Looking for a twist on your usual wing sauce to serve at your next party? How about a Mountain Dew-infused concoction?
JP and Julia from Hellthy Junk Food broke down the components of Buffalo Wild Wings’ own “Zesty Citrus Sauce,” a 2015-2016 limited-edition dipping sauce that combined Mountain Dew, lemongrass, ginger, soy sauce and red peppers.
As you can see in the video below, Hellthy Junk Food used its own set of ingredients to duplicate the flavor.
It looked intriguing enough that we wanted to try the recipe out for ourselves.
In their recreation, Hellthy Junk Food used Mountain Dew, corn syrup, white distilled vinegar, honey mustard, corn starch and water, red pepper flakes, lemon pepper and dried cilantro.
This writer hates cilantro and swapped in dried dill and dried tarragon leaves for the cilantro per a recommended substitute. You could also use dried parsley.
Here’s the recipe cast of characters:
I started off reducing 3 cups of Mountain Dew by half. While that was boiling on the stove, I mixed together all the ingredients except the cornstarch and water.
The cornstarch and water got whisked together in a separate bowl to form a slurry. This acts as a thickener for the sauce.
Once the Mountain Dew was reduced, I poured in the corn syrup-vinegar-spice-honey mustard mixture followed by the cornstarch and water mixture.
I let this simmer for a bit longer, then pulled the pot off the heat.
Next, I made the chicken wings. You can bake your wings or use an air fryer, but I had a mini deep fryer that I used to cook a batch of wings and drummettes. Whichever method you use, make sure your chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
After I fried my wings, I used a paper towel to sop up the excess oil. Next, I mixed the wings with the Mountain Dew sauce and tasted it.
When just rolled in the citrusy sweet sauce I didn’t think the Dew flavor was that noticeable. But when I dipped a drummette directly into the sauce and got a good dose, I could definitely taste the Mountain Dew essence, and it was tasty. The crushed pepper also gives the chicken a kick.
If I was one of those people who liked cilantro and used that in the sauce there might be more of a “lemongrass” flavor. But I also thought the dill, tarragon, lemon pepper and red pepper flakes went well together.
I didn’t think the sauce was too sweet though it might start to overload your palate if you ate a big plateful.
Bottom line: This is a good sauce though probably not the best sauce you’ve ever tried. Mountain Dew fans will probably like it the best.
Got a favorite wing sauce? Will you try this one?
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
