WINGS • 5 min read
Ranch or Blue Cheese?
Two cups, one long-running argument — and on a sauced wing the dip is half the flavour rather than a garnish.
Blue cheese is blue cheese blended into a creamy base — strong, salty and tangy, and the traditional partner for buffalo wings. Ranch is a buttermilk dressing with herbs and garlic, milder and creamier. Blue cheese for anything hot and sharp; ranch when you want to taste the sauce.
Two cups, one long-running argument, and almost nobody has thought about it past what they already order. Ranch and blue cheese are both on the sides menu, both go with wings, and they do genuinely different jobs.
This is worth two minutes because the dip is not a garnish. On a sauced wing it is half the flavour.
What each one actually is
Blue cheese dressing is exactly what it says: blue cheese blended into a base of mayonnaise, buttermilk or soured cream, usually with visible crumbles left in it. The cheese carries its own strong, salty, faintly sharp character, and the blue veining that gives it the name is a mould cultivated deliberately during ageing.
Ranch is a buttermilk dressing with herbs and alliums — typically dill, parsley, chives, garlic and onion — and no cheese at all. It is milder, sweeter and creamier, and its flavour comes from the seasoning rather than from any single dominant ingredient.
Which one, and when
| Blue cheese | Ranch | |
|---|---|---|
| Base | Mayo, buttermilk or soured cream | Buttermilk |
| Flavour | Strong, salty, tangy | Mild, herby, creamy |
| Texture | Thick, usually with crumbles | Smoother |
| Against heat | Cuts it, and adds its own character | Cools it without competing |
| With a hot sauce | The classic answer | Better if you want to taste the sauce |
| With something mild | Overpowers it | Works with almost anything |
| For a table | Divisive | Nobody objects |
The rule that follows: the hotter and sharper the sauce, the better blue cheese works, because it has the weight to stand up to it. The milder the food, the more ranch makes sense, because it will not take over.
Why blue cheese and buffalo wings go together
It is not arbitrary and it is not just tradition. Buffalo sauce is butter, hot sauce and vinegar — hot, sharp and fatty all at once. Blue cheese brings salt, fat and a tang of its own, which does two things: the fat coats the palate and blunts the capsaicin, and the tang meets the vinegar head-on rather than sitting underneath it.
Celery does the third job, which is temperature and water. Between them the three make a system, which is why buffalo wings have been served with celery and blue cheese since the beginning. Our guide to buffalo beyond wings covers where that started.
Where ranch turns up beyond the cup
More often than people notice. Ranch is built into two sandwiches on our po’boy menu — the Chicken Bacon Club and the Buttermilk Buffalo Chicken — and in both cases it is doing the same job it does in a cup, which is softening something salty and fried.
There is a neatness to the buttermilk buffalo chicken in particular: the chicken is soaked in buttermilk and then dressed with a buttermilk-based dressing, so the same note arrives twice. More on that in what buttermilk chicken actually is.
How much to order
More than one. Extra dressing is a listed option on wings and it costs little, and running out halfway through twenty pieces is a genuinely annoying way to finish an order.
- One cup per five to ten wings is the honest ratio
- For a table, order both rather than picking a side
- Order extra with anything you have asked to be sauced heavily
- Cups keep better than sauced wings do — they travel fine
The third option: neither
Worth saying, because the question is usually posed as a binary and it is not one. Plenty of wings are better with no dip at all.
A heavily sauced wing already has fat, salt and acid on it. Adding a creamy dip to that is adding a fourth thing to something that is already doing three, and the result is muddier rather than better. Where dips genuinely earn their place is with wings that are dry, lightly sauced, or hotter than you would choose.
- Heavily sauced — try one without first
- Lightly sauced or plain — the dip is doing real work
- Hotter than you wanted — blue cheese, and plenty of it
- Boneless — a dip suits them better; there is less surface holding sauce
That last point is the practical one. Bone-in wings hold sauce in the folds around the joint, so they carry their own flavour further; a breaded boneless piece gives up its sauce faster. Our comparison of the two covers why.
The other cups worth knowing
Ranch and blue cheese are the two dips, but the sides menu carries several more that behave differently: honey BBQ and honey mustard for sweetness, garlic sauce for depth, cocktail and tartar for seafood, and the hot, mild and honey-hot sauces for adding heat rather than taking it away.
Which means the useful mental model is two categories rather than a list. Ranch and blue cheese reduce heat; almost everything else on that menu adds flavour or heat. Our guide to what is actually spicy ranks the ones that add.
Ordering wings for a mixed table? Get the wings at a heat the least tolerant person can eat, then put both dips in the middle. Adding heat at the table is easy; a cup of blue cheese is the only thing that takes it back out.
Keeping them
Both are dairy dressings, so an unopened cup keeps in the fridge for a few days and an opened one considerably less. If you have ordered extra with the intention of using it tomorrow, it is worth putting straight in the fridge rather than leaving it in the bag with the food.
The short version
Blue cheese with anything hot and sharp, ranch with anything mild or where you want to taste the sauce itself. Order both for a table, and order more than you think. Both are on the sides menu, and the wings they go with are here.
Both, on the sides menu
Ranch, blue cheese and a dozen more cups — and extra dressing is a listed wing option.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ranch and blue cheese?
Blue cheese is blue cheese blended into a creamy base, so it is strong, salty and tangy. Ranch is a buttermilk dressing with herbs and garlic, and has no cheese in it.
Which goes better with buffalo wings?
Blue cheese. Its salt, fat and tang stand up to the butter, hot sauce and vinegar in buffalo sauce; ranch cools without competing.
Why is celery served with wings?
Temperature and water. Between celery, dip and sauce the three balance each other, which is why the combination has lasted.
Can you get extra dressing?
Yes, it is a listed option on wings. One cup per five to ten wings is a realistic ratio.
Is ranch used anywhere else on the menu?
Yes — it is built into the Chicken Bacon Club and the Buttermilk Buffalo Chicken po’boys.
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