It seems that no two places make the same wing, and if you saw Wednesday’s post, with all the different hot sauces available, there’s a reason for it. You have almost an unlimited amount of choices when it comes to which hot sauce you are going to use for your wings, and if you decide to combine sauces, well you just made your flavor possibilities infinite.
Below we’re going to provide a couple of preparation methods, along with suggestions for ways to create your own signature wing. Remember as you’re creating the ultimate wing, there are three pieces to the puzzle: heat level (provided by hot sauce); texture (breading, flouring, naked wings); flavorings (spices to add in addition to the hot sauce).
TCC’s basic hot wing:
For wings:
2-3 lbs. chicken wings*
¾ c. all purpose flour
salt and pepper (go easy on the salt, because the hot sauce is pretty high in sodium. The pepper is going to give you a little added heat, up the amount if you really want to taste it in your finished wing, decrease if you don’t)
Oil for frying
Mix flour, salt and pepper into a bowl (or if you don’t want to do extra dishes you can use a large Ziploc or plastic grocery bag). Drop the chicken wings, a few at a time, into the flour making sure they’re complete coated. Place the coated wings into the fridge for 15-20 minutes, this helps the flour stick really well to the wing throught the cooking process.
If you have a deep fryer this is an excellent time to whip it out. Deep fry your wings, in batches, at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes (they’ll be nice and golden brown). Pull them out and set on a paper towel to help absorb some of the grease.
If you do not have a deep fryer, pour enough oil into a heavy bottomed skillet so you have about ½ inch of oil. Heat over medium high heat, you’ll know it’s hot enough that if you put in a pinch of loose flour it sizzles. Fry in batches, do not overcrowd the pan. Fry 7 minutes then flip and fry another 7 or 8 minutes. Remove and place on paper towels.
For Sauce:
½ c. hot sauce (chef’s choice)
½-1 stick of butter (the higher butter to hot sauce ratio the less the spice)
Heat butter and hot sauce over medium heat until just bubbling. That’s it, sauce is done.
Put on a plate and serve with blue cheese dressing (see below for bonus dressing recipe). If you’re completely opposed to blue cheese you can use ranch.
Blue Cheese Dressing:
8 oz sour cream
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
3 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. buttermilk powder
¼ medium onion (finely diced)
3-4 oz. blue cheese (such as a Maytag or Roquefort. The amount you use is dependent on how much blue cheese flavor you want in your dressing)
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
Combine mayo, vinegar, buttermilk powder, and 2 oz. blue cheese in a food processor. Mix until creamy and transfer to a bowl. Add in sour cream, onion and spices, mixing until combined. Crumble in remaining blue cheese.
You can use the dressing right after mixing, but giving it about a day in the fridge lets the flavors get to know each other and gives a better flavor.
Notes:
* You can buy wings two ways, disjointed and whole. When you get an order of wings in a restaurant, they are already disjointed into two parts (you know you always reach for the mini drumstick since it’s easier to eat!). You can also buy whole wings which you can disjoint yourself (check out this you tube video for step by step on how to do that). We don’t recommend trying to prepare the wings whole… there is potential for uneven cooking, and really it’s just a whole lot messier to try to eat an entire jointed wing! It’s not a bad idea to cook like pieces together. That way you’re getting the ideal cooking time for each piece of the wing.
Here are some secrets to spice up your wings even more:
For the flour mixture: think about adding the following spices: garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, red pepper flakes, or chili powder.
For the sauce: our preference is to use half Texas Pete and half Frank’s red hot sauce. You may ask yourselves, why use both? Why those? It’s a matter of personal preference; we really enjoy the flavor that this combination provides. We also tend to like them a little more on the spicy side, so we favor a smaller amount of butter.
-Don’t be afraid to combine different hot sauces to find what you like the best.
-Different sauces may require different amounts of butter to increase or decrease the spice.
-Whatever you do end up doing, we suggest writing down what kind(s) of sauce, and how much you used. This way when you find your favorite combination, you’re able to recreate it.
Other methods:
-Bake the wings (at 400 degrees), flour as instructed above and lay on a lightly oiled pan, flipping about 10 minutes into baking. Use chicken breast for a boneless version ‘wing’.
-If you want to skip the flour breading feel free, you can prepare by frying or baking using the same method as above.
-When Wendi prepares her “Jessica and Fred safe wings”, she will coat the raw wings in the sauce and bake them (as above) for a nice flavorful, flourless wing (oh, and then she’ll re-dip them in hot sauce, just for that extra kick).
Create, love, eat, share… Have fun… and remember, pass up the water and grab some milk to calm the burn.
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