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Regardless of where you live there’s probably a Buffalo Wild Wings or some other place to get fried chicken wings doused in hot sauce, garlic parmesan, Jamaican jerk seasoning, or any number of other random sauces nearby. But what do you know about the history of the food item often referred to as the Buffalo wing?
Well, there’s a reason it’s called a Buffalo wing and it has nothing to do with a big, furry, lumbering bison. It’s because, according to legend, back in 1964, it was invented in Buffalo, New York. Teressa Bellissimo, owner of the now world-famous Anchor Bar, fried up some wings and slathered them in hot sauce to feed her son and his friends. The rest, as they say, is history.
It doesn’t matter where you buy them, there’s a good chance they’ll be accompanied by celery and some type of dipping sauce. While chicken wing purists will tell you the only proper sauce to dip wings in is blue cheese dressing, there’s a vocal minority who claim that ranch dressing is the way to go. Today, we’re going to get to the bottom of that rivalry while we determine once and for all which camp is correct.
Blue Cheese V. Ranch Dressing
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Flavor
People get fanatical about ranch dressing. This buttermilk, mayonnaise-based sauce with various spices is creamy, flavorful, and pairs well with spicy foods. Blue cheese dressing is similar to ranch except it has different spices and contains chunks of blue cheese. Sometimes the blue cheese flavor can be a little overwhelming though.
Winner: Ranch dressing.
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Consistency
Ranch dressing is creamy and well-suited as an accompaniment to your favorite salad. Other than being creamy, there’s not much else going on in terms of consistency. Blue cheese, on the other hand, is creamy but also has delicious chunks of blue cheese randomly throughout.
Winner: Blue cheese.
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Fried Chicken Pairing
Since they’re both similar in flavor, save for the aforementioned chunks of blue cheese, it’s difficult to pick one clear winner here. If you’re going for plain fried chicken wings without any sauce (or a mild sauce) we’d go with ranch here if only to stop blue cheese dressing from running away with this whole competition.
Winner: Ranch dressing.
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Hot Sauce Pairing
When it comes to pairing each dressing with fried chicken wings, there’s a clear winner. While ranch works okay as a creamy temper against the heat of a fire-y hot, there’s no beating blue cheese. The added tangy, savory bite of the blue cheese knocks ranch out of the ball game.
Winner: Blue cheese.
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Intangibles
The further we go with this, the more we realize that ranch dressing is majorly overmatched. If blue cheese dressing didn’t exist, we might actually consider ranch dressing as an option. Sadly, it does. Dipping your wings and randomly finding big chunks of blue cheese is a flavor combination as well-paired as peanut butter and jelly or Hall and Oates.
Winner: Blue cheese.
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Final Score
Just like it was inevitable that Jim Halpert would win “Employee of the Month” there was no way blue cheese dressing wasn’t going to win this. It was closer than anticipated (4-2), but blue cheese takes this one. It’s a good thing too. If Ranch had won we’d never be allowed anywhere near Buffalo, New York. We’ve heard rumors that Tom Brady (and Mac Jones) dip their wings in ranch.
Winner: Blue cheese.
