Wings and things
With American’s obsession with chili peppers on fire, it is safe to say that hot and spicy seasonings for meat and poultry are driving innovation. There are two diverse consumer segments these foods appeal to. First there are the millennials who crave excitement and want to explore new flavors. Then there are the baby boomers who, with age, lose their ability to taste. Heat and spice give foods a kick they can appreciate.
A convenient introduction to the world of hot and spicy is the category of chicken wings, as a single wing is a small commitment to sampling a new, hot and spicy seasoning. According to Datassential, Chicago, Americans eat more than 27 billion wings each year, and wings are the most popular appetizer on all restaurant menus.
Traditional Buffalo reigns as the most popular flavor. But increasingly, most wing menus include all types of layers of flavors.
“Particularly popular is pairing sweet and bold ingredients to create a harmonious balance between opposing flavors,” said Laura McGuire, director of Technomic Inc., Chicago. “Chicken wings were one of the first foods to showcase sweet and bold flavor combinations because the protein pairs well with a variety of tastes.”
A trend-setting combination of sweet and heat is chipotle barbecue sauce, which is often used on wings. The sweetness of the barbecue sauce allows the smoky heat of the chipotle pepper to saunter through the profile without being too hot, according to Christopher Warsow, corporate executive chef, for Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Northbrook, Illinois.
“When you pair sweetness with peppers, even the hottest peppers become palatable,” he said. “Habanero mango is a popular combination across many product sectors. The habanero pepper is quite flavorful, if you can get over the heat. Adding a dimension of sweetness helps accentuate the citrus notes of the pepper while the sulfurous notes of the mango play out.”
An example of this is the Screaming Mango Wings from the national chain Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom. These are twice-cooked wings with sweet-mango sauce, habanero and jalapeño.
Recently, McCormick and Co., Hunt Valley, Md., introduced a new line of wing seasonings to assist food service operators with broadening their menu offerings. The four offerings are mango habanero, spicy buffalo, sriracha and zesty lemon and pepper.
“While some like food to be spicy, there are many Americans not quite ready for intense heat,” said Felicia Berger, culinary blogger and founder of The Starving Chef, Akron, Ohio. “They find when heat comes with something sweet, the overall taste of the food is much more pleasant.”
Charlie Baggs, executive chef, of Charlie Baggs Inc., Chicago, said, “Sriracha goes great with honey as a chicken glaze, on wings, on breasts, on a whole rotisserie chicken.”
The Velvet Taco franchise serves a chicken tikka taco made with a sweet-heat sauce.
“We make a spicy tikka sauce using habaneros, arbol chilies and jalapenos as well as cayenne pepper and use that to coat fried chicken tenders,” said John Franke, corporate chef of Dallas-based Frontburner Restaurants, which owns the Velvet Taco concept. “To counteract the heat, we drizzle our honey-sweetened raita crema on top.”
At the company’s Whiskey Cake in Plano, Texas, the culinary staff prepares sweet and spicy duck wings by sous vide overnight. They are then fried crispy to order, tossed in a sweet and spicy Thai barbecue sauce and served with spicy ranch.
Indeed, hot and spicy is getting multi-dimensional, with extra layers of flavors or basic tastes, such as sweet, sour and even umami, entering the scene.
