Danny Palumbo
Justine Sterling
Let’s be real: You’re not going to season and deep-fry fresh chicken wings for your game day party. You’re going to get a big, giant bag of frozen chicken wings and pour them into the air fryer or onto a baking sheet. But you still want your guests to think you’ve got a mini Buffalo Wild Wings in your kitchen. We’ve got you. Because after multiple taste tests, we’ve found the best frozen chicken wings on the market—whether you’re looking for plain wings, garlic parm wings, or lip-burning hot wings.
How we prepared the frozen wings for our taste test:
While we have found that the best way to cook wings is most often in an air fryer, we know that not everyone has an air fryer. And also, if you’re cooking for a crowd, you need to make big trays of wings in the oven. So we used a mix of air fryer (when the packaging specifically called for it) and oven (when that was the first recommended method on the bag).
What we looked for in the best frozen wings:
- Crispy skin. If we bit into a wing and the skin went “squish,” we tossed it out of the running. Bonus points if the wings achieved that deep-fried-skin quality when cooked in the oven rather than an air fryer.
- Juicy meat. We looked for good quality meat—something that really tastes like chicken.
- Good flavor. Whether that was from a tangy Buffalo sauce, sweet honey BBQ, or just some salt and pepper, flavor has to show up to get a high score.
What’s new in this ranking?
Products change over time. Unfortunately, you can’t count on a brand to maintain a level of quality year after year. So, for our 2025 ranking of the best frozen chicken wings, we retasted most of our top entries—and there were a lot of shake-ups.
Some of the wings that once graced the top five are now off the list entirely (sorry, TGI Friday’s), while other wings moved up in the rankings—including our current number one! We also added a new best garlic parm brand and found the best air fryer wings to buy.
Read on for the full ranking and find the best frozen bone-in wings for your tastes. (And if you’re looking for the best frozen boneless wings, we ranked those, too.)
Best Frozen Wings, Ranked
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- Kroger Honey Flavored BBQ
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These are the best frozen chicken wings for the BBQ sauce lovers. They’re sweet and tangy, just like you want out of a good honey BBQ sauce. Plus, the sugar in the honey creates these crispy little edges on the wings themselves after they come out of the oven. These frozen wings come fully cooked, so all you have to do is reheat them. That said, consider cooking these in the oven at a higher temperature than suggested. We cooked them to package directions and they were just fine, but the wings could have been a lot crispier. Enjoy the flavor and the tasty white meat, but it might take some noodling with the oven to get the right texture. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Tyson Any’Tizers Buffalo Wings
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Tyson’s Any’Tizers Buffalo Wings may have a cringey name, but they’re some of the best frozen Buffalo wings you can buy if you’re looking for seriously big, meaty Buffalo wings that don’t pack too much heat. The meat is really good. It’s gorgeously white and flavorful. And the wings crisp up in the oven, too. Our only quibble is that the Buffalo sauce flavor isn’t as bold as we like it. But some people don’t want to be walloped with a ton of Buffalo tang. If you’re cooking for a crowd that includes some folks who fear too much flavor, cook up a batch of these and serve extra Buffalo sauce on the side. (Want a Buffalo sauce recommendation? We’ve got you covered with the best Buffalo sauce.) And skip the blue cheese dressing (it’ll overpower the flavor). Pair these with some tangy, herb-speckled ranch (perhaps one of our picks for the best ranch) instead. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Tyson Buffalo Style Hot Wings
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Not to be confused with Tyson’s Any’tizers Buffalo Style Wings, these Tyson wings have a powerful Buffalo flavor that we enjoy. They bring more heat than the other best frozen chicken wings on this list, and that makes them all the more delectable. The wing meat is no joke, either. These aren’t dry and thin; Tyson’s Buffalo Style Hot Wings feature big, honkin’ hunks of juicy wing meat. Meaty hot wings are a no-brainer to pair with a good blue cheese dressing, just like the good Lord intended. The skin on each wing is nice and craggy, too, with an even coating around every morsel of chicken—perfect for picking up those little bits of blue cheese in the dip. If you want the real sports bar experience, these are the best frozen Buffalo wings. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Sam’s Club
- Bettergoods Brown Sugar BBQ Dry Rub
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The best dry rub frozen chicken wings are from Hooters (more on those later). But sadly, they’re only available at Publix grocery stores. Luckily, if you don’t live near a Publix, you can still get some great dry rub frozen wings. Because chances are you live within driving distance of a Walmart. And Walmart’s new Bettergoods brand makes these sweet-and-savory dry rub frozen chicken wings. They get so crisp-skinned in the oven or air fryer. The meat is tender and juicy and fatty (in a good way). And the rub tastes like BBQ chip seasoning. They’re no Hooters wings, but they’re much easier to find and still some of the best frozen wings if you’re looking for the best frozen chicken wings that are still packed with flavor even though they aren’t covered in sauce. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Tyson Garlic Parmesan Crispy Wings
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Do you like Italian seasoned breadcrumbs? Then you’ll love the flavor of these frozen garlic parm wings. No, you’re not getting fresh garlic flavor and no it doesn’t taste like someone grated parmesan right off the block. But that’s not what garlic parm wings should taste like. The flavor is pure Italian seasoning in the best way and that seasoning is really infused into the meat—it’s not just on the skin. The chicken is juicy and not too fatty. The skin isn’t too thick. And there’s no sneaky spice. If you’re looking for the best garlic parm wings to have in the freezer, buy these. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Foster Farms Hot & Spicy
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These gigantic wings used to be our number one best frozen wings—and they’re still good. But they didn’t live up to their former glory in our most recent taste test. The skin was a bit too thick. But they’re still some of the best frozen chicken wings you can buy—especially if you’re in the market for the best hot wings, specifically. The sauce, albeit not a traditional, buttery, restaurant-style Buffalo sauce, is tangy and hot just like we want it. Foster Farms Hot & Spicy wings uses aged cayenne peppers and a bit of vinegar to achieve that classically spicy, zesty flavor. This is a quality wing that scores high marks in both texture and flavor. — Danny Palumbo & Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Perdue Air Fryer Roasted
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While you should be cooking all frozen wings in an air fryer, these frozen wings are specifically marketed as air fryer wings—and they are a true triumph. They get so deliciously crispy but the meat stays juicy. While they’re essentially plain, the skin is seasoned well with salt and pepper and the meat tastes like it was brined. You can eat them as is—I’ve served them to kids and grown-ups as part of a weeknight dinner, passing them off as roasted chicken—or you can sauce them as you please. I love these wings. They’re the best frozen wings if you want a blank canvas and they’re the ones I’ll be buying most often. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Aunt Bessie’s Buffalo Style
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From what I could find out, Aunt Bessie’s is based out of Illinois (don’t confuse it with the UK-based Aunt Bessie’s). The company makes frozen hot wings, ribs, and a few other regional specialties like hog maws (pork stomachs) and chitterlings (pork intestines). After tasting these frozen wings, I’ll be on the look out for the whole lineup. Because these wings are seriously good. The chicken itself tastes like rotisserie chicken—it’s so deeply savory and juicy and well seasoned. And, while the sauce doesn’t taste like any Buffalo sauce I’ve ever had, it’s savory and buttery and really tasty. It leans more into a tomato flavor than a traditional Buffalo sauce. And it’s not as tangy or spicy as other Buffalo sauces. But these are still some of the best frozen chicken wings you can buy—especially if you’re in the market for a mild but saucy wing. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Hooters Texas Style Smoked Wings
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Going to Hooters for wings is like reading Playboy for the articles, in that Playboy did, at one point, publish extremely good articles by writers like Norman Mailer, Ray Bradbury, and Margaret Atwood, and Hooters still makes extremely good wings. At least, they do if they’re anything like the brand’s frozen wings, which are excellent. We’re particularly fond of the dry rub Texas-style wings. The meat is juicy and seasoned. The skin gets super crispy. And the BBQ seasoning is better than the BBQ seasoning on the aforementioned Bettergoods wings because it adds a smokey flavor to the blend of sweet and savory seasonings. If you live near a Publix (the only store that currently sells Hooters frozen wings) then you need to try these ASAP. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Publix
- Foster Farms Take Out Crispy Classic Buffalo Wings
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These frozen wings come with Buffalo sauce, but you might not even need it. Foster Farms wings are perfect naked and plain; they are salty, meaty, and moist all by themselves. That said, the sauce is delicious—it’s seriously spicy and tangy. A truly classic Buffalo sauce. And, because it comes in a packet on the side, you can use as little or as much as you want. Plus, because the wings aren’t pre-sauced, they get super-duper crispy when you cook them. After tasting them again in our most recent taste test, we decided these are the best frozen chicken wings you can buy. — Justine Sterling & Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
Best Honey BBQ Wings
Best Medium Buffalo Wings
Best Wings with Blue Cheese
Best Dry Rub Wings (Runner-Up)
Best Garlic Parm Wings
Best Frozen Hot Wings
Best Air Fryer Wings
Best Mild Buffalo Wings
Best Dry Rub Wings
Best of the Best
Other frozen chicken wings we tried:
Great Value Breaded Boneless Buffalo Style Chicken Wyngz, Foster Farms Take Out Sweet Chipotle BBQ, Foster Farms Boneless Wyngz Buffalo, Foster Farms Take Out Crispy Classic Buffalo Wings, Wingaza Buffalo Style Wings, Great Value Chicken Wings with Garlic Butter, Good & Gather Buffalo-Style, Great Value Honey BBQ, Simmons Pecan Smoked, Tyson Restaurant Style Caribbean Style, Bettergoods Garlic Butter Dry Rub, Perdue Air Fryer Ready Hot n Spicy, Kirkwood Buffalo Style Chicken Wings, Kroger Garlic Parmesan Flavored, Trader Joe’s Hot & Spicy Wings, TGI Friday’s Buffalo Style Wings
Luke Field
Matt Crowley
