#1 is my favorite Buffalo Wild Wings sauce/seasoning. #21 is my least favorite. Enjoy!
1. Thai Curry
Herbs and spices combined with sweet chilies and a touch of curry flavor.
I have never been to Thailand or on the continent of Asia for that matter, but I like to think I’m pretty down with curry. I’m a fan of lots of local Thai restaurants, and am familiar with the Americanized versions of curries of other cultures as well (mainly India). It’s all great.
All this to say is that this is like curry’s even more American cousin. And the word “Thai” was probably picked randomly out of a hat, or more likely by a focus group. It bares a family resemblance to curry.
But this should not diminish the quality of the sauce, which in my opinion is among the best that Buffalo Wild Wings has to offer. This sauce is very thick, and has a slightly buttery taste. It doesn’t have a whole lot of heat on the front, but it accumulates as you eat them and lingers for awhile. The different spices used make this sauce stand out in a good way from the rest of the lineup. Some might find this sauce too salty, but it’s about perfect for me. This is part of my Buffalo Wild Wings order every time.
2. Mango Habanero
Feel the burn, savor the sweet: Two sensations, one sauce.
These really takes a jump from “hot” in the spiciness factor. These will get your face tingling pretty much right from the beginning. Where as some flavors advertise Jalapeño but don’t necessarily taste like it, the Habanero game here is distinguished.
In addition to the spice, the flavor is also strong. The mango sweetness makes the spice bearable. This is my favorite flavor in the upper echelon of spices, though it’s probably way too spicy for most people.
3. Caribbean Jerk
Red peppers you love, island spices you crave: An exotic, delicious sauce.
Caribbean Jerk has always been one of my Buffalo Wild Wings go-to choices. While it’s listed as the 7th spiciest flavor on the menu, there is almost no spice up front. It’s almost sweet. I don’t think jerk seasoning is supposed to be sweet or fruity (at least, those words aren’t mentioned as descriptors on a wikipedia page on the subject) but it is very tasty.
The heat does show up on the back-end, and it is both welcome and manageable. It may not be authentically caribbean jerky, and I don’t know what that means or tastes like, but these are very good.
4. Desert Heat
Smokey, sweet and chili pepper seasoning.
These are the spiciest seasoning on the list, but I don’t think they’ll scare many people away. I feel like all the sauces between Medium and Desert Heat barely escalate at all. All are a comfortable level of medium.
Also, like many of the sauces/seasonings in this category, they have a sweet component. This particular seasoning has a great balance. The sweetness is hinted at rather than cloying. The smoke and heat is real. This is kind of like an amped up Chipotle BBQ seasoning.
5. Asian Zing
Sweet meets heat: A chili pepper, soy and ginger sauce.
I don’t really taste the soy advertised in the description of this flavor, but it definitely shows through in the consistency. It’s somewhere between a glaze and a runny sauce.
The taste is rich and complex, and the heat level is definitely present and balances well with the sweetness. Sometimes, I think this sauce is too sweet and the flavor fell out of favor with me for awhile, but eating it now, I think it’s not too sweet. It reminds me of a weaker more crowd pleasing Mango Habanero.
6. Chipotle BBQ Seasoning
Fire-roasted chipotle pepper and BBQ flavors.
Listed as the 8th mildest flavor on the menu, I was surprised to find that this Chipotle BBQ seasoning packs a substantial amount of heat. In addition, there was a nice smokiness to the wings as well. This seasoning is really good.
I’m not normally a fan of BBQ sauces on my fried wings, but I consider these to be an exception. When you read BBQ in this title, think more “spicy steak seasoning” and less “actual BBQ”.
7. Wild
Classic wing sauce: Big flavor, blisterin’ heat.
Presumably the namesake of Buffalo Wild Wild Wings, the wild sauce is very hot. Not as hot as I remember, and on this round of testing, not even as hot as the Mango Habanero, but definitely much hotter than the “Hot”.
For me, this is the right consistency of what a buffalo wing sauce should be. It was kind of runny, but sticks to the chicken just fine. The heat left my face only a little numb, but it took awhile to get to that point.
8. Spicy Garlic
A tasty, spicy, garlicky good sauce.
Man, these Buffalo Wild Wings descriptions of sauces are bad, aren’t they? The two new words they added to the title in their description were “tasty” and “good”.
And I guess these were pretty tasty and good. Definitely not my favorite, as both the spiciness and the garliciness could be more prominent for me. But I am a person who enjoys more spice and garlic than most.
9. Jammin’ Jalapeño
Spicy jalapeños, blended with a touch of tequila and hint of lime. Sweet heat.
That flavor description is appealing to me, so it’s a surprise that I’ve (maybe) never had these before. Probably because they are a flavor that’s come out more recently than 2010.
This sauce is a sweet glaze, kind of like caribbean jerk but definitely a bit spicier. Didn’t notice a particular “jalapeño” taste and definitely didn’t notice anything tequila-or-limey. Kind of just generic peppery sweetness.
10. Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Pucker up citrus seasoning with a pinch of pepper.
Lemon Pepper. Why this flavor combination works so well is a mystery to me, probably because I don’t know how taste works and was pretty bad at science in general.
But Man these things are good. While Buffalo Wild Wings’ description notes a “pinch of pepper” I found a whole lot of it. And it balanced out the citrusy tang of the lemon seasoning (what is lemon seasoning?) very well. These are the mildest wings I’d recommend anyone get, because while they aren’t spicy, they don’t compromise on flavor.
11. Parmesan Garlic
Roasted garlic and parmesan sauce with Italian herbs.
It doesn’t take a scientist, a doctor, or even an amateur wing reviewer to hazard a guess that this is probably the least healthy flavor that Buffalo Wild Wings has to offer. (It would, however, take someone more dedicated than me to try to verify if this guess was true.) Creamy, cheesy, and garlicky are all pretty great adjectives for a sauce for almost anything.
This one really is just as the name advertises. There’s parmesan, there’s garlic, the sauce may be mayonnaise or cream based. Pretty tasty. Not very spicy, but definitely a bit of a kick too it.
12. Hot
Classic wing sauce: Delicious flavor, exhilarating heat.
Much to my surprise, I haven’t reviewed this sauce on this site before. This particular batch of Hot was a lot milder than I remembered and also kind of boring.
A pepperiness came through, both of the black and chili variety. There wasn’t a whole lot of other interesting flavor. I also am not sure this is a “classic wing sauce”, as there were no real buttery notes. This sauce was thicker than I think of a classic wing sauce being. You’d think a place called Buffalo Wild Wings, you’d think their hot buffalo sauce would be the standard for the rest of the menu to live up to, but this is pretty much middle of the pack.
13.Medium
Classic wing sauce: Comfortably hot.
If an alien came to this earth from another planet and wanted to know what a buffalo chicken wing was, I’d probably take them to Buffalo Wild Wings and get them an order of medium wings, if that Buffalo Wild Wings served aliens.
Also, I think this is the spot in the menu where wings really start getting spicy for people who aren’t that into spice. There is nothing wrong, nor anything particularly noteworthy about this sauce.
14. Mild
Classic wing sauce: High flavor, low heat.
Hey, you boring people who order sauces called “mild”. These aren’t so bad. My notes say “not a lot of spice, but nice flavor” and that was before I read Buffalo Wild Wings’s official description. So, pretty close.
This sauce is also very thick and creamy to an almost disconcerting extent. Definitely mid-range suspicion on mayonnaise presence. But oh well. Whereas Mild salsa should almost always be avoided because it’s boring, Mild sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings is alright in my book.
15. Honey BBQ
A sweet, sassy sauce: Savor the flavor.
It is hard to conceive that there are six sauces/seasonings on Buffalo Wild Wings’ menu between “Sweet BBQ” and “Honey BBQ” on a spiciness scale. But this is what Buffalo Wild Wings claims is the case.
After trying the two of them back-to-back this claim is even harder to swallow. Honey BBQ wings are certainly better than Sweet BBQ, but they aren’t noticeably spicier. It’s more like what Sweet BBQ should be. Also, please don’t put the word “sassy” in the description of a BBQ sauce.
16. Buffalo Seasoning
Classic heat and soothing buttery seasoning.
If you look at the picture of these wings, you may be confused about whether or not this is a seasoning or a sauce. I know I was. It looks kind of like a grainy sauce had partially melted on the hot wings. Appealing, no?
No. It isn’t very appealing, and this seasoning doesn’t taste as described either. These wings kind of tasted like Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and butter, but in a not very good way. Very little heat. Kind of weird texture. How could Buffalo Wild Wings so badly mess up the only flavor with “Buffalo” in its name?
17. Blazin
Keep away from your eyes, pets, children: The hottest sauce we got.
Hey, what do you know? This is the hottest sauce they’ve got. These may be the hottest wings I’ve ever eaten and are almost certainly the hottest I’ve ever reviewed.
Don’t order these unless you’re looking for a challenge… and then another challenge a certain number of hours later. While eating them they were very hot, but somewhat manageable for me. Immediately after eating them, even with a glass of milk, they were painful for about 5 minutes.
It should also be noted that I ate these as quickly as possible, both to shorten the amount of time I was uncomfortable, and as a possible test run for the Blazin’ challenge. The Blazin’ Challenge must be completed in 6 minutes, and it took me 2:45 to complete my 4. So I don’t think I’ll be able to do it… but I might still try. Stay tuned!
18. Hot BBQ
Rich BBQ sauce with a touch of heat.
I am a BBQ sauce on wings hater, so it is no surprise that I found this sauce lacking. Buffalo Wild Wings describes it as “Rich BBQ sauce with a touch of heat” but I’d invert that to “Wimpy BBQ sauce with some overwhelming heat”.
I like BBQ sauce, and I like spicy BBQ sauce. But I don’t like BBQ sauce on my buffalo wings, and I don’t think this is a very good BBQ sauce. Spicier and less flavorful than expected and advertised.
19. Sweet BBQ
Traditional BBQ sauce: Satisfyingly sweet.
If this were what traditional BBQ sauce tasted like, no one would like BBQ sauce. I guess no one would dislike it that much either though, because this sauce was flavorless.
For the second mildest option on the list and with sweet in the name, I was expecting something almost cloyingly sweet. Fortunately, this was not the case. Unfortunately, this lack of sweetness was balanced with lack of any other noticeable characteristic.
20. Teriyaki
Terrifically tasty teriyaki sauce.
Hmm… well, these smelled pretty good. On the nose there was a lot of soy sauce which suggested a good salty/umami bite to it. On the tongue however, the flavor didn’t seem to make much of an appearance.
On some bites, the flavor made it through and it was pretty good. On others it tasted kind of like nothing. Another note is that this was the runniest sauce I’ve had yet. I think it’s the only one that was dripping off the wings while I was eating them. So I don’t think that’s a plus.
21. Salt and Vinegar Seasoning
“With this seasoning, it’s all in the name.”
Things I like: salt and vinegar chips, salt and vinegar fries, salt and vinegar other stuff. I like Salt and vinegar. It’s a wonderful combination of flavors to liven up a variety of otherwise bland dishes.
But this version of Salt and Vinegar, listed as the mildest flavor on the menu, is not livening anything up. It is boring. Once every few bites, I could detect a very mild vinegary tang, but most of the time it was just a mild salt flavor. Even when I tried to eat the seasoning at the bottom of the container with my finger, I found myself disappointed.
Wrap-up thoughts on Buffalo Wild Wings Sauces
This project proved to be enjoyable and ranking Buffalo Wild Wings sauces has proven to be my most popular post on this site by quite a margin. If you disagree with my Buffalo Wild Wings rankings or have rankings of your own, let me know and I’ll like to them! Thanks for reading.
