Find Out Which Hot Wings Advance in Consumer Reports' March Madness Cook-Off

Roast, With Rack, vs. Roast, No Rack
Winner: Roast, No Rack

It wouldn’t be a good tournament without some solid upsets. Here, a method that we predicted would make it all the way to the championship—Roast, With Rack—is going home in the first round. The skin didn’t brown as deeply or evenly, compared with the challenger, and the fat didn’t fully render out of some pieces, which means we chomped on some fatty bites.

Roasting wings without the rack proved to be simpler and more convenient. That part, we expected. What we didn’t expect? They were crispier, too. These wings were deeply golden brown, and the crackling sounds they made when we pulled them out of the oven elicited an emphatic “Ooooh” from the chefs. The meat was tender, but also a tad chewy.

Grill, in Foil Packet vs. Boil + Grill
Winner: Boil + Grill

The winners here had brown, crisp skin and distinct grill marks. It’s worth noting, though, that the meat wasn’t as tender as it could have been.

As for the wings grilled in a foil packet? This performance was almost painful to watch. They just weren’t prepared. They did everything a wing shouldn’t: The foil prevented them from browning at all and they almost steamed in their pouches, making the meat a little tough and the skin rubbery. The sauce could barely cling to the surface.

The extended time under scorching heat caused the chicken’s muscle fibers to contract and expel their moisture, leaving us with dry, tough meat.

Boil + Broil, No Rack vs. Boil + Broil, With Rack
Winner: Boil + Broil, No Rack

Talk about a bracket buster. Conventional wisdom says that a rack elevates food so that heat can circulate evenly, crisping all sides without the need to turn them. So you can imagine our surprise when these wings, cooked without a rack, emerged beautifully browned. We haven’t seen a performance like that since we last tried a deep-fried wing. The bar has officially been set—these are the wings to beat out of the broiler.

And it's not that the wings cooked on the rack choked; they were crispy, juicy, and delicious. But the opponent—sans rack—were crispier, juicier, and more delicious. Plus, having to scrub a wire rack with baked-on chicken bits stuck in every crevice after the game is such a bummer.

Look, when we found recipes for slow cooker chicken wings online, we dismissed them, but then reconsidered. This is Wing Madness, after all. We wondered: Could this be a 2021 Cinderella story? Far from it.

This was the only recipe in which the wings cooked in the buffalo sauce (slow cookers need liquid to do their thing). Over four hours, we watched the wings gradually disintegrate into a slippery pile of pale chicken parts bobbing in a murky sauce slicked on top with a layer of glowing orange liquid fat. Yeah. The meat was somehow both falling off the bone and tough at the same time. We still had to taste it, of course, and immediately likened it to cat food. The spice was gone and the meat was mealy, like canned tuna. The experience of our tasters ranged from disgust (there was gagging) to abject horror. “Violation! Violation!” exclaimed one taster. We agreed; multiple personal fouls led to this contender losing big.

Pressure Cook + Broil vs. Pressure Cook + Air Fry
Winner: Pressure Cook + Air Fry

Both teams started off on the same footing: Pressure cooked in an Instant Pot for 3 minutes. It took the multi-cooker 17 minutes to come to pressure, so ultimately it took 20 minutes to prep the wings. The batch that crisped up in an air fryer came out gorgeous and golden brown. The meat was juicy. The true test will come in the next round: Do wings need this extra step in a pressure cooker—or will cooking them in an air fryer alone be a slam dunk?