Winger’s Sticky Fingers
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Now you can make famous Winger’s sticky fingers right at home anytime you get a craving. Three easy steps will put these saucy baked chicken strips on the table in just 30 minutes!
Want more appetizers? Try my Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, Instant Pot Chicken Taquitos, and Quinoa Chicken Nuggets next!
I can’t tell you how sad I am that the local Winger’s closed its doors and left town. There are some rumors floating around that say there was some structural damage to the building foundation and that’s why they left.
It happened last year and no one else has moved in so I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed that the Winger’s owner people decide to fix whatever the problem is and move back in.
It can’t have anything to do with going out of business and a lack of profit because I swear that place was always packed. How can anyone resist that inevitable sticky finger temptation??
Not possible.
And can I just say that I am a fan of any restaurant that serves free popcorn for an appetizer? Peanuts, meh, I could do without. Bread, I actually quite like – especially Texas Roadhouse (the best rolls on the planet) and Lonestar (that dark pumpernickel bread, gahhhh) and Iggy’s with the chili dipping sauce!
Woah. Mental carb loading right now.
But popcorn. That’s where it’s at. How can you not have a good meal when it starts with popcorn?? And a nice bonus is the fact that you can get through the whole bucket of popcorn and still have room for your dinner. As much as I love bread (LOVE bread) I rarely have room for even half of my dinner after snarfing down a loaf of honey-buttered french bread.
Is it just me, or is it basically impossible to leave uneaten free bread on the table when you’re waiting for what seems like an eternity for your meal to arrive? You know what I’m talking about. It’s almost unethical. You’ve gotta eat the bread.
I’ve eaten at Winger’s seven hundred times (or somewhere around there, I’ve lost track) and I always get the sticky fingers. I’ve tried bites of a few other things when friends or family ordered something else, and they were good, but I always come back to those dang sticky fingers. They’re so addicting!
But now that we don’t have a Winger’s close by anymore, I’ve had to find a way to get my sticky-finger-fix without going on a road trip and this recipe is the answer people. It’s so so easy and only takes 30 minutes to whip these babies up.
The other day I went a little crazy and dipped them in all sorts of sauces including blue cheese, honey mustard, and green goddess dressing, but I always come back to that classic combo: sticky fingers + ranch.
Plus these are baked, not fried, so they’re healthier than the restaurant version and you can feed the whole family on this meal for a fraction of the price it costs to take everyone out. Do you need any more convincing?? MAKE THESE! You shall thank me later.
What people are saying about Winger’s Sticky Fingers
“Holly COW!! Just made these and they were to DIE for!! Seriously sooooo delicious! My mom broke her diet over these!! Beware! They are the best! Thanks for sharing!!” -Evelyn
“These were delicious. We made them with the Buffalo sauce and they were to die for! I would definitely make them again in a heart beat. We doubled the batch and made potato wedges with it. AMAZING!” – Shelby
“Made this tonight! One of the best dinners we have ever had! Thank you so much for sharing!!! We all loved it.” – Kathy
“I made these last night and two words describe them…YUM-MEEE!!!!! They were fast to make and delicious! I only had blue cheese and they were great with that. A definite repeat!” – Lisa
“These are freaking delicious! One piece of advice: 1.5x’s the sauce! Extra sticky.” – Josh
“I just made these for dinner. I am so happy I have some leftover because they were THAT good, Thanks so much for sharing! ” – Sarah
Winger’s Sticky Fingers
Ingredients
- 3-4 chicken breasts, pounded to ½ inch thickness
- ½ cup flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
Sticky Finger Sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ⅓ cup Frank’s hot sauce , (it can be original or buffalo flavor)
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Slice chicken breasts into strips. Add chicken strips and flour to a large ziplock bag. Seal and toss to coat chicken in flour.
- Place panko crumbs in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together eggs and water. Dip flour-coated chicken strips into egg mixture, then toss in panko crumbs to coat.
- Place coated chicken pieces on greased baking sheet and spray heavily with cooking spray. Bake 15-20 minutes until chicken is browned and cooked through.
- While chicken is cooking, prepare the sauce. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add brown sugar and hot sauce and stir over medium-high heat until melted and mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in garlic powder and water until smooth.
- When chicken strips are done cooking, toss in sauce. Serve warm with ranch dressing if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was devine. I was scrambling to put dinner together before work tonight and stumbled across this on my Pinterest page. Luck would have it that I already had all of the ingredients in the pantry. When I pulled these out of the oven and dipped into the sauce (used the Buffalo with dark brown sugar) the SO looked at me funny. He was complaining that he wouldn’t like it and couldn’t I just leave the tenders without the sauce. Then he tried it. Now it is in my regular rotation! 😂 Only change I made was adding dry ranch seasoning to the bread crumbs. Thank you for making my night a little easier and allowing me to worry about one fewer item!
Hmmm I’m in So. Cal and am not familiar with Franks hot sauce. s there something universal I can substitute?? What are the base ingredients??
Can i put aluminium foil on the baking sheet instead of spraying it
Yes, Make sure you use a heavy duty nonstick foil.
Can I use Siracha instead of franks?
I’m making these tonight, but instead of bread crumbs, I’m smashed up saltine crackers. I’m hoping it tastes just as good. Thanks for this awesome recipe!
Amazing! Just like wingers! Since I moved to the East Coast, I haven’t found a wingers over here. I cut down the brown sugar a bit and it still is amazing. Tonight, I am serving it on top of a bed of salad. I’ve made this about 5 times since I found the recipe a few months ago. Super easy.
Hi ! These look really good, but I cannot find the hot sauce you named in this recipe in my area. Could it be replaced with sriracha ?
Thank you
This should be illegal, it was so off the chart good! So easy to make and when I saw the wonderful reviews I knew I had to make it. I did this on a week night and I work, so I was really on a time schedule. I got the whole dinner made from start to finish in an hour. I know the recipe says 30 mins but I had to cut, clean and pound the breasts and that took a while. Overall, it isn’t difficult to make, my family loved it and so did I and this is a definite repeater! I just had it for lunch the next day and it was still good, maybe not as crunchy but tasted the same! I was a little skeptical about the franks and brown sugar as it is an odd combo but it was amazing. Note: Make a double batch because it WILL get eaten.
These are so delicious! I crave them sometimes and I’m not even really a hot sauce fan. I keep a couple of the strips out of the sauce for our son to eat with ketchup (yuck) and my husband and I enjoy the rest!
Ooh I can’t wait to try these this week! They look scrumptious! I included them in my Sunday Meal Plan post this week 🙂
These chicken fingers look great, but I wouldn’t say they are that much healthier with 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the sauce.,