Wing-Off

Mark your calendars for Saturday, JUNE 17th, 2023

"People keep asking us if we're back, and yeah..., this year we're back!!" We've all been through a lot the last several years, and we believe it's time to do it one more time with a bigger, badder, and most amazing 20th anniversary celebration of the infamous Wing-Off. Let's unleash the party!! Note - It is with mixed emotions we have decided to make this the final event for the brothers three. For our sunset celebration, we really want to go out in style and need your help to make it the most memorable event in our history! This means we need serious cooking horsepower, recipes, and friends & family to come out and support us as always. Mark your calendars for Saturday, 17-June. You don't want to miss this event.

We are truly excited to see everyone again this Summer!!

A little about us:

How - In the summer of 2001, the Hollingshead brothers decided to answer the question of who had the best hot wing recipe via an informal backyard grilling contest. Since then, our friends, neighbors, colleagues, and new friends have grown this event into an annual taste sensation you don't want to miss.

Who - Guests invited are friends and family of the Hollingshead brothers, any of the cooks, and anyone invited by a cook. We are always looking for new cooks and recipes to discover new and unique tastes (new, traditional, exotic, etc.) that we've all come to enjoy over the years. Wings are not required, as we have a number of folks that wish to share their favorite recipes involving other food types. Sign up and join us to grill, smoke, or deep-fry your favorite recipe and showcase your culinary talents for a great cause!! This is a charity fund-raising event, so you will need a wristband to sample wings. No wristband = no wings.​

What - A veritable plethora of taste diversity that races your palate along the continuum of culinary excellence.

Where - Julius M. Kleiner Park located at the North East corner of Fairview & Eagle Rd, will be the venue for this year's event. Enter the park at the Records St traffic light from the North side of Fairview, across from Walmart and Sportsman's Warehouse. Drive North on Records Ave through the first roundabout taking the second outlet. Turn right and proceed under the main arch, and through the second roundabout taking the second outlet. The A-1 shelter and field area hosting the event is on the right, with parking on the left. The loading zone for cooks is located adjacent to the shelter. Vehicles with equipment can stop here temporarily while you drop gear and we load up ATV trailers to haul items to the field location. Please ensure you have folks from your team available to help load, unload, and set up your gear. The ground crew is primarily responsible for transportation only. Also, please move your vehicles as soon as unloading/loading is completed to keep the loading zone clear for other cooks and their crews.

How much – Event packets containing one wrist band, raffle tickets, and a People's Choice voting card, can be obtained from the "Registration" booth, or on-line ahead of the event (once on-line sales links appear in the upper-right corner of this page). Wristbands are required to sample wings. Pre-event pricing is cheaper than day of event pricing, and is still TBD. Proceeds benefit local Meridian youth courtesy of the Meridian Kiwanis. Additional raffles tickets can be purchased at the Registration booth to increase your odds of winning, then stop by the Raffle booth (located next to "Registration") to check out all the great Wing-Off prizes. Winning raffle tickets are posted at the Raffle booth, so check back throughout the day to see if you've won!

Schedule

7:00am - 11:45am General set up
11:45 - 12:00pm Announcements
12:00 - 2:00pm Judging of wings is open
2:00 - 2:30pm Judging tally
3:00 - 3:30pm Awards presentation
3:30 - 4:30 Remainder of event

Rules:

• No glass bottles, containers, etc. are allowed in the park. Plastic containers only. Common sense here, broken glass is not good for kids, pets, and bare feet.
• Pets are welcome however clean up is the owner's responsibility, so plan ahead. Be a responsible pet owner.
• A "pack it in, pack it out" mentality is required to keep the park clean. Each year we spend hours cleaning up after lazy people, and kids that apparently weren't taught any better. Make sure trash is securely placed inside one of the many trash receptacles provided. Don't be one of "those" people, seriously. Pack it in and pack it out, period. If we all pitch in and do the right thing, it's so much easier. No entitlement recognized here. Pick it up, and contribute.
• Personal alcohol is permitted inside the perimeter of the event in plastic or cans only, outside the beer garden only, and shall not extend past the event perimeter. Personal alcohol cannot be taken into the beer garden. Beer garden beverages must be consumed inside the beer garden area. No outside alcohol is allowed inside the beer garden, and no beer garden alcohol is allowed outside the beer garden perimeter.
• Music provided.
• If you choose to bring sporting equipment (volleyball, frisbee, cornhole, etc...) to entertain your crew and others, be considerate and ensure activities are well away from grills and other guests. Be considerate, and exercise common sense.

Judging

Scoring Criteria For Wings

PREPARATION and APPEARANCE -- 25% Was appearance the intended color, and uniformity? Was the wing over/undercooked? Was the wing unintentionally dry* or too greasy/soggy? *Dry rubs would qualify as intentionally dry Was the wing free of unintentional* burning? *examples of intentional burning would be grill marks or searing Was skin in tact? Is the overall look of the wing appetizing?

OVERALL TASTE -- 75% Was flavor and texture acceptable? Was the sauce overwhelming, or barely noticeable? Did the sauce contain the right amount of intended kick*? *Kick can be defined as flavor or spice…and everything nice Did it have an aftertaste (desirable/undesirable)? Most importantly: Did you want to eat the entire wing, and ask for seconds? Each judge will also be able to select eligible wings for the Hottest, or Most Original categories, but these categories will be evaluated independently using a mixture of the above criteria. Judges will not discuss their opinions until after the event (although some opinions are sometimes expressed via the universal choking gesture).

Peoples Choice

For those of you who have not judged before, there is a People’s Choice category for all food items (brownies, deep fried goodies, wings, etc.) Here is how the People’s Choice will go down: Each attendee can vote for their favorite food item using the People's Choice voting ticket provided with their paid donation packet. Attendees are responsible for clearly identifying the cook name and recipe name on the back of the People's Choice voting card, and submitting at the judges table. We will also make announcements to remind people to pick up a voting ticket, but ultimately the cooks will need to be the ones encouraging folks to vote (via any means necessary) for their various food items that are competing for People’s Choice. Judges will tally the votes for each People's Choice entry and winners for People's Choice and People's Choice Honorable Mention will be announced during the awards ceremony. There is no cost for wing cooks to enter the judged competition.

Site plan

Fire code: All grills must be placed a minimum of 10ft outside booths. No grills, smokers, fryers, etc. are allowed under canopies. Booth locations are assigned on a first-come first-serve basis. All efforts are made to accommodate previous year's cooks requested booth locations. Be sure to include the number of cooking canopies and guest canopies, dimensions, and orientation (if not square) desired. A 12 ft space (fire break) will be maintained between every 700 sq ft of booth area! Ground crew will be on hand to help ensure 12ft spacing between each group of 7 booths (based on a 10' x 10' booth).

Key Information for Cooks:

• Store food at 41F or below
• Prepare food at the event as much as possible
• Don't handle raw food directly
• Use gloves when cooking and handle food with tongs, or other clean utensils not having been in contact with raw food.
• Bring multiple sets of tongs to ensure plenty of clean utensils for replacement multiple times during the event.
• Thoroughly clean or replace tongs after contact with raw chicken to prevent cross-contamination.
• Ensure chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165F.
• Verify proper operation of thermometers. An ice bath can be used to verify temperature reading of 32F.
• Do not participate in cooking should you become ill.
• Bring a bleach bucket and rinse bucket (recommended)

Kiwanis Charity Program

All Wing Off event proceeds support the Kiwanis Care Kits for Children program. The following document contains additional program information.
CKC Flywer Wing-Off 2018.pdf