Schneiders TEXAS BBQ WINGS - QUARANTINE FROZEN WING REVIEW

It's time for another QFWR:

Back in May I posted my review of Schneiders Smooth & Spicy Smooth Buttery Buffalo frozen wings. At that same time I bought those wings, I also bought the Smoky & Savoury Texas BBQ Wings and tried those around the same time, but never did get to posting them. 

My favourite wings are Buffalo/Spicy wings, but my next go to would probably be BBQ sauced wings. The box, while simple, sounded pretty good:

"Smokey & Savoury" - I like that
"Texas BBQ" - who doesn't like Texas BBQ?
"premium wings" - well that sounds good but last time they were far from premium
"seasoned with an authentic Texas BBQ spice blend" - again, that all sounds good ...


The website also makes them sound pretty tantalizing:

"We revere Texas BBQ. So we've done these wings to honour the Lone Star style. They start in a rich, earthy marinade, including cumin, coriander, and chilies. Then they're coated in a burly sauce of tomato, molasses, garlic, onion, paprika and a hint of smoke."

I'll be the judge if any of this rings true.

Under the ingredients, the marinade on the wings seems 50/50 between what should be there and what is chemical/not natural (ie soy protein, maltodextrin etc). I didn't like water being the number 2 ingredient for sure though. The BBQ sauce sounded pretty decent and almost free of non-bbq sauce stuff; they still snuck in a few things, but this sauce even has brown sugar, blackstrap molasses, even dried bell pepper!

The box is 750g, which includes your frozen wings, a BBQ sauce packet, and an extra sauce packet of Caesar sauce that was not clearly identified on the box.

These wings looked much less marinated or less completely coated in marinade than the Buffalo. You could see some frozen liquid, but also some spice too. And some frost.

There were 11 wings in the box, one less than the Buffalo. These did look a bit more meaty, especially the drums.

They weren't super appetizing looking, but they were not a finished product either.

Two were still fused together and I could not separate them before roasting them. They went into the oven at 400 degrees on a parchment lined baking sheet, just like the instructions said. I flipped them once and got ready for lunch.

After their 30 minute bake they came out like this. I wasn't too thrilled with their look. The marinade looked inconsistently applied and these wings look inconsistent.

I didn't actually try them on their own. I should have, for science, but I think I was in a hurry and wasn't really enthused to take a sneak-bite.

I should mention that when the wings went into the oven, I put both the BBQ Sauce and the Caesar sauce packets into warm water, so that they were thawed for when the wings were ready.

I also just noticed that the sauce packet says it is Southwest BBQ sauce, and not Texas BBQ sauce specifically. I guess Texas is South Western. I went to Texas in 2013 for a conference, but all the BBQ I had was unfortunately from touristy spots or banquet facilities so I can't come back with expert analysis.

The sauce oozed out like a thick ketchup. That's good because Texas BBQ sauce is supposed to be thick.

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Those look not too bad. There was a lot of sauce for just 11 wings.

This almost looks like it was BB-Que'd!

The wings were about a medium to medium+ in size, with the drummettes being a lot more meatier than both the wingettes as well as the chicken wings from the Buffalo box.

Now I was a little weary about the meat as the Buffalo wings were quite awful (not the sauce, the actual wings), but these tasted just fine. The meat was ok in tenderness. The skin was ok in crispiness. I didn't really get a sense of the flavour of the marinade because the sauce was more overpowering.

The sauce was not bad. While the colour was still light and gave the impression it was going to be sickeningly sweet, it actually wasn't. This was a darker, bolder BBQ sauce. What I would expect as a Texas BBQ sauce. It was still sweet, but sweet was not leading the flavour dance this night. They say on the box the wings are 2/5 in spicy heat, but I wouldn't even give it that much.

Oh, and there was that Caesar sauce. An interesting concept and I think in theory it would make a good pairing with BBQ sauced wings. But this was atrocious. Fake tasting Caesar dressing. Like Kraft salad dressing. Blech. Skip it.

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN?

Probably not. If it was on a really good sale than I would. But there are better frozen wings out there for sure. The meat was fine (this time), and the sauce was decent (but forget that Caesar sauce, yuck!).  8/14

But here's what I would do next time that would totally improve these wings. Throw them on the BBQ (charcoal if you got it). Get some real fire flavour in there, cook the wings crispy, toss them in half of the BBQ sauce, then throw them back on the grill. Caramelize that sauce up, then give them one last toss in the remaining sauce before scarf time. That's what I think.

um ... I think they made some compromises ...

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