There aren’t many brown sauce brands that can widely be considered household names, but A.1. is one of them. Though it has its naysayers, this favorite steak sauce brand is iconic for a reason among its yeasayers. It’s smoky and tangy yet not overly sweet (despite all the sugary corn syrup it contains). And while we tend to think of A.1. as just for steaks, this fairly old condiment is designed to be versatile. Kraft Foods, which owns the brand, has been trying to promote it as more of a sauce for everything. Marketing aside, A.1. sauce can work well in a chicken wing marinade if you do a good job of mixing it in.
It’s best if you mix the A.1. sauce with a few other ingredients before you glaze it over the cooked wings. Don’t just drizzle it directly over them like you might with a steak. Assuming you’re sticking with the classic A.1. sauce (or its similar Thick & Hearty mix), the combo mainly works if you can balance out your smoky, sweet, and savory flavors. Chicken is savory, but less so than beef. Meanwhile, A.1. is smoky, but when diluted and combined with sweeter (and equally chicken-friendly) ingredients like honey, you end up with a fairly strong balance.
A.1. can blend into wing sauce
There are lots of other ways you can mix A.1. sauce into a larger, more complex chicken wing sauce. A viral TikTok video mixed it with honey, orange juice, and hot sauce, while a more common (and simpler) version involves mixing the A.1. sauce with pancake syrup. This basically mimics a fairly common rib sauce called maple barbecue sauce, which takes the smoky tang of barbecue sauce and adds more sweetness from the syrup. In most cases, if you’re experimenting, then you’ll probably want to add Tabasco or Sriracha, the same upgrade you’d use in steak sauce. And a splash of hot sauce can give you a more complex take on buffalo wings served with celery.
If you’re still on the fence, it might help to break down what exactly is inside a bottle of A.1. sauce. A good steak sauce only has a few ingredients, and the main components in most variations of A.1. are tomato puree and vinegar, often with small amounts of raisin paste and orange puree (and corn syrup). With the vinegar alone, it becomes somewhat similar to Worcestershire sauce, and many chefs consider Worcestershire and ketchup to be decent A.1. substitutes. Both of these by themselves can easily blend into a buffalo wing sauce, even if ketchup isn’t often specifically used with wings. It’s still chicken, though, and these foods still pair together.
