‘New Orleans-Style’ Wings Are a Global Sensation. Just Not in New Orleans.

Alan Li, a 30-year-old Beijing resident, has been hooked on New Orleans-style chicken wings for more than a decade. He first tasted them in his hometown as a high-school student, and was taken by the mildly sweet and savory marinated meat.

He would treat himself to them weekly at a local KFC outlet, and he imagined New Orleans to be a place where the delectable roasted wings could be found on every corner.

Then came a bombshell: Li’s friends who had been to the U.S. informed him the wings weren’t an American dish. “I was schooled by that revelation,” Li said.

It turns out, New Orleans-style wings have almost nothing to do with the Big Easy. They are a uniquely Chinese concoction that is hard to find in the U.S.—just like how General Tso’s chicken, sold in virtually every Chinese takeout in America, is hard to find in China.

New Orleans isn’t the only place to get a taste of a gastronomical and geographical mystery. Hawaiian pizza is a Canadian creation, Philadelphia cream cheese hails from New York, according to Kraft Heinz, and Sweden says its well-known national dish, Swedish meatballs, came over from Turkey. French fries’s origins are debatable, but many say they’re from Belgium. General Tso’s chicken has roots in a dish invented by a Chinese chef. A modified version created by a New York-based chef in the 1970s is what became popular across the U.S.

This month, the Episcopal Bishop of Texas penned an open letter to the New York Times objecting to “taco sauce” as the answer to a Tex-Mex-related hint for its crossword puzzle.

Why do many diners in China think they are eating a New Orleans specialty? The glazed New Orleans wings are “KFC China’s legendary invention,” the chain proclaimed last year, to commemorate the recipe’s 20th anniversary.

The restaurant operator said on social media it sells 480 million pieces yearly in China. It sold at least $100 million each of New Orleans-style wings and burgers in 2022, according to data provided by KFC China. New Orleans-style wings are on other restaurant menus, a staple on barbecue grills and at streetside stalls. Walmart’s membership-only Sam’s Club outlets in China sell bags of frozen Orleans-style wings, including those made by American poultry giant Tyson.

The poultry company said its product is available only in China, with over 2.5 million packages sold last year. Tyson said the flavor was inspired by New Orleans’ vibrant cuisine and showcases bold seasoning “reminiscent of Creole and Cajun dishes.”

Winston Ho, born and raised in New Orleans by Taiwanese immigrant parents, doesn’t approve of the wings. A specialist in modern China and Chinese American history in the city, he first heard about New Orleans-style wings when he visited Beijing in 2012. He refused to try them because “it was completely made up.”

“Chicken wings served in New Orleans are identical to wings anywhere else in the United States,” Ho said, adding this confounds friends from China who have visited New Orleans and asked about them. He wishes they were more familiar with its seafood, jambalaya and po’boy sandwiches. “This is a city that is famous for its food.”

Ker Zheng, a Chinese American from Rhode Island who now lives in China, was baffled when he first encountered New Orleans-style wings. “You would think it’s spicy, like a Cajun mix,” he said. But, “there’s not much flavor to it.”

Instead, Zheng prefers a style of chicken wings that actually is popular in the U.S. “I just like Buffalo wings, but it’s hard to find that in China.”

“New Orleans-style” refers to the marinade, sometimes also used on chicken patties or other cuts of chicken.

It typically contains sugar or honey, garlic powder and onion powder, vegetable oil and a dash of spice such as chili powder. U.S. spice company McCormick, which makes packets of New Orleans Roasted Wing seasoning in China, lists those ingredients in addition to starch, spices, food enhancers, an anti-caking agent and red food coloring.

Beijing-based professor Thomas DuBois first encountered the seasoning three years ago at a cooking school in Chengdu, a city in China’s southwest. There, in the land of spicy Sichuanese food, the teacher brought out a “New Orleans-style” mix for a chicken dish, and immediately got his fellow classmates talking about how their Chinese friends and relatives in the U.S. asked to have the seasoning shipped to them, said DuBois.

It’s the name and marketing attached to the KFC dish that captured Chinese consumers’ attention, he said. “‘Spicy chicken wings’ or ‘New Orleans spicy chicken wings’—which would you order?” said DuBois, who recently wrote a book “China in Seven Banquets: A Flavorful History.”

Los Angeles-based Phillip Wool, head of research at money manager Rayliant Global Advisors, recently heard about the wings from colleagues in China and plans to try them during his first post-pandemic visit to the country.

“It’s on my wish list for 2024,” Wool said. He said his experience with KFC China has been that the food tastes better than KFC in the U.S.

Michelle Li, who is from China’s northeast, had New Orleans-style chicken burgers regularly until she moved to Sacramento, Calif. She finally found the marinade in Chinese supermarkets, with Chinese words on the packets.

“I think the first impression was that, oh, I feel cheated,” she said, adding she got over it because she used the sauce packets to make chicken for herself.

On short-video platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, users have filmed their hunt for New Orleans-style wings in the U.S.

In one video, a Chinese food blogger shows a packet of KFC-branded New Orleans-style wings to fast-food workers in New Orleans who had never seen it. He offers the cooked version to a local policewoman in a restaurant. She took a bite, shook her head and chucked the wing in a bin. “It tastes not so bad…I’d give it a five,” she said.

Write to Weilun Soon at [email protected]