Five Teams, Three Competitions & One Champion
The fryers have cooled, the votes have been counted, and another incredible cooking competition is officially in the books!
On Saturday, October 3, Long Lot Farm Brewery welcomed us back for the 13th Annual Towns 4 Troops Iron Chef-Style Cooking Competition, and this year, it was all about WINGS!
Wing Wars 2026 brought together five teams ready to put their creativity, cooking skills, and sauce-making abilities to the test. Between our competitors, vendors, musicians, volunteers, judges, and everyone who came out to support Towns 4 Troops, the brewery was filled with great food, friendly competition, and plenty of community spirit.
This year’s competitors were:
- Clear Path for Veterans
- Boy Scouts Troop 440
- 105th Airlift Wing from Stewart
- Franzel
- VFW Post 8858
But becoming the Wing Wars champion wasn’t as simple as making one great batch of wings. Teams faced three competitions throughout the day, each testing a different part of their culinary skills!
The People’s Choice
For the People’s Choice competition, each team came prepared with its own signature sauce for our guests to sample.
Wing Lovers grabbed their plain wings and made their way from team to team, where competitors tossed them in their pre-made sauces. After tasting their way through all five teams, guests had the difficult job of deciding which sauce earned their vote. And there was certainly no shortage of variety!
Clear Path for Veterans gave guests two flavors to try: a tangy Alabama White Sauce and a sweet and smoky BBQ sauce.
Boy Scouts Troop 440 brought some sweet heat with a Thai Chili Sauce.
The 105th Airlift Wing took an unexpected approach with a Dr. Pepper Sauce.
Franzel served up their signature “Ving Sauce.”
And VFW Post 8858 rounded out the People’s Choice lineup with a flavorful Korean BBQ Sauce.
From tangy and smoky to sweet, spicy, and savory, our guests had plenty to consider before casting their votes!
Head-to-Head Battles
Next, it was time to see what our teams could do without the benefit of planning ahead. For the one-on-one sauce competition, each team nominated one competitor at a time to step up and create a sauce in just 10 minutes.
There were no pre-planned recipes and no trips to the grocery store. Competitors could only work with what was available on our pantry table, which included an assortment of mustards, sauces, jellies, oils, seasonings, citrus, and other ingredients.
Once the clock started, competitors had just 10 minutes to choose their ingredients, develop their idea, create their sauce, and prepare it for judging. Each creation was then judged on taste and presentation, with the winning competitor advancing through the head-to-head bracket.
It was fast, unpredictable, and one of the best opportunities of the day to see just how creative our competitors could get when put on the spot.
Final Culinary Competition
For the final challenge, it was time for each team to put everything together.
Teams were tasked with creating their own wing sauce on-site using the ingredients available to them, while also deciding how they wanted to prepare and present their wings to the judges.
And every team took the challenge in a completely different direction!
The 105th Airlift Wing went bold with a Smoked Nashville Hot Sauce, combining butter, garlic, chile de árbol, red pepper, and cayenne.
But the sauce was only part of their approach. The team also smoked their wings, adding another layer of flavor that helped their entry stand out to the judges. Hot, smoky, savory, and packed with flavor, their Nashville-inspired creation proved to be a winning combination.
While some teams experimented with unexpected combinations, VFW Post 8858 decided there was nothing wrong with a classic. Their goal was to create the kind of wing you want sitting in front of you while watching a football game: simple, familiar, and delicious.
They seasoned the wings before frying and created a traditional Buffalo sauce using Buffalo sauce, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent a classic; you just need to make it well!
Boy Scouts Troop 440 took almost the exact opposite approach. Their philosophy? Forget simplicity.
The team created Spicy Korean Wings using Korean chili paste, gochujang, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. The combination created layers of sweet, spicy, and sour flavors, giving the judges a more complex sauce that hit several different notes at once.
It was an ambitious entry that showed just how much flavor could be built from the ingredients available.
As an authentic German restaurant known for traditional dishes like schnitzel, sauerbraten, and pork shank, Franzel leaned into what they know best.
Their wings incorporated German-inspired flavors with Spice Beast sauce, Hungarian paprika, mustard, and horseradish. The preparation was just as creative as the sauce. The wings were smoked before being fried in pork fat, adding richness and another layer of flavor to their entry.
It was a unique approach that brought Franzel’s German roots straight into the Wing Wars competition.
Clear Path for Veterans also decided to move away from the traditional fried-wing approach. Instead, they cooked their wings over the fire and paired them with a garlic-forward sauce featuring garlic and a touch of acidity.
The result was a different take on the challenge that allowed the fire-cooked wings and simple, savory flavors to take center stage.
And the final scores are…
After all the wings were cooked, sauces were tasted, and judging was complete, the final points were tallied.
Boy Scouts Troop 440 — 70 points
Clear Path for Veterans — 82 points
Clear Path took home a Spice Beast seasoning kit.
VFW Post 8858 — 88 points
The VFW received a handmade wooden challenge coin holder.
Franzel — 99 points
Franzel also took home a handmade wooden challenge coin holder.
And with an impressive 105 points… the 105th Airlift Wing takes the Wing Wars title!
After competing throughout the day and finishing with their Smoked Nashville Hot wings, the team earned the top score of 105 points and this year’s bragging rights. For their victory, the team received a handcrafted knife from Angry Fish Forge, along with individual necklaces featuring miniature knives crafted from Damascus steel.
It was a well-earned finish to a full day of competition!
