We all have those appetizer dishes we love. Nachos, cheese sticks, potato skins, dips, chips... and the holy grail, hot wings! Drenched in a spicy buttery sauce, crisp skin, and tender meat make the perfect bite. Also dipped in a cooling ranch sauce if you swing that way. It's always been a white whale of mine to accomplish what restaurants make so effortlessly, but in my own kitchen.
Now, before I get into the task from hell that is chicken wings, let me reassure you fine folk that I am normally a sane person. Haha But when it comes to the idea of standing over a pot of hot oil, my patience is slim.
You get super overheated, the whole house reeks of oil for the next day or two, and good luck getting all that oil splatter off of your counters. I hate it. But normally that's how chicken wings are done. That's how we get them in the restaurant. But they have deep fryers with temperature control. Kinda does the work for them! At home, you're fumbling with a thermometer, never truly knowing how long the chicken needs to cook. You end up getting underdone meat that you need to finish in the oven which then burns your beautiful golden brown, crispy skin you worked so hard to accomplish. Like I said, the task from hell.
I had given up on the dream but then, the other day, I was at the grocery store staring at a party pack of chicken wings... and the bravery/insanity kicked in. I joked to my dad that I wanted to test them out and he reminded me of the amazing Alton Brown and his method to the perfect wing! NO. FRYING. NEEDED. I raced to the Internet and there it was. All the steps, though a little labor intensive, seemed necessary. So here I am today to embark on a journey of you will! This was my process through Alton Brown's Hot Wings recipie.
Alrighty! Here's what you'll need:
- Chicken Wings (I got a pack of 12 whole wings which I cut down into 24 pieces)
Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups Hot Sauce (of your choosing)
- 3/4 cup Butter (melted)
- 2 tablespoons Honey
- 2 tablespoons Corn Startch
- 1 tablespoon Garlic (minced)
- Salt and Pepper (to taste)
*You'll also need a steamer. Or a big pot with a metal strainer and a lid. Haha*
Ok! The chicken. You might luck out and find a pack that has the wings already separated. But normally you'll get the entire wing waiting for you to chop it in thirds. I forgot to take progress pictures this step but you can easily find Alton Brown's "Good Eats" episode on YouTube where he breaks it down. It's so easy that I wasn't intimidated by the time he showed how to do it. Very simple. A quick explanation though, there's 3 joints to the wing. The tip, the flat, and the drummette. Toss the tips and keep the other two. Once you have your little wings ready to go, give them a rinse:
Having a sharp knife is what saved me here. It glided through the bones like butter, especially know where to cut.
The next step is to pat the chicken dry and lay on a sheet pan. Alton says to spread them out in a deep set bowl so the items in your fridge don't get salmonella. I say as long as you put them on the bottom shelf with no open containers on the same shelf, you should be fine.
Chill these babies for a few hours. This step is about drying and tightening the skin out. The more water and fat you have in the wing, the less likely you'll achieve crispy skin.
Next step is steaming. This is what separates just throwing your wings in the oven to then have a kitchen full of smoke from the rendered fat popping everywhere, to having an actual positive experience. Haha Steaming helps to get all the excess fat out and cook your meat a little too. I lined my 2 level steamer with 6 wings each to provide plenty of room for the steam to reach every angle of the chicken. Like so:
Steam them for about 10min. I probably could've done them for 15min. I found that my oven still smoked up a little due to the wings still having a little excess fat renduring out. Once their steamed, the should look kinda weird and yellow-y white and you may think you've gone horribly wrong. Haha My kitchen also reeked of that stock smell too. I hate the smell of stock cooking, especially chicken stock. Great flavor, stings the nostrils.
Yay! Partially cooked meats! Now, as you can see, I've transferred them to a sheet pan lined with paper towels and a cooling rack to continue to drain the fat off. Let them drip for a few minutes and put them back in the fridge for another hour. I told you this was slightly labor intensive. But at least it isn't hanging out over hot oil!
Oh, you might wanna take a look at your water left in the steamer. Yuck.
Now it's time to bake! Set your oven to 425°F and I went ahead and just took out the paper towel and used the same rack. Do 20min on each side and you now have delicious, GBD, tender, juicy chicken wings!
Yaaaaas! Time to get sauced! No really...
Combine all the sauce ingredients and simmer until it thickens. You'll wanna pour it over your wings immediately after they come out of the oven to ensure the sauce sticks to them.
Serve them right now! I made potato skins and a thick ranch dip to go with. These guys actually turned out!
Something I learned from this, time management wise, was that you can steam them and chill them in the fridge for even more than an hour. That way, you don't need to be in the kitchen for several hours in a row. You can steam them the night before, chill, and have 40min in the oven the next night. It's important to leave them in open air when chilling too because that's how you get the tight skin. Condensation is no good!
I hope this inspires anyone who wants to break away from frying and try baking as an option. I would say this was way healthier than frying would've been but I used sooo much butter and ranch... so much. Haha
Happy Baking!
R.
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