At Wingmaster, we love chicken wings. And over the years, we’ve learned a thing or two about what goes into making a great chicken wing. While the sauce is definitely essential and the seasoning is key, the secret to great tasting wings starts even earlier than this.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with frozen chicken, as my mom would say. Frozen chicken is perfectly healthy when done right. But there is a difference between fresh and frozen. To start, you just don’t know what happens when they freeze the wings.

HOW FREEZING CHANGES THE WINGS

While frozen wings are fine in themselves, it’s the method of freezing that can have an effect on the taste and quality of the meat. When wings are frozen, the blood can crack the bones in the wings. Thin bones in the wings can break with freezing. And freezing also changes the overall colour of the wings – making them a gray colour that no one really wants to see in their meat.

Have you ever seen black bones in your frozen wings? This means your wings have been exposed to water. Fresh wings, on the other hand, will have no exposure to them, and their bones will be a perfect gray colour.

DEEP FRYING FROZEN VS. FRESH WINGS

Before deep frying a frozen wing, it’s best to thaw it in the fridge. However, a lot of people try a quick-thawing trick: they will dump them in warm water in the sink. While this may speed up the thawing process, it actually pre-cooks the chicken. The meat then stretches before it’s thrown in the deep fryer, resulting in crispy, almost wood-like meat.

WHY CHOOSE FRESH?

With fresh chicken wings, your meat will always be pure. Fresh wings don’t go through all the changes that happen to frozen meat. You also avoid the inevitability of your wings being dropped on the floor – something that happens with bags of frozen wings to break them apart.

Fresh wings don’t last forever. You typically have five days to use them, whereas frozen wings can be kept for a long time. This is why you pay more for fresh wings. But you get what you pay for!