As everyone knows, the newest exciting addition to the Tabasco family of sauces is the company's official Buffalo style chicken wing sauce.
Needless to say, I was extremely excited to hear of the launch of this product. I rushed out to purchase a bottle immediately and was somehow able to get my hands on one without any pushing or shoving. I made a batch of wings that very night, and after an entire day's worth of anticipation, the results were...GOOD!
PRETTY good, that is. Nice tangy taste, good color, but not the be-all and end-all of chicken wing sauces that I had been hoping for.
So then I got to thinking that maybe, just maybe, my lifelong loyalty to the ORIGINAL Tabasco brand pepper sauce was in some way clouding my judgment. After all, no variation has ever been able to top the original. Not the delicious Chipotle, not the impressively heat-hot Habanero, and especially not the useless Jalapeno green one. Such variations have traditionally proven themselves to be little more than a nice change of pace for hardcore enthusiasts like myself who can never get enough Tabasco experimentation. (Again, why ever buy the green one except as a novelty? You never actually USE it.)
This was different, though. For the first time, a licensed alternative to the original was touting itself as superior to the original in regards to a particular dish.. In this case, the Buffalo wing.
After suffering yet another predominantly sleepless night, I correctly reasoned that the only way to ever calm my mind over the matter would be to experience a DIRECT head-to-head tasting of both sauces!
I quickly drew up plans.
There would be a total of four entries in my private tasting contest:
1) Original Tabasco
2) Tabasco Buffalo Style
3) Original Tabasco cut with butter
4) Tabasco Buffalo Style cut with butter
In case you didn't know, cutting your chicken wing sauce with butter will reduce the heat, but also produce a thicker coating and delightfully rich flavor. So it's not "cheating" in any way. If you feel it dilutes the heat too much, just use a spicier sauce (duh).
It was an exciting night for everybody (I was home alone but texting people) as the verdict came out.
***THE RESULTS***
4TH PLACE: Tabasco Buffalo Style
Let me say that the wings LOOKED great. They were a perfect orange chicken wing color. Very appetizing. Not any kind of failure, just the weakest flavor of the bunch, by DEFAULT. Nothing to be ashamed of at all. This sauce still whoops the butt of Texas Pete and other inferior brands.
3RD PLACE: Tabasco Buffalo Style cut with butter
The butter helped. It made the wing-eating experience creamier, more delectable. and again, the wings had a nice color to them. They just were lacking that exact ZING you want in your chicken wing. (***potential SLOGAN)
2ND PLACE: Original Tabasco
As usual, the original trumps all other sauces. I only ranked this 2nd place because, in all fairness, if you use straight-up Tabasco to coat your wings they turn out pretty DANG spicy. So a lot of you will probably find Original Tabasco to be too hot to coat your chicken wings with on a regular basis. At least until you become TRULY addicted. and truthfully if you are trying all of these, aren't you headed down that road already? Be honest.
1ST PLACE GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Original Tabasco cut with butter
The color is non-traditional. They turn out a very light orange, almost pink. But the butter smooths out the flavor so nicely, resulting in a perfectly delectable Tabasco-flavored wing.
So this improvised champion of Tabasco wing flavors is what I imagine the Tabasco Buffalo Style was INTENDED to be, but right now it's still falling a bit short. They should tweak the recipe a little, in my opinion. I still do recommend it as something to TRY, but don't get your hopes up like I did. If you want the best-tasting Tabasco wings possible, stick with the reigning and defending champ.
That's all for now, more Tabasco thoughts to follow.
Thanks for reading!
