Buffalo Wings (Anchor Bar Style)
Unbreaded wings fried crisp and tossed in a buttery cayenne pepper sauce, served with celery, carrots and a chunky blue cheese dressing, the way Buffalo's Anchor Bar made them famous.
Before 1964, chicken wings were cheap and often thrown away or used for stock or soup. Wikipedia credits the Buffalo wing to Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, with her husband Frank, and gives three family versions of how it happened: a quick snack for friends of their son Dominic, who was tending bar; Dominic's account to Calvin Trillin of The New Yorker in 1980, a Friday midnight treat for mostly Catholic regulars who could eat meat again; and Frank's story of a delivery of wings instead of the backs and necks meant for spaghetti sauce. The bar's own history page names the night as March 4, 1964. The versions agree on the dish: wings cut in half, deep-fried without breading, covered in hot sauce and served with celery and blue cheese. The credit is DISPUTED. John Young, who moved to Buffalo from Stockton, Alabama, in 1948, said he was serving whole breaded wings in a tomato-based mumbo sauce in 1961 and that the Anchor Bar only put wings on its regular menu in 1974; a 1969 local newspaper article about the Anchor Bar does not mention wings, and Duff's started selling them that same year (Wikipedia). Buffalo declared July 29, 1977, "Chicken Wing Day" in honor of Frank Bellissimo (Wikipedia).
🇺🇸 The original
Unbreaded wings fried crisp and tossed in a buttery cayenne pepper sauce, served with celery, carrots and a chunky blue cheese dressing, the way Buffalo's Anchor Bar made them famous.
🇺🇸 The American version
The rest of the world took the idea somewhere else: Korea double-fries them in a thin batter and brushes them with soy and garlic, Nagoya glazes them sweet and peppery, and Hong Kong home cooks braise them in cola. See the Korean Soy Garlic Wings (Double Fried) recipe.
🗳️ Buffalo or lemon pepper wet? Vote: Buffalo vs Lemon pepper wet →
📖 Origin story: Who Really Invented Buffalo Wings? The Anchor Bar vs John Young → 📖 Origin story: What Is Mumbo Sauce? D.C.'s Carryout Sauce, Born in Chicago →
Why it works the kitchen science
Bare skin, hot oil
With nothing coating it, the skin itself renders its fat and fries into a thin, blistered shell that grabs the sauce.
Butter in the sauce
Melted butter turns thin, vinegary hot sauce into a glossy coat that clings to the skin and rounds off the heat.
Step by step
- Step 1
Make the dressing: mash the blue cheese and buttermilk with a fork until it looks like small-curd cottage cheese, then stir in the sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate (it keeps up to 4 days).
- Step 2
Make the sauce: melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, whisk in both hot sauces and the vinegar, and take the pan off the heat.
- Step 3
Heat the oven to 200°F and set a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 360°F.
- Step 4
Pat the wings very dry with paper towels and season them with the salt and pepper. No flour.
- Step 5
Fry half the wings, lowering them in gently and stirring now and then, 10 to 15 minutes, holding the oil near 350°F, until deep golden and crisp and the thickest drumette reads 165°F. Bare wings spatter, so use a splatter screen.
- Step 6
Move the wings to the rack and keep them warm in the oven. Bring the oil back to 360°F and fry the second batch the same way.
- Step 7
Rewarm the sauce if it has set, pour it into a large bowl, add all the wings and toss until coated. Serve right away with the celery, carrots and dressing.
Buffalo Wings (Anchor Bar Style)
Serves 4 (as a main; 6 to 8 as a snack) · about 24 wing pieces, about 3/4 cup sauce and about 1 cup dressing · 55 min total
Blue cheese dressing
- 2 1/2 oz blue cheese, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)
- 3 tbsp buttermilk
- 3 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Sauce
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup cayenne pepper sauce (Frank's RedHot style)
- 2 tbsp Tabasco or another hotter sauce, plus more to taste
- 2 tsp cider vinegar
Wings
- 3 lb chicken wings (about 12 whole wings), tips removed, split into drumettes and flats
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- Peanut or vegetable oil, 2 1/2 inches deep (about 2 quarts), for frying
To serve
- 4 celery stalks, cut into sticks
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
Method
- Make the dressing: mash the blue cheese and buttermilk with a fork until it looks like small-curd cottage cheese, then stir in the sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate (it keeps up to 4 days).
- Make the sauce: melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, whisk in both hot sauces and the vinegar, and take the pan off the heat.
- Heat the oven to 200°F and set a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 360°F.
- Pat the wings very dry with paper towels and season them with the salt and pepper. No flour.
- Fry half the wings, lowering them in gently and stirring now and then, 10 to 15 minutes, holding the oil near 350°F, until deep golden and crisp and the thickest drumette reads 165°F. Bare wings spatter, so use a splatter screen.
- Move the wings to the rack and keep them warm in the oven. Bring the oil back to 360°F and fry the second batch the same way.
- Rewarm the sauce if it has set, pour it into a large bowl, add all the wings and toss until coated. Serve right away with the celery, carrots and dressing.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Buffalo Wings" by Matthew Card (June 18, 2013). ATK uses 3 lb of wings for 6 to 8; we call it 4 main-course servings. ATK lightly coats the wings in cornstarch and cayenne; we leave that out so the wings are bare, the way the Anchor Bar story describes them (Wikipedia). ATK's tablespoon of dark brown sugar is moved to Tips. The 165°F check is from USDA FSIS. The Anchor Bar's sauce is secret; this is a home version, not theirs. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- ATK's make-ahead trick: unsauced fried wings hold in a 200°F oven for up to 1 1/2 hours; toss them in the sauce just before serving.
- For a rounder, slightly sweet sauce, whisk in 1 tbsp dark brown sugar, as ATK does.
- Frank's-style sauce is mild on its own; ATK adds the Tabasco for heat. Use more or less to taste.
- About 12 whole wings weigh 3 lb and give 24 pieces (ATK).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Teressa Bellissimo invented Buffalo wings in 1964. Disputed: Wikipedia and the Anchor Bar credit her; John Young said he sold wings in mumbo sauce in Buffalo in 1961 (Wikipedia), and America's Test Kitchen's 2022 history for kids puts his wings at 1963 and calls the origin "contentious".
- How it happened at the Anchor Bar. Disputed: a snack for Dominic's friends, a Friday midnight treat for Catholic regulars, or a wrong delivery of wings (three family versions, Wikipedia).
- The exact date was March 4, 1964. Disputed: the Anchor Bar's own page gives it; Wikipedia gives only the year, and Young said wings were not a regular Anchor Bar menu item until 1974.
- Buffalo wings are not breaded. Documented for the Anchor Bar style (Wikipedia: traditionally deep-fried unbreaded), but John Young's wings were breaded (Wikipedia) and many recipes, ATK's included, add a light starch coating.
- Celery and blue cheese, never ranch. Folklore: Wikipedia says wings are traditionally served with celery and blue cheese, but also that ranch is the most popular wing dip in the US.
- The first sauce was Frank's RedHot and margarine. Disputed: search summaries quote the maker of Frank's saying Teressa used Frank's and butter, while a Saveur recipe says it swapped the bar's margarine for butter; the Anchor Bar calls its sauce secret. We could not open either article.
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