Food That Goes With Chicken Wings

There's a reason why wings are usually served with carrots, celery, and ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce: it just seems to work. This coleslaw is simply a more flavorful and well-rounded alternative that will complement the savoriness of the wings.

A baked potato, when cooked right, has delicately crispy skin and a melt-in-your-mouth inside that makes it a perfect partner to your ultra-flavorful chicken wings. It's such a good combo that all you'll need for a topping is tasty butter.

Is there anything butter can't improve? Take your butter game up a notch by making a variety of your own compound butters. Try the recipe for blue cheese chive butter on your baked potato, make a garlic herb butter to spread on your roasted veggies or try a sea salt honey butter on your cornbread (basically, there's a butter for every wings side dish).

We couldn't mention sea salt honey butter and cornbread without giving you a delicious cornbread recipe. While cornbread might not be the most common wings pairing, this honey beer skillet cornbread has just the right amount of sweetness to delightfully contrast with buffalo chicken. Plus, making it in a skillet gives the crust a golden crisp that might make it your bread of choice.

If you've run out of ideas for veggie sides, chances are you've forgotten about hearty root vegetables. They last longer than veggies that grow above the ground, and when you combine a few of them, you can create a delicious medley of oven-roasted root vegetables. They provide a healthy addition to your wings meal while keeping the correct complementary flavors: subtly sweet and seasoned.

If you're digging the roasted veggie side to your wings meal but you're ready to mix it up, try making roasted Brussels sprouts. Before you let the Brussels-sprouts-hate flow, consider this: they can develop a strong sulfur odor and taste if they are overcooked. When they're cooked right, all crispy outer layers are caramelized and the brussels-sprouts-hate evaporates like it never existed.

A side dish like rice goes perfectly with chicken, so why not bump it up to a superfood grain like quinoa and pair it with your chicken wings? Learn how to cook quinoa right to get its optimal texture so it can soak up all that extra buffalo sauce just like it was born to do.

Everybody loves a juicy grilled corn on the cob in the summertime. No grill? No worries. Make juicy corn on the cob in the oven to go with your chicken wings for a classic summer meal.

Need a hearty side dish that measures up to a mountain of wings? This flavorful pasta salad makes for a colorful and refreshing starter that complements the heartier flavors in your wings and sides. Plus, a few scoops are all you need to feel full.

Asparagus is a wonderful spring and summer vegetable, especially when you know how to grill asparagus to give it a delicately smokey finish. It may be unexpected, but the charred flavor will be similar to that of the wings.

For an even cleaner way to enjoy your wings, try making green beans as a healthy and simple side. Fresh green beans will work similarly to the carrots and celery often served with wings, cleansing your palette between spicy-savory bites and providing that burst of freshness you'll be craving.

While it's important to have options to make your wings meal varied, the fact of the matter remains: fries and wings were meant to be together. For a healthier alternative, try making crispy oven-baked fries — they're so good, you'll forget they aren't fried.

Oh, yeah. So maybe sweet potato fries were meant to be eaten with wings, too. Learn how to grill sweet potatoes to give your chicken wings their favorite side dish with a twist.

For a full-on hearty but healthy meal, make a Waldorf salad. This creamy and refreshing dressing gives your taste buds a break from the spice while rounding out the flavors of the buffalo wings. And now that you have this and so many other sides to choose from, you may have wings for every meal!