I like fried chicken wings so it is without any shame that I found myself at the doors of Wingstop in the Cornerhouse Nottingham looking for some fried chicken action this week

They opened last June replacing the space where the Pizza Hut used to be, and although I had not been there for years that was a little sad as I had some happy memories eating the pizza but time moves on

Today though and well also the following day it was going to be all about scoffing fried chicken in various guises 🤣😎

MENU BOARD

Wing Stop is a multinational chain with a menu consisting of chicken wings, boneless wings, chicken sandwiches, and chicken tenders with various dips and sides. I guess that you know what you are getting wherever or whenever you walk through one of their doors.

They have as you might expect a list of rubs and sauces that you can get your wings coated in ranging from the very mild Hawaiian to a blockbusting Atomic.

In that list most of the classic flavours including ‘Garlic Parmesan, Lemon Pepper, Hickory Smoked BBQ, Lousiana Rub, and Spicy Korean‘ and some others that sound positively dangerous such as ‘Brazilian Citrus Pepper and Mango Habanero‘

TWO PORTIONS OF MIXED BONELESS WINGS (16 PIECES)

Today we were just thinking of boneless wings so were going to be ordering two lots of 8 pieces.

I did like that you could get different 2 flavours in each order so we were going to check out four of them on this first visit, some safe some slightly spicy?

Lets look in more detail at what we ate

GARLIC PARMESAN BONELESS WINGS

The Garlic Parmesan scores zero on the official heat scale or ‘no heat’ as they say so we figured if we are scoffing in order of spice lets start here. They say ‘Savory garlic, buttery parmesan. This dry rub is simple, potent, and delicious‘

I liked that you could taste both the garlic and the Parmesan, both were distinct enough to pick out and neither was on top of the other.

OK so I admit perhaps one for the lightweight in the group but I would not be ashamed to say that I rather liked these and would happily have more

LEMON PEPPER BONELESS WINGS

Next up were the Lemon Pepper which only just registers any heat level on the WingStop scale presumably just because of the black pepper. They describe as ‘Zesty lemon, Cracked black pepper. This dry rub is the ultimate gateway flavour‘

Again all the promised flavors were present in the coating, you could easily pick out the citrus hints and the pepper was enough to be noticed.

LOUISIANA RUB BONELESS WINGS

Now then things were getting a bit more interesting when we reached the wings coated in the Lousiana Rub. I was looking forward to these which they describe as ‘A crispy, spiced dry rub, with a distinctly Cajun drawl‘

These certainly delivered on their promise, having spent time in the Southern states and bought many a Cajun rub and eaten many a spicy wing I can confidently say that they got this blend just right. Spicy enough to make it worth your while, not too spicy to cause pain but just enough to get the juices flowing.

This was the first of the wings that had me looking for my ranch sauce to dip the wing into to ease the heat for the second bite.

SPICY KOREAN Q BONELESS WINGS

The Spicy Korean Q rub surprised me and I don’t know why, it was a wetter sauce coating the wing and I hadn’t expected that. Gloriously messy to eat, thick and sticky sauce that got all over your fingers and cheeks.

These were much spicier than anticipated but given that the description was ‘Ginger, garlic, sriracha, and crushed red pepper‘ I should have expected that.

They say they ‘create the perfect balance of sweet and spicy‘ I say that yes it was nice to get the sweetness to contrast with the spice heat but for me it was just a little bit too spicy to really enjoy the flavours.

On my next order I tried The Flavour Fix Wings for 1 which was a meal of 8 wings, 3 tenders and regular seasoned fries. Again you could split the flavour choice, so I did ordering 4 wings with Lemon Pepper and 4 with Hickory BBQ.

LEMON PEPPER WINGS

The Lemon Pepper rub was a totally different experience where it was just coating the crispy skin of the wing as opposed to being inside the coating of the boneless wing.

These were wings with bone in and I reckon that while they are more of a faff to eat they are much more fun and I like the dark meat better.

I think that I enjoyed it a lot more and maybe the lighter spiced rubs work better with this kind of wing. I would have this rub again on this style of wing for sure

HICKORY SMOKED WINGS

The other order of wings I made with a coating of the Hickory Smoked BBQ described as being ‘Bold, Smoky, Sweet, Rich. It’s everything you love about BBQ, but better‘

This wet sauce is also very messy to eat but as it is only rated with two out of five on the heat scale they are more pleasant to eat. Just enough spice to make them interesting but not too much to get in the way of enjoyment

In all honesty this is where it was a bad idea to split the flavours as I could happily have eaten a full portion of eight wings with this coating on them and I was left wanting more.

LOUSIANA RUB COATED CHICKEN TENDERS

Having enjoyed the Lousiana Rub so much on the boneless wings I thought that it would be a good choice for adding to some tenders. It was but I made the mistake of not getting any ranch sauce dip, luckily I was having these to eat at home so I fished out some garlic mayo from the fridge and all was well.

I was very happy with the chicken tenders from Wing Stop they were a decent size and the chicken breast was pretty moist and juicy, coating was crisp with a little crunch, winner winner chicken dinner

CAJUN FRIES

And then it went astray 🤣 I really wanted to love the Cajun fries but they was just too much seasoning on them for me to enjoy. I reckon about half would have been enough as they ended up being both too salty and too spicy. Good actual fries though just a bit too much of the spicy seasoning. I’ll get plain next time!

There are other independent chicken fryers in the city and I will have covered many on the blog so I feel no qualms dining at one of the big chains and writing about it on here, the blog is for all eating in the city and all people and this is what many want in their lives.

I found that the flavours and quality of the chicken in this chain were spot on and matched expectations. The only downside was that the boneless wings were quite small not more than 2 bites for each one and given the price that was basically £1 a wing and like 50p a bite and so it wasn’t really that filling for the cost.

This branch of Wingstop is located at The Cornerhouse, Forman Street, Nottingham, NG1 4DB. It’s round the back as you approach Trinity Square. Check them out on their website and also on Instagram