of sweet pear and gochujang, a chili paste popular in Korea.
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My next stop was at the Game of Bones tent, a play on the popular book series/TV show "Game of Thrones." But unlike season eight, I actually wanted to finish my wing. I tried a "Mother of Dragons" flat, made with a perfect combo of chipotle sauce, lime, honey and garlic. It was perfect. That is all.
On to New Wing Order, a place regularly voted among the top food trucks in the city. Here I tried one of the few dry rubs of the day, and definitely the most creative — a dill pickle wing. This was probably my favorite flavor: it was moderately spicy with a noticeable background pickle taste, but not an overwhelming one. I love pickle-flavored potato chips so I'm probably a little biased.
Wings from around the world
Soon after I found myself at the Costa Rican Grillroids BBQ Team tent, led in part by Eduardo Violet. Violet said he loves visiting Memphis, but most importantly he's here for the cause: Proceeds from the event support Ronald McDonald House Charities. It was only their second competition in Memphis, and the wings were fantastic.
"We tried to do something sweeter, classic BBQ sauce for people to enjoy," Violet said. "Something in the middle, not that hot, just enjoyable."
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After that, I hit up the tent for Team Springbrook Braii South Africa, grabbing easily the hottest wing of the day. Just moments before then I had made the critical error of throwing away what remained of my water bottle, so after suffering in silence for a couple minutes, I wiped away my tears and asked David Hunnan what exactly makes his wings South African. He said that everything they use, from the spice to the sauce and even the charcoal they cook with comes from his home country.
"We live part of the year in South Africa and part of the year in Canada, so we bring up sauces and spices," Hunnan said. "What we've got here is Nando's peri peri sauce, South African [wings] are made with bird's eye chili, which has a nice heat. Even our medium wings are pretty warm."
A family passion
My last stop of the day took me to a tent run by Smoke That Chick, where I spoke to team captain Kyle Cobb. He said it was a team effort to come up with the five unique flavors they had in stock. All eight members of the team are family, and while they've been coming to the hot wing fest since 2017, this is the first year they've entered into the competition.
"We met about four or five times in the preceding months, came together, experimented a lot; it definitely took a lot [of effort] but it was very rewarding being together with family, coming up with different sauces," Cobb said. "I thought we were ready, so we all came together with an idea, put it together, and now you have Smoke That Chick."
Just one hour at the World Championship Hot Wing Contest and Festival can turn the average wing enjoyer into a rabid wing lover for life. So when next year's contest is announced, drop everything. Run, no sprint to your calendar and mark the date. If you missed it this year, go the next. You won't regret it.
Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at jacob.wilt@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: I went to Hot Wing Fest in Memphis. Here are the best wings I tried.
