Baked Buffalo Wings

All that wingy, saucy, crispy goodness without the deep fryer.

Why Baked?

• Wings are delicious

• Deep fried wings are a hassle unless you deep fry regularly

• Baked wings generally suck: soggy, don’t hold sauce well

• Wings are delicious

If you don’t love buffalo wings, question our friendship.

When I lived in SF, I craved wings so much I looked into franchising my hometown favorite (Buffalo Wild Wings) until they finally opened a location. Before they did, I did literally days of research (including befriending a BWW cook) to get the sauce right and feel I’ve gotten pretty darn close to the authentic, deep fried buffalo wing (threw that recipe in for completion).I’ve also made a pulled buffalo chicken slider and no-butter-or-oil grilled buffalo chicken breasts on my George Foreman Evolve, so figured the marriage of science and the internet had a chance to make a perfect, healthier-than-deep-fried wing. It did.

the secret is Baking Powder. #spoileralert

Ingredients:

• 1 to 4 pounds (450g to 1.7kg) chicken wings, cut into drumettes and flats, or bought pre-cut. I get mine at whole foods - fresh is preferred to frozen, but if you get frozen then let them naturally defrost (keep them in a freezer bag in warm water or let thaw overnight)

Dry rub (per pound of wings):

• 2 tspn baking powder (NOT baking soda)

• 1 tspn kosher salt

• 1/2 tspn black pepper (optional)

• 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper (optional)

Simple Saus (for ~2 lbs of wings):

• 1 cup Frank's Original RedHot Sauce (it’s in every grocery store in America)

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (you can use unflavored oil or omit this altogether to make it healthier)

BWW Hot Saus (for ~2 lbs of wings):

• 1 cup Frank's Original RedHot Sauce

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (you can use unflavored oil or omit this altogether to make it healthier)

• 1 tspn granulated sugar

• 1.5 tspn cayenne pepper

• ½ tspn garlic powder

• ½ tspn Worcestershire sauce

• 1/8 Teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

• 2 tspn water + 1 tspn cornstarch (optional, add after heating to not thicken too much)

For Serving:

• Blue cheese or Ranch dressing

• Celery and or Carrot sticks

Directions:

Bake em!

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and set a wire rack inside. If you don't have a rack, you can place the wings directly on aluminum foil but spray a little cooking spray down and when rotating, try not to let the skin stick to the foil.

2. Carefully dry chicken wings with paper towels.

3. Mix dry rub in a small bowl

4. In a large bowl, combine wings with dry rub and toss with hands or tongs until thoroughly and evenly coated. Place on rack, leaving a slight space between each wing.

5. Place baking sheet with wings in refrigerator and allow to rest, uncovered, at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. If you're in a rush, an hour is fine.

6. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Add chicken wings and cook for 20 minutes - they'll still look a little weird when you take them out, but part of it should start to brown.

7. Flip wings and continue to cook until crisp and golden brown, 15 to 30 minutes longer, flipping a few more times towards the end. The skin should be crisp to the touch.

8. Remove from oven and let sit out to crisp at least 5 minutes

9. Prepare the saus: combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking until combined.

10. Transfer wings to a large bowl, add sauce, and toss to thoroughly coat. Use however much sauce you want - I generally use half my saus recipe (~half a cup) per 6-8 wings. You can also place them in tupperware with a lid and shake vigorously

11. Serve wings immediately with blue cheese or ranch dressing and carrot/celery sticks

    1. bonus: crisp carrots with ranch are my favorite snack: cut these veggies and leave them in water in the fridge for 6+ hours to keep them crisp, add a dash of sugar if you like them sweet. they’ll keep for at least a week

Credit: Chef John and a few strangers on the internet for the baking secret, and my parents for always believing in me (by taking me straight to BWW after I flew in from cali) for the saus.

Or Fry 'em!

For the Purists: Deep frying does taste better, and there’s actually not too much difference (just a few calories per wing, 86 vs 89) if your oil is at the right temperature and you use good oil. It is messier, but there’s nothing like the authentic flavor. If you really want to deep fry them, here's the rub:

1. Heat oil (enough to completely immerse the wings, a few cups per lb of wings) in a fryer (soybean oil) to 350-375 degrees (under 300 will cause them to not be crispy and fat to get in)

2. Add frozen (yes, frozen! keeps them crispy) wings to a basket and lower into hot oil. You can use coating, like flour, but that absorbs oil and makes for less healthy wings without too much upside. If oil stops sizzling within a minute, take them out and let the oil come back to temperature

3. Deep fry time: for wings that are 12 to a pound, seven minutes is usually enough. For wings that are 7-10 a pound you need to go about 10-11 minutes. When the wings float freely in the oil, they're close to being done

4. Take out the largest drumstick and pull it open to check for doneness. The meat should be white and the bones should still have a bit of pink in them for perfect wings.

5. Coat with sauce as above

And if you really want to go the extra mile for bar-style wings, you should bake + fry them.