Now to start with, as far as I'm concerned, wings are like the Paul McCartney of the food world- I don't actually HATE them, and I endure them when backed into a corner with no way out, but they're in the lower tier of the food world, somewhere near American cheese food. Having said that, I've been asked by a friend to bring wings to a Super Bowl party next week. Store-bought is out of the question for me, so I'm on the hunt for the best recipe I can find. General requirements- no generic "soak them in Texas Pete's and bake until marginally edible"- I imagine whatever they end up seasoned with, I'll want to throw them on the grill. And absolutely NO honey mustard this, or sweet anything that. What the Obner foodies here got to wow the unwashed masses?

I made a LOT of wings back in my days in the restaurant biz so I'm pretty hard and fast with my cooking method: 12 minutes in a deep fryer at 375.

As for coatings, the very most basic-est is to put some Franks in a mixing bowl, add a 1/2 tbsp (or more) of melted butter, add the wings, cover and shake to coat. You can add more "heat" to this with your traditional pwdered peppers, hot sauces and even a touch of vinegar (opens up the pores for the heat) but as I'm more a "medium" man when it comes to wings, a little fresh ground black pepper and maybe a couple dashes of hot sauce are all I need to liven up the Franks.

My favorite non traditional coating that I make is basically a mixture of soy sauce, butter, a touch of sesame oil, Sriracha for heat and I've been adding a touch of this "ginger sesame" sauce but you get the idea. Its an asian inspired flavor with the Sriracha providing the heat.

I also do things like lemon pepper garlic and spicy barbecue depending on what I've got laying around and how many wings I've cooked.

I always get them catered because I find them a pain in the ass to make.

Don't forget to snip the wing tips and cleave them in half.

I'm with Yail's recipe, but I think we have to address the other major paradigm in the wing world and that's breaded/battered.

I prefer em naked, but i've got friends who like em battered. just do whatever you do with your favorite fried chicken recipe and then toss them in your wing sauce.

Make sure you've got a good blue cheese dressing to dip them in. Ranch for the people who probably don't know how to fuh.

I can take or leave Celery.

Sometimes i'll flip the standard wing sauce with some cumin, curry powder, and turmeric.

im a fan of the non-breaded style as well

Yeah, I think its important to make a distinction between fried chicken with the battering and the dredging and the secret mix of herbs and spices and hot wings which are cooked naked and then sauced.

Apologies to Hooters and other places (including a short lived restaurant I worked at in Athens called Rosie O'Malley's where we painstakingly breaded every f-ing wing) but your wings ain't wings.

You generally can't go wrong with Drew Cerza's recipe as a start - check out his throwdown with Bobby Flay.

If you're not going to have celery, make sure you have some other form of roughage. I usually take a couple of psyllium husk caplets immediately after eating wings.

And if you're ever in WNY in September, check out Wingfest.

This is my exact procedure as well and I never batter either.

And despite the proclamation of nothing sweet, this is a killer sauce.

Red Hot Honey Glaze

I can tell you quick that I ain't battering a damn thing, and they will be on the grill to cook. I think they'll start off being dry-rubbed with my cajun mix. Just need to figure how to sauce them the best.

Ranch, and breading are for Communists and other people like Rodney who hate America.

Bloor makes some good ass wings, but I'm with Crack-a-lack -- order up a 50 platter and be done with it.

My reputation would be ruined.


Wait....that happened about 1968. Never mind.

This will be a crowd pleaser and is by far the easiest recipe.
Sriracha with butter as a base and then add the vinegary sauces -- Crystal/Cholula -- to round out the flavor...although that's a relatively spicy wings sauce and your asshole will let you know.

What's wrong with Ranch? Ranch is the ideal condiment, good on so many things.

kind of a strange request to ask a guy to cook a food he doesn't like. but it brought upon a good thread and some good tips, so i'm not complaining.

Leon, there is nothing like the right tool for the job, and ranch is almost never the right tool for the job. You dip wings in bleu, not in ranch. You don't dip pizza in anything, let alone ranch. That's some fucked up wisconsin bullshit right there. Ranch is for some college cafeteria iceberg lettuce salads, with some fake ass baco-bits and white bread croutons.

Ranch is the epitome of blah. Neither bad, nor good, it's just there, so you put it on food you don't care about.

That's my opinion and i'm sticking to it, but if it gives your tastebuds an erection, than don't fuck with a winning combination.

And this whole grilling of the wings seems like a waste of perfectly good charcoal on some inferior meat. This is not what god killed the dinosaurs for.

If you put wings on the grill, make you don't dry the shit out of them. There's not much meat on those pieces which makes deep frying so effective. Deep frying cooks the wings quickly and seals the moisture into the limited amount of meat.

Counterintuitively, if you ensure your oil is hot enough (<350), the skin is instantly cooked and creates a seal around the meat. The heat of the oil instead of the oil itself contributes to most of the cooking. If your temp is maintained, the wings will be cooked in 10 mins. Greasy meat is the result of cooking at low temperatures for an extended period of time. Buy a deep fry/candy thermometer to ensure correct cooking temps.

I think most people are afraid of deep frying for safety and cost reasons. You could go out and waste your money on a deep frying apparatus, but I've been using a pretty simple setup for the past three years on gas and electric stoves with no untoward results.

My setup:

Cast iron skillet
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006JSUB/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00004S9H9&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NHSTY8XGR90G7YFFPZK
Candy thermomter
http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Classic-Deep-Fry-Analog-Thermometer/dp/B00004XSC9/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264891191&sr=1-2
Corn oil for ~$3 to fill the skillet (I purchased a 20 lb jug of peanut oil at Sam's Club for $20).

The summary:

Deep fry until skin is lightly browned.

Your result will be a moist, non-greasy, perfectly prepared addition to your coronary plaques. Dry those fuckers out on the grill and those wings are gonna taste like spicy cuts of salad chicken.

Amen!!!
It's the same deal in Nebraska and people like my brother almost bath in the shit when it comes to food, especially wings.
I don't personally use either, and I like the hot sauces.
I can't add anything to the recipe talk, since I usually go the route of places like Wing Zone that exclusively do delivery and takeout of Gameday style foods.

i like ranch but in moderation and would def. choose bleu cheese over it.

OK, OK, I may rethink this. I've got an lp-fired deep fryer out in the garage that hasn't been used since Shep was a pup- I could forgo the grill idea and haul it to the party to fry up those hateful little buggers.

SHEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

same here.

and only faggots batter wings.

this sounds great. will prepare it this week and post comments.

feels like i just watched an episode of chef @ home

and call me a faggot but i batter my wings

Battered Wings= gross. I don't even like wings that much, but this thread has made me so fucking hungry for wings.