Founded in New Orleans in 1972, Popeyes has become one of the best-known and perhaps most notorious fried chicken chains in the United States—even before it decided to up the heat level with the introduction of Popeyes Ghost Pepper Wings in 2014.
According to boilerplate language in its press releases, “Popeyes distinguishes itself with a unique New Orleans style menu featuring spicy chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp, and other regional items. The chain’s passion for its Louisiana heritage and flavorful authentic food has allowed Popeyes to become one of the world’s largest chicken quick service restaurants with over 3,300 restaurants in the U.S. and around the world.”
There’s plenty to try on the Popeyes menu even if the ghost pepper wings aren’t on the menu—and there’s not always a guarantee that they are.
Sometimes, there’s a big announcement from Popeyes via press release or tweet that they’re returning for a limited time. In 2023, such announcements happened at the start of the calendar year and again in May.
Sometimes, you can only find a tweet from a Popeyes account from the Bahamas, like this one from Sept. 18, 2023.
Our FAMOUS Ghost Pepper Wings are back! Marinated in spicy Louisiana seasonings, including a touch of Ghost Pepper, each wing is battered & breaded in a Southern style crispy coating & fried up. Try 6 pieces today along with a buttermilk biscuit & signature side today.
— Popeyes Bahamas (@popeyes242) September 18, 2023
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We were able to get them and sample them on Sept. 20, 2023, however, eating them in an East Austin Popeyes with a Dixieland jazz soundtrack playing (and charged for an added jalapeño pepper that we did not get and indeed did not want).
What goes into the Popeyes Ghost Pepper Wings?
Popeyes typically has wings on its menu, available in six-piece, 12-piece, 24-piece, 36-piece, 48-piece, and 60-piece boxes. According to the Popeyes site when we wrote this article, Ghost Pepper was one of two available wing flavors, with the wings checking in at 540 calories per serving. The site describes them as “crispy chicken wings hand battered and breaded, then tossed in your wing flavor choice.”
The restaurant’s press release on a wings redux, from Jan. 3, 2023, admitted they were a little more tempered than the sort of hot wings people eat for challenges.
“Popeyes Ghost Pepper Wings feature six crispy chicken wings, marinated in a ghost pepper spice blend for at least 12 hours, then hand-battered and breaded and served with Popeyes buttermilk ranch,” the release noted. “These wings balance the perfect level of kick making them a more approachable wing option for those who enjoy a little bit of heat and a whole lot of flavor.”
How hot is a Ghost Pepper?
A Ghost Pepper is really hot; in fact, one of the hottest peppers on the planet. The famed Scoville scale, which arrives at how hot a pepper is based on “their pungency and their capsaicin content” in Scoville Heat Units (SHU).
There are a number of varieties of ghost peppers that range in the 600,000 to 1,041,427 SHU range, which is impressive. It’s not quite the record-setting Carolina Reaper at 2.3 million SHUs, but it’s hotter than the hottest habanero variety at 300,000 to 500,000 SHUs and much hotter than a jalapeño, at 2,500 to 8,000 SHUs.
How hot are Popeyes Ghost Pepper wings?
In the taste test I did, the wings were straight out of the fryer, and obviously glistening a bit with a tinge of ghost pepper. But they weren’t especially hot.
(Note that I’ve done another hot wings challenge in the past with legitimately hot wings that left me reeling for about 12 hours afterward. I’ve also tasted a 2 million-plus SHU hot sauce so hot the vendor put a single drop on a toothpick; I had a ringing-in-my-eats sensation and stumbled off to find ice cream, which worked to quench the fire.)
These wings were … not that. I got a little ripple of heat with a couple of the wings on the back end, and had a little bit of a discernible tingle on my lips and tongue after working through my six-wing order. But nothing about the experience was at all alarming or arresting or made me think, “I’ve just been through the culinary fire.”
What do others think about the Ghost Pepper Wings from Popeyes?
Some online disagree, though. If you search “ghost pepper wings” on X (formerly Twitter), you’ll find reactions along the lines of “those ghost pepper wings did a number on me” and “those ghost pepper wings from Popeyes go crazy ngl.”
They also have a number of fans, including one who claimed “ghost pepper wings calling my name.”
And a reviewer from Spicy Food Reviews wrote, “At first, the heat from these wings does not seem to be much different than the spicy version of Popeyes regular fried chicken. But after a couple of wings you really start to notice some burn. By about the third wing, that heat has kicked up to the medium level and your lips are tingling.” That reviewer put it somewhere between medium and hot on their scale, which might be a little bit of an overestimation of its kick, but not unwarranted.