Chicken Wing Recipes You'll Wish You Knew About Sooner
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Hungry for chicken wing recipes you'll wish you knew about sooner? Whether as a game-time snack or a full-blown meal, everybody loves a heaping plate of tasty chicken wings. They're easily one of the most popular foods in the country, a staple on restaurant menus from coast to coast.
Even better than the thought of chowing down on these treats and licking your fingers clean is the news that you no longer need to go to your favorite restaurant or watering hole to do so. You can make delicious chicken wings right in the comfort of your own home.
One of the many great things about chicken wings is that their flavor, texture, spiciness, and heat are easily customizable by simply adjusting the spices and cooking styles. As you might expect, we have all your options covered. Whether you like them sweet or spicy, baked or fried, mild or hot, we have you covered with these easy, delicious chicken wing recipes.
Hot Wings
We'll let you know up front that this hot wing recipe takes longer than most chicken wing recipes, but we promise you that your patience will be rewarded.
You may be asking yourself, are hot wings any different than traditional chicken wings? The answer is a resounding yes, according to chef and recipe developer Keith Kamikawa. "From the brining, which injects the heat into the hot wings, and the flavorful thicker crispy breading that will hold onto and absorb the sauce to the instant heat with a touch of sweet in there from the brown sugar, hot wings are their own thing," Kamikawa says. "You could think of it as being the difference between marinara and ketchup, both made with tomatoes but totally different in flavor."
The majority of the recipe time is devoted to marinating the chicken in the aforementioned brine, which consists of buttermilk, kosher salt, Tabasco, and sugar. Then you'll give the meat even more flavor by breading it in a mixture of flour, cornstarch, baking powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic power, onion powder, kosher salt, and sugar. The cooking doesn't take long, about 10 to 15 minutes of deep-frying. The final step is coating the wings in a flavorful Tabasco-based sauce.
Baked Chicken Wings
If deep-frying chicken wings seems above your skill level and too intimidating, or you're simply looking for a healthier, less-messy alternative, fear not: you can make delicious, tender, crispy wings right in your home oven. This baked chicken wing recipe will guide you through it.
The first key to ensuring you get your desired crispiness on your wings is to make sure they're dry. Once cut, pat the wings dry with a paper towel and dust with the spice blend, a mix of salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and baking powder.
Cooking time and temperature are critical when baking wings. You should start at a low temperature, 250 degrees, for 20 minutes. Then, to get that crispy chicken wing skin, crank the temperature up to 425 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes. When the timer goes off, let cool and dig in!
Buffalo Wings
Who says great food has to be complicated? Not us. This simple Buffalo wing recipe will have a delectable meal on your table is less than one hour.
The recipe calls for making two different sauces: a Buffalo sauce to coat and cook the wings in and a blue cheese sauce for dipping; both are equally simple to put together. The latter just requires mixing together buttermilk, blue cheese crumbles, sour cream, mayonnaise, white vinegar, black pepper, and salt. The Buffalo sauce is also a simple combination of ingredients — Frank's RedHot, Tabasco, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar –- but it needs to be done at a low simmer on the burner.
When the wings are cut, seasoned, and coated in Buffalo sauce, place them in 360-degree frying oil. You should only cook six to eight wings at a time so you'll have to work in batches. Fry the wings for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cut up some carrot and celery sticks, grab the blue cheese sauce, and enjoy!
Air Fryer Sticky Wings
You're unlikely to find a simpler chicken wing recipe than this one for sticky wings. The only hurdle is the need for an air fryer, but if you do have the appliance, you'll be devouring these wings in no time. Simply season the meat with salt and pepper and pop them in the air fryer for 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through.
To save even more time, we recommend dousing the wings in pre-made sauce, such as Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce, which has the perfect spicy-sweet flavor combination. You can always increase the spice level of your sauce of choice by adding red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper.
Once ready, serve these treats right away while the meat is tender and the skin perfectly crisp.
Copycat Buffalo Wild Wings
When in doubt, turn to the expert. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better source on how to make the best wings than Buffalo Wild Wings. Fortunately, we have a copycat recipe that tastes just like the restaurant's famous namesake food.
There are two main points of contention concerning the best way to cook chicken wings: whether or not the wings should be breaded and should they be baked or deep-fried? Our research suggests Buffalo Wild Wings doesn't use a batter and it fries its wings, so this is how we cooked them. Then comes the all-important sauce; Buffalo Wild Wings has more than 20 sauce options ranging in flavors and heat level. For our purposes, we're going to stick to the middle of the road and replicate the restaurant's signature medium sauce (although you can easily adjust the heat and spiciness when making it at home).
Proper cooking plus dynamite sauce equals delicious wings you can enjoy without even leaving your house.