Great Value Buffalo Style Wings Review

I bought a 2-pound (907 grams) bag of   Great Value Buffalo Style Wings last weekend for review, and we ate them for supper tonight.



These are frozen, pre cooked chicken wings, seasoned with Buffalo style very thin breading and hot sauce.  I’ve never cooked wings in my kitchen, and even now, I don’t suppose I’m really cooking them; just heating them up instead.  However, this is less dangerous, in that I don’t have to risk spilling hot oil all over myself from the  deep fryer; the typical instrument used to cook raw chicken wings.  So this is a safer, more convenient wings product than preparing the hot wings yourself.

This product has an authentic Buffalo wing flavor, and I’ve eaten numerous Buffalo wings, including the original recipe Buffalo wings at Buffalo, New York.  I know therefore, that these wings indeed taste real.  So you can have wings that taste like a professional made them right in your own home, for the small cost and effort of baking them in your oven.  However, this dish is quite fatty and salty.  So more moderation with it should be exercised than I did tonight.  But it’s hard to eat just a few wings, when there’s a big bowl of them in the center of the table.

Advantages, Pros, Benefits,  and Features

Little breading.  Just enough to aid in the authentic taste.

You sacrifice no taste when you switch to this Great Value product, but gain some naturally occurring nutrition for your “effort.”  We enjoyed these wings tonight with corn and broccoli, along with some vanilla yogurt for dessert.

A whole 32 Oz. bag cooks up in about 22 minutes in my oven. Smaller amounts finish more quickly; the box says 18 to 20 minutes baking time in a 400 degree oven.



During cooking, the pleasant but subtle hot sauce smell fills my first floor.

This is a good source of protein (12 grams per 3-ounce. serving), and it has low per-serving saturated fat (3 grams).

The chicken wings here are an ample source of complete protein, at 12 grams per serving.

The wings here have a mild hot sauce and slight grainy chicken flavor.

They’re not overly hot.  The kick is minor.

Try serving this dish with corn and broccoli, for a complete meal (grains, proteins, and vegetables).

It took but a short time (just over twenty minutes) to heat up to piping hot condition this chicken.



Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns

This pasta requires more time to soften and cook than do pasta elbows or macaroni, as each noodle is somewhat thicker. No problem  really however.

Lots of sodium and fat for just a small portion.

Not enough drum sticks in this batch.

The wings seemed excessively small, and so had a high skin to chicken ratio, that contributed a lot to how fatty they were.

Plus, the bones in them were prominent as well.  Probably a third of the entire volume of this product consisted of the bones.   Hmmm.  I’ll have to learn how to season boneless chicken breasts in the Buffalo style, to reduce the fat and bones.

This product should be kept frozen, and never allowed to thaw until you actually put the frozen wings into the oven.

Heating Instructions

Conventional Oven

  1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Line a shallow baking pan or sheet with aluminum foil.
  3. Lightly spray the exposed foil surface with a high temperature cooking spray.
  4. Place frozen wings in the pan.
  5. Put the pan in the oven once the desired temperature is reached.
  6. Bake for a total time of 18 to 20 minutes.  Turn the wings over, half way through baking.
  7. When time is up, remove the pan of wings from the oven.
  8. Let stand for 2 to 3 minutes.
  9. Then, serve and enjoy.

Microwave Oven

  1. Place 8 or 9 wings in a circle on a microwave safe plate, leaving the center open.
  2. Heat, uncovered, on high power, for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how strong your microwave oven is.
  3. Flip the wings over, half way through heating.
  4. When time is up, let wings stand for 2 to 3 minutes.
  5. Serve and enjoy.




Grill

  1. Cook the frozen wings for 14 to 18 minutes in the grill, set to medium heat.
  2. Turn them over, half way though cooking.
  3. Then, eat and enjoy.

Ingredients

Chicken wing sections, water, hot sauce (fresh red ripe peppers, distilled vinegar, salt), wheat flour, contains 2% or less of soybean oil, modified cornstarch, salt, chili pepper, sodium phosphates, cellulose gum, modified food starch from waxy maze, spice extractives, garlic extract, garlic oil, soy lecithin, blanched in vegetable oil.

Nutrition Facts

  • Serving size: 3 ounces, 84 grams edible portion.  Servings per container: about 7.
  • Calories: 190.  Calories from fat: 120.
  • Total fat: 13 grams, 20% DV.
  • Saturated Fat: 3 grams, 18% DV.
  • Trans fat: 0 grams.
  • Polyunsaturated fat: 4 grams.
  • Monounsaturated fat: 5 grams.
  • Cholesterol: 45 grams, 15% DV.
  • Sodium: 830 grams, 35% DV.
  • Potassium: 95 milligrams, 3% DV.
  • Total carbohydrate: 6 grams, 2% DV.
  • Dietary fiber: <1 gram, 2% DV.
  • Sugars: 0 grams.
  • Protein: 12 grams.
  • Vitamin A: 4% DV.
  • Calcium: 0% DV.
  • Folic acid: 0% DV.
  • Vitamin C: 4% DV.
  • Iron: 4% DV.

Our Rating

I’d recommend this Buffalo wings product without reservation, to those who love chicken wings seasoned with red pepper sauce, but who, like me, wish to avoid the mess and dangers involved with cooking them ourselves at home.  This product is the next best thing to fresh-prepared Buffalo hot wings.  I’d rate these chicken wings at 92 out of 100.

Where To Buy Great Value Buffalo Style Wings

Look for this chicken product in the white plastic bag with the blue letters at Walmart exclusively, in the frozen foods section.  The bag has a picture of the wings, laying on some appetizing greens.



References

Revision History

  • : Adjusted category and tag assignments, fixed typos, and added white space.
  • 2012-07-18: Originally published.