Texas Tabelog

bb.q Chicken
2625 Old Denton Rd Ste 582 Carrollton, TX 75007
Google Rating: 4.4 Stars (1,023 reviews)

Habibi-san’s rating:

As of this publication, Texas A&M football is undefeated. It is a blessing and a privilege to watch college football in September with even a modicum of hope, and I will not take it for granted. Depending on who you ask (i.e., UT – Arlington graduates whose parents did not have enough disposable income to bribe the Austin campus’ undergraduate recruiter), this is a loser mentality. I do not care. I wait all year to watch 19-year-old millionaires lose focus during a four second play. Most importantly, I wait all year for the Saturday game day spread. It is cliché to say, but the mind of a siesta-dependent Spaniard cannot comprehend a combination of Oscar-Meyer wieners, Kroger-brand ground beef patties, air-fried buffalo wings, and 24 domestics while watching a four-game split screen on YouTube TV.

What makes this spread uniquely catered to American football is the humble chicken wing. As mentioned in previous reviews, I advocate eating what you want when you want. But, have you ever craved mango habanero wings while watching the Ryder Cup? Are you ordering bone-in lemon pepper wings at the ballpark over a Chicago dog? While smashburgers and loaded nachos are widely available at most tailgates, sports bars, and stadiums, I feel most like a college football fan while eating chicken wings.

Chicken wing quality has already been defined and perfected by the fine people of Buffalo, New York. “Size, Sauciness, Crunch”is the official slogan of Wing Nutz, a home-grown franchise that originally started in a Buffalo Knights of Columbus Hall. And those three elements best encapsulate how to prepare the perfect wing. Just look at the sauce coverage of those medium wings on the bottom left:

For the sake of maintaining any sort of credibility, I must admit I have never eaten Buffalo city wings. Instead, I am forced to salivate to pornographic Yelp uploads. Obviously, commercialized wings that are mass produced across the country see a dip in quality. For instance, I cannot bring myself to sexualize photos from my neighborhood Buffalo Wild Wings’ Yelp page.

However, I must admit that Buffalo Wild Wings holds a special place in my heart. Where else can you watch several games simultaneously, order a vodka red bull, and play trivia anonymously with other patrons? And good luck getting a table in 2008 on 75 cent Tuesdays. My dad and two brothers would split fifty wings between the four of us while silently watching the Mavericks beat the Charlotte Bobcats. The silence was only interrupted by occasional nose sniffling and cartilage crunching (teach your children to eat EVERY part of the wing, cowards). All chicken wing chains are a societal net positive. For instance, Wing Stop has discovered the perfect recipe for fries: more oil and more salt than you could possibly need. Their parmesan garlic sauce and homemade ranch contain enough added sugar for your entire week even before adding a Barq’s cream soda to your combo meal. It is a worthwhile sumptuous accessory to a Saturday afternoon slate.

But, nobody makes better chicken wings than the Koreans. With over 3,500 locations worldwide in 57 countries, bb.q Chicken makes chicken wings that could easily rival the mystical bird appendages in Buffalo. For God’s sake, the founder established the Chicken University in Seoul to stay on the cutting edge of quality and flavor.

“While not currently a licensed four-year college, the institution can fully house 500 students at a time in 40 different housing facilities and teach them about chicken in 7 lecture halls and 11 practice facilities.” – Korea JoongAng Daily

WHAT?! Why do Southeast Asians feel compelled to do everything as scientifically and prodigiously as possible? It is a sick joke that their version of Capitalism is more focused on uncompromised quality and less so on rejecting insurance claims. It is insane to me that bb.q Chicken lists “Authenticity, Pride, Creativity, and Quality” as their core tenants and KFC lists theirs as “Finger Lickin’ Good.”

I do not know where they are procuring their birds because their wings are MASSIVE. Their breading leans more towards fried chicken than a traditional American wing, but the resulting crunchiness and juiciness from this style are on another level. Most importantly, their sauces are cracked. The honey garlic is sweet and deeply flavorful like you are eating a candied garlic clove. Their Caribbean spice absolutely lampoons Buffalo Wild Wing’s Caribbean jerk out of the water on account of its fruity and spicy aftertaste. And their heavily researched galbi (marinated barbecue sauce) apparently took three years to perfect before going to market.

OK sure, bb.q Chicken has K-pop music videos running on a loop rather than live college football games, so just order takeout. If you plan on dining in, I will warn that your order will take between 20-30 minutes since they are hand breading and deep frying your wings live to order.

In hindsight, this should have been my entry level food blog. This is a sure-fire win for any of the thousands of you (OK, dozens) who have not sampled any of the food from my previous posts. You have so many weekends of football left to take me up on this. Order the honey garlic, galbi, and cheesling wings for carryout and watch Texas A&M lose to an unranked team. Just make sure you actually clean all the meat off the bones, perverts.

Ma al salama (さようなら ),
Habibi-san