We have a winner: These are the best wings in Delaware, according to voters

The people of Delaware have spoken.

Each week since mid-March, thousands have voted in a competition designed to find the best wing in Delaware. Delaware Wing Madness pitted 32 of the best-loved restaurants and taverns and breweries in the state against each other in a multi-round, single-elimination tournament.

Last week, you narrowed the wing field to two well-loved, decades-old restaurants: Kid Shelleen's Charcoal House and Saloon in Wilmington and Brandywine Hundred and 2 Fat Guys American Grill in Hockessin.

Each was a colossus of wings. Each had towered over its competition in each round of voting. And the stakes, in their own way, were high: 2 Fat Guys co-owner Jeff Cook said earlier in the competition that if he didn't win, he'd sell his restaurant and retire.

We're pretty sure he was kidding. But we won't have to find out. Because when the dust settled on Saturday morning, 2 Fat Guys was victorious.

According to voters, the best wings in Delaware come from 2 Fat Guys, owned by 40-year restaurant veterans Cook and Tom Craft. 2 Fat Guys is once and forever the winners of Delaware Wing Madness, the makers of the Triple Play wings, the symbolic bird emperors of Hockessin, and the sole bearers of the One Wing to Rule Them All.

"I am very, very honored that our guests think of us this way," said Cook at 2 Fat Guys. "I'm also very, very honored to come out on top of some very stiff competition."

Cook praised the wings of the other restaurants 2 Fat Guys competed against for the prize. In particular, he called Kid Shelleen's owner Xavier Teixido "tough competition" in the championship round. Indeed, Teixido's other restaurant, Harry's Savoy Grill, was named one of USA TODAY's Restaurants of the Year for 2024.

But this time, it was 2 Fat Guys who prevailed.

So what makes 2 Fat Guys wings the best in Delaware?

It's the sauces. It's process. And it's the chicken itself.

Before we started our Delaware Wing Madness competition, we polled wing lovers in our office and all over the state. And when people mentioned 2 Fat Guys, they didn't just tell us they liked the wings: They often told us their favorite sauce.

The PB & J wings are famous, of course — a conglomeration of peanut butter and jelly and barbecue sauce with flavors both familiar and surprising. The sauce stems from the deft mixing skills of saucemaster Craft, and from Cook's love of peanut butter as a topping for pretty much all things.

Some customers are intimidated by the unfamiliar idea, Cook said. "But once they try it, they eat it again," he said.

But there's also the barbecue sauce with scratch-made poached pears. The apple bourbon sauce. The "Yuengwing" sauce made with the beer you think it's made with. The rotating featured flavors, whether spiced-up barbecue or orange ginger. Hot sauce from mild to hot to something called "nuclear."

And if 2 Fat Guys wings seem extra-crisp, it's because they are. Each 2 Fat Guys wing arrives lightly dusted with a seasoned, 16-ingredient, flour-and-cornstarch mixture for maximum crispiness and maximum flavor. The wing is roasted, then fried to a crackling texture that lets the sauce stick glisteningly to each wing without being over-sauced.

The rest of the story is the chicken itself, Cook said. The chicken is all fresh and local, Perdue or Mountaire. The wings and drums are medium to large, for the best ratio of meat to crispy surface area.

The result, whatever the sauce, is Delaware's favorite wing. Eat it at your leisure: 2 Fat Guys is open seven days a week, lunch to late.

2 Fat Guys American Grill is located at 701 Ace Memorial Drive, Hockessin, 302-235-0333; 2fatguys.net.

Matthew Korfhage is business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all the things that touch land and money. A longtime food writer, he also tends to turn up with stories about tacos, oysters, beer and wings. Send tips and insults to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: The best wings in Delaware are crispy, inventive originals