Bottom Line: The Buffalo Whatawings from Whataburger are heavy on the tang, but they are rather tasty and deliver some good heat.
Wings are gold these days, with nearly every restaurant chain having some version of the poultry flapper on the menu. And while Texas burger icon Whataburger has had chicken strips and sandwiches on its menu for years, it is only just now taking a flyer on adding wings to its selection of fast food offerings. They did give them the rather unfortunate name of Whatawings which sounds almost as bad as Whatacatch (their fish sandwich), but what do you expect from Whataburger?
These are the boneless variety and you can order them with Buffalo, sweet and spicy, honey barbecue, or honey butter sauce (you can also get them dry). I ordered up some with the chain’s signature Buffalo sauce.
The wings are kind of small, about one or two bites each, but still sufficiently meaty and rather tender. And at nine to an order, you still get plenty to eat. They do not have a high crust-to-meat ratio and not too much crunch after sitting in the sauce. There is an immediate tang from that sauce and it delivers plenty of pucker. There is not a lot of sweet to balance that out, and while I did enjoy them, you will have to be able to put up with that pucker. I got the Jalapeno Ranch as the dipping sauce, which delivers some peppery creaminess and a bit of its own tang. It went well with the wings except for amping up that tang just a bit more.
Heat-wise, the wings themselves have a nice kick, coming in close to Medium on my scale which is good for the drive thru. The Jalapeno Ranch bumps that heat up more, going beyond Medium but not quite reaching Hot. Still, these do deliver a nice burn that is enhanced by the tang and it lingers for a little bit after eating them. The average mortal might struggle with getting through nine of these (if so, the regular Ranch might provide more of a cooling effect), but Chiliheads should pop them like popcorn chicken (which they sort of resemble).
Calorie-wise, nine of the wings in the Buffalo sauce comes in at 570 cals (the highest calorie option among the sauces is the Honey Butter which totals up to 760). The Buffalo will not break the calorie bank, but go easy on your sides. A medium order of fries tacks on 420 cals and that Jalapeno Ranch adds another 280 to the tally. Better order the unsweet iced tea with that (10 cals for a medium) because you’ve already blown that New Year’s resolution to eat lighter this year! (And don’t let your doctor know about the sodium in these things.)
The nine-piece order runs $8.99 in my area (that’s a buck a wing) and the combo with a medium drink and fries totals up to $11.99. (Anybody remember the good old days when fast food was also cheap food?) And these are on loan from Limited-Time-Only-Ville, so they will disappear at some point. I’m guessing you have a few months to give them a try, but they could be gone quicker than that, so don’t wait too long if the Whatawings sound tempting to you (and if you are not too embarrassed to say that name in the drive thru).
Nutrition Info:
Serving Size: 9 Wings
Calories: 570
Fat: 29g (4g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 45g
Carbs: 38g
Sodium: 2690mg