Wing Flats or Drums?
As a bona fide foodie and chicken wing enthusiast, I find myself in the throes of a never-ending epicurean debate: Wing Flats vs. Drums. Picture this: you’re on a mission to sate your chicken wing cravings, and you’re faced with a plethora of options. Whole wings, meticulously separated flats and drums, or the liberty to select your exclusive batches of flats or drums — it’s quite the flavorful conundrum. What’s intriguing is that as your selection gets more particular, so does the price tag, a testament to the extra elbow grease involved.
Let’s embark on a mouthwatering journey dissecting the characteristics of these two tantalizingly scrumptious wing cuts.
Firstly, allow me to introduce the chicken wing flat, affectionately known as the wingette. This cut of the chicken, harboring the wing bone, is an aesthetically pleasing, flatter, and elongated portion of the wing. Often considered the underdog due to its lesser meat content compared to its counterpart, the flat truly stands out for its succulent, juicy meat cocooned by a delightfully crispy exterior. Some food connoisseurs swear by the wing flat’s unique texture and flavor profile.
On the other side of the battle, we have the mighty chicken wing drum, often hailed as the drumette. This is the rotund, substantially meatier part of the wing, snuggled right next to the flat. Famed for its robust flavor and impressive meat content, the drumette takes the crown for popularity when entertaining friends and family. The drum’s charm likely lies in its meaty generosity, user-friendly eating experience, and uncanny resemblance to the classic chicken leg. It’s almost as if every bite transports you to a comforting, familiar culinary terrain.
The choice between flats and drums is as diverse as the world of food lovers who relish them. Remember, though, whether you’re team flat or team drum, every bite of chicken wing is a celebration of flavor and texture!
How to cook wing flats and drums?
There are many ways to cook wing flats and drums. Sometimes it comes down to the equipment you have available and the time that you have to cook. The good news though is that with almost any chicken wing recipe, the wings will be fully cooked in under forty minutes.
Popular ways to cook wings:
- Deep Frying
- Baking
- Smoking
- Grilling
- Air Frying
While all options are great options – we’re talking about wings after all, we prefer the smoking chicken wings. The amount of flavor that adheres to the wings and the flats, makes it very easy to only season your chicken wings with olive oil (binding agent), salt and pepper, not to mention convenient.
When serving chicken wings, we’ll smoke our wings on the Big Green Egg for thirty to forty minutes (turning once halfway), and allow to rest. If we’re hosting, we’ll have some additional sauces like bbq sauce, or buffalo sauce, but often times people love the original taste of a naked smoked wing.
How to eat wing flats?
Eating wing flats can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature, and you may even start to prefer them over the drums! The wing flat consists of two parallel bones, in between you find a nice morsel of chicken meat that’s worth the effort. The key to eating a wing flat is to separate the two bones, this can be done with your mouth or your hands. Once the bones are separated it’s time to dive in, bite down and pull the meat from the bone. Do this a few times, and you’ll be a chicken wing natural in no time.
What’s the best sauce for chicken wings?
While we mentioned above that we prefer smoked, naked wings, with nothing but salt, pepper and smoke, we must admit we do indulge in tossing our wings into sauce from time to time. We’ll often do this when hosting, and cook a few different batches. Some of the most popular sauces are:
- Buffalo Sauce: Franks Red Hot
- BBQ Sauce: Sweet Baby Rays
- Teriyaki Sauce: Kikkoman Teriyaki
There are many that you can choose from, some that are super hot, and some that are sweet and tangy. There’s not shortage of different chicken wing sauces.
The Final Verdict
When it comes to determining the best part of the wing, we must admit there is no right answer! The best part of the wing, is the wing that you have in front of you. While chicken wing drums are the most popular, do not sleep on the underrated chicken flat. Once you master the art of eating the chicken flats – we’re confident that you’ll be happy when you find the extra flats at the end of a chicken wing order.