Worldly Wing Sauces to Spice Up Game Day

Wings rarely go out of style, but they really hit their stride during the fall football season. Whether served as a shareable, a bar bite or a center-of-the-plate special, wings are a year-round favorite that offer endless room for creativity. These next-level sauces – from sweet and sticky to tangy and spicy – take inspiration from global flavors and trending condiments to give your wing game a serious upgrade.

Sauce Up Your Wings with These 5 Flavor Bombs

Tonkatsu

Pronounced tohn-KAHT-soo, this trendy Japanese sauce is the key flavor creator for katsu and katsu sando, the breaded pork cutlet served with rice, or on milk bread as a sandwich. Typically made with tomato paste (or even ketchup), soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and a sweetener such as honey, maple syrup or sugar, it’s comparable to a sweet barbecue sauce that sometimes makes an appearance as a drizzling on okonomiyaki (click here for an okonomiyaki step-by-step and recipe).

from left: Tomato Paste, Soy, Worcestershire sauce, sweetener

Tare

This Japanese condiment (pronounced TAH-ray) combines soy sauce, mirin and sugar or honey and is commonly used as a dipping sauce for grilled meats or a glaze. Research firm Technomic predicts the sauce will make an appearance on 58% of menus over the next two years.

from left: Soy, Mirin, Sake, Sugar

Spicy Agrodolce

This Italian-inspired glaze (ah-groh-DOHL-chay) comes from reducing balsamic vinegar with honey for a caramelized, syrupy base that can be studded with dried fruit or even Calabrian chiles for some heat and zip.

from left: Balsamic Vinegar, Calabrian Chili, Honey

Huli Huli

The classic Hawaiian sauce is traditionally used to baste grilled rotisserie chicken (huli, pronounced HOO-lee, means “to turn” in Hawaiian). The savory-sweet sauce blends teriyaki or soy sauce with brown sugar, pineapple juice, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and sometimes ketchup to create that caramelized effect. 

from left: Teriyaki, Ginger, Pineapple

Kecap Manis

A sticky, sweet and savory Indonesian sauce that clings easily to grilled meats, kecap manis (kee-cap-MAN-ays) is made from soy sauce slowly simmered with palm sugar and often infused with garlic, ginger and warm spices such as star anise.

Click here for more wings and sauce inspiration, resources and recipes.

For source ingredients mentioned above, click shop to shop MOXē®, the US Foods® all-in-one ordering app and e-commerce portal.