The Best Chicken Wings Spots in the US

San Tung is one of San Francisco’s best Chinese restaurants, but if you take a look around it’s the wings you’ll find on nearly every table. Their famous Original Dry Glazed Fried Chicken Wings are deep-fried along with garlic, ginger, and super-spicy chiles, and absolutely doused in a sweet, caramel-like sauce seasoned with the same ingredients. They’re addictively delicious.

With three Grand Rapids-area locations, Wing Doozy has become renowned locally for its big, juicy, crispy, never-frozen wings. All sauces and dry rubs, which include Sweet Honey BBQ, Buttery Garlic Parm, four levels of Nashville Hot, and Blackened, are made in-house.

Named after the city of Hat Yai in southern Thailand, Hat Yai was inspired by the streetside fried chicken vendors of the region. It’s a counter-serve operation that also serves curries, roti, skewers, and other Thai street foods, but the wings are the way to go: Mary’s free-range chicken wings are aggressively seasoned with soy, white pepper, cumin, and coriander before being fried and topped with fried shallots.

This low-key wing joint on the Twin Cities outskirts is the brainchild of chef Darin Koch, who spent years perfecting his wings and scratch-made sauces. There’s major evidence of a chef’s touch in its countless sauces, which include Ben Grimm (curry, peanut, pineapple, toasted coconut), Lalapalooza (lavender, peppercorn, mustard vinegar), and Frenchy (caramelized onion with a sweet balsamic reduction). There are also sweet preparations like Snackers (peanut butter, caramel, crushed nuts, chocolate, sea salt) and a few nuclear-hot options.

Anchor Bar is renowned as the birthplace of Buffalo wings, and as earlier described, it’s where an enterprising bar owner first dropped wings into the deep fryer and tossed them with hot sauce nearly 60 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims still flock here every year to get a taste of the original wings, which are crispy, saucy, and every bit as good as you’d expect.

Founded by the late Mike Mills, one of America’s most legendary pitmasters, 17th Street Barbecue is one of America’s most awarded and renowned barbecue joints. Their wings are smoked before being finished on the grill for a little extra smoky flavor, and tossed in a homemade spicy wing sauce.