Wings News

A list of the many different kinds of chicken wings in Dallas

Chicken Wings from Duff's

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Dallas may not be the first city that comes to mind when you say "wings" — but it should be. We've birthed major wing chains like Wingstop, founded in Garland in 1994, as well as smaller outfits like Wings World and Wing Boss, the delivery spinoff of Dickey's Barbecue. When Bonchon Chicken from Korea wanted to expand to the U.S., where did they pick for their HQ? Dallas.

Wing lovers have it pretty good here, from classics to Korean-style, from bone-in to boneless (which is not even a wing). If variety is the spice of life, then Dallas has it spicy.

In this roundup, we've listed some of the most popular options broken into category. Here's 14 wings worth checking out:

BIGGEST BONELESS
For boneless, we've gone for bang for the buck. Both of these places do hefty portions.

Frankie’s Downtown jumbo boneless wings
Downtown Dallas sports bar with an underground speakeasy offers jumbo boneless wings and a pretty good portion size: 8 to 10 ounces each. Named Best Wings in Dallas by Dallas Observer two years in a row.

Wing Bucket's 12 nuggets
Dallas chain with four locations is known for jumbo size, both bone-in wings and boneless, with good deals like 12 boneless wings in three flavors for $11.29. The three flavor option means you can mix and match from choices like spicy honey garlic or PB&J.

CRISPIEST
If crispy is your benchmark, these places are the ones to try.

Cosmo’s crispy chicken wings
East Dallas bar features primarily Vietnamese dishes from chef Jackson Tran — pho, banh mi — but lots of people come for the crispy chicken wings dusted with a Cajun dry rub. Served with a spicy ginger-soy dipping sauce.

No. 1 Plus Chicken sampler platter
Small Korean fried chicken restaurant in Richardson achieves next-level crispiness by removing extra fat and skin and marinating in spices before frying. A $29 sampler features their four most popular flavors: fried original, yangyum, soy, and garlic.

DRUMS AND FLATS
Which is best, drums or flats? Only one place is famous for having both.

Pluckers
Austin-based chain has become a wing staple in Dallas since it debuted here in 2002 with drums and flats. It's a hot topic of debate as to which is best. Pluckers will let you combine so you can compare yourself. An order of five wings is $9.

DRY RUB
Saucy wings are more popular, but wings with a dry rub have a certain elegance.

Will Call's Recycle Rub
Deep Ellum sports bar pickle-brine its wings for 24 hours then dusts them in a coating. The Recycle Rub steal the show: It's a dry rub made from leftover, finely ground vegetables. 5 wings are $9. There's also a cauliflower option.

MOSTEST BESTEST FLAVORS
All wings places have lots of flavors — it's part of their DNA. These two have something special going on.

Duff's Famous Wings
Small chain from upstate New York has six locations — five in New York and this one outlier in Southlake. The authenticity of their jumbo wings is worth the trip alone. These are no reheat: Take-out orders take 25-30 mins to prepare (and longer during busy times). 6 wings are $9.50.

Wings World
Dallas-based restaurant chain has 33 flavors, perhaps more than any other wing place and some are pretty unique. How about Hawaiian BBQ or oxtail season. An order of 6 wings starts at $10.

HOTTEST
Every wing place brags about how hot their wings are. These two are on fire.

Angry Dog's super hot wings
Deep Ellum staple does super hot wings with an in-house sauce made with habanero, ghost pepper, and Carolina reaper peppers. A plate of 10 wings runs for $15.

Bad Chicken’s buffalo atomic wings
Recently opened wing shop has buffalo atomic wings that are hotter than regular buffalo. When they say hot, they mean super hot. 5 wings are $8.75.

ODD SAUCES
Sauces are a wing staple. Both of these places have offbeat options.

bb.q Chicken Galbi wings
Korean fried chicken chain with 6 locations in DFW has 14 flavors including the Galbi, a sweet and smoky sauce with sesame seeds and green onions; and the cheesling, dusted with a blend of sweet cheeses.

Lord of the Wings spicy elote wings
Online-only wing concept (you order through Instagram and they text you where to pick up) does spicy elote wings, featuring Mexican street corn toppings: queso fresco, cilantro, lime juice, butter, and mayo. 8 wing combo is $16.50.

VEGAN WINGS
Wings are about the sauces and seasonings — making it easy to sub in alternatives for the chicken.

TLC Vegan Cafe's buffalo cauliflower wings
Richardson vegan cafe from award-winning chef Troy Gardner does buffalo cauliflower wings, fried then doused with a buffalo sauce and sprinkled with vegan feta cheese, $16 for an order.

Vegan Vibrationz cauliflower wings
Plano Legacy Hall restaurant known for its vegan version of Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap does vegan cauliflower wings in 3 flavors: original, BBQ, or Buffalo.

Hottest Headlines of 2025

Top Dallas restaurant news of 2025 cooked up celebs, closures & Costco

Soul Shack

Fried chicken, mac & cheese, collards at Soul Shack.

Editor's note: As we look back at the most-read restaurant stories of 2025, it clear that the fate of a Dallas landmark — and its even more iconic popovers — kept readers riveted. There were exciting openings and heartbreaking closures, as well as one very controversial taco pop-up, and even ice cream delivered by drone. And news of a new Costco (or three) was a hot topic from all the way back at the beginning of the year.

Here are the 10 hottest restaurant stories of 2025 in Dallas:

1. The 2 Dallas restaurants where reservations are now impossible to get. Cafe Dior by Dominque Crenn is the restaurant inside the new Dior boutique in Highland Park Village, which opened in at the start of the year. Zodiac Room is the about-to-close restaurant inside the storied downtown location of Neiman Marcus, which has had several imminent closure scares but now states it will remain open past the 2025 holidays.

Popover, Zodiac Room, Neiman Marcus Downtown Zodiac Room popovers. Photo courtesy of Lisa Crossett

2. Dallas Caramel Company founder Rain McDermott dies at 52. Dallas entrepreneur Rain McDermott, who founded artisan caramel maker Dallas Caramel Company when she was only 34 years old, died in June after a battle with breast cancer; she was 52.

3. Dallas celebs are flocking to Soul Shack, new restaurant in Cedar Hill. The original was a fast-casual concept in Chicago called Soul Shack Express, which is still open. The Dallas location is a more ambitious effort, with a full-service restaurant, full bar, and swanky nightlife atmosphere. They've quickly earned notice from celebrities including TikTok phenomenon Keith Lee, who touted them with a review in their first week open (giving it a high rating of 8 out of 10 on his scale); and celebrity Shaquille "Shaq" O'Neal, who dropped in for a surprise visit.

4. Salad and Go reveals the 18 locations closing around Dallas. In good news, 25 locations will remain open. The one-of-a-kind salad chain specializing in low-priced salads in a drive-thru-only format previously announced its plan to close 41 restaurants. But the chain is still firmly committed to the Dallas metro area and Oklahoma, plus stores in Arizona and Las Vegas.

Salad and Go is going going gone. Photo by Salad and Go

5. Award-winning Dallas burger joint opens location in Forney. Blues Burgers is from Howard and Catherine Baldwin, who opened the original Blues Burgers near Love Field in Dallas in 2014 (it closed in February 2025 so they could focus on this venture). They use Angus beef for their burgers, and make their own sauces and spreads in-house. They fry in beef tallow, and their sodas are made with cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. They also do fried pies, made in house.

6. Costco lines up 3 new stores opening in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2025. Cult-favorite grocery warehouse Costco is gifting Dallas-Fort Worth with three new stores, two of which opened in mid-March: Prosper and Weatherford. The Celina location's timeline has shifted to late 2026.

7. Blue Bell hosts extravagant freebie to get Dallas to try new ice cream. The new flavor is Classic Pecan Pie Ice Cream, a brown sugar ice cream with roasted pecans and pieces of pie crust mixed with a pecan pie filling. Now is a good time to mention that pecan pie is the state pie of Texas. Blue Bell partnered with Wing, the drone delivery division of Google parent company Alphabet, and Walmart, to give DFW residents the chance to try it for free via drone delivery.

Blue Bell Classic Pecan Pie ice cream. Blue Bell

8. Michelin-starred taqueria from Mexico City to do pop-up in Dallas. El Califa de León was to come to Texas for a limited-run 14- day, culinary pop-up, but following less-than-stellar reviews on social media, the restaurant pulled the plug one week into the engagement.

9. 2 Dallas steakhouses proclaimed among the best in the world. Nuri Steakhouse and Knife join 17 others in the U.S. that made the cut. The ranking, by London-based company Upper Cut Media House, is based on incognito reviews of each restaurant by so-called "Steak Ambassadors" who have industry backgrounds as chefs, food journalists, or "certified meat- and Wagyu masters."

Nuri Steakhouse ranked 84th on the list. Photo courtesy of Nuri

10. Beloved Richardson burger joint pivots to smaller more affordable mode. After 12 years, Haystack Burgers & Barley has reimagined its flagship location at 100 Central Expwy. #17 into a new concept called Little Stack, a more concise, more budget-friendly version of itself.