The hubs and I have a very easy-going New Years Day tradition…..we hang out, watch the Mummer’s Day Parade on TV, and I make a bunch of different appetizers for us to munch on.
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| Oven Fried Buffalo Wings |
And so it seems appropriate to kick off this year long challenge by trying a new method for one of our favorite chicken appetizers, buffalo chicken wings. We frequently have wings out, but I don’t tend to make them at home because I really don’t care to deep fry at home due to the mess.
I found this recipe for Oven-Fried Buffalo Wings. I’m a big fan of Food Lab, so I’m always interested in giving Kenji’s recipes a try. I’ve done quite a few recipes where you salted and then air dried the meat in the fridge overnight - Food Lab’s prime rib, Zuni Café’s roast chicken – so while I hadn’t tried wings this way before, I was game to try.
Salting & air drying tends to give you a really crisp exterior with meats, which is what you want on a buffalo wing. The one disadvantage to this recipe? You need a LOT of fridge space, because you have to spread out the salted (and baking powdered) wings on baking rack inserts on sheet pans. I did 3 1/2 lbs of wings, requiring 2 sheet pans, so I had to do some creative rearranging of my fridge contents to get everything in there. 
I let the wings air dry for about 20 hours, and then it was time to crank up the oven. After about 40 minutes and several flipping of the wings and shuffling around of pans, I did indeed have crispy, beautiful, well-browned wings. (Note: if you have a nonstick baking rack, use that – my wings stuck a bit on my racks as I didn’t think to give them a spritz of cooking spray).
The half butter and half hot sauce combo is one I’ve used previously, so was always good (I used Burman’s Hot Sauce, which is on par with the recommended Frank’s. Yes. I’m an Aldi nerd.) The hubs prefers ranch over blue cheese with wings, so I made Buttermilk Ranch Dipping Sauce to go with them.
I also paired these with margaritas, because, well. Tequila.
So, how were these? Pretty darn good - I was suitably impressed. Crispy, spicy, delicious. I did think they were a touch too salty, so I'd be a bit more careful measuring the salt next time, and reduce it a little bit.
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| Mmmmmm...... |
Obviously, we didn't eat all of these in one sitting. In order to replicate the "leftover wing" experience, I sauced all the wings when they came out of the oven. I reheated leftovers the next day (nonstick baking rack this time, in the oven) and they were about what you experience in a reheated wing - the skin was on the chewy side and the sauce really baked on - and they were still tasty.
Overall rating: 9 out of 10.
Ease of Preparation: 6 out of 10. The recipe requires a full day prep time, mostly inactive. Wings have to be broken down, seasoned, then left to air dry in fridge. Cook time is reasonable. Clean up is reasonable (but will likely need to run oven cleaning cycle).
Will It Freezer Meal? I have seen freezer meal wing recipes around, so I froze a small portion of the leftover wings to experiment. My expectation is that they will be similar to the reheated wings, so decent, but not at a level that I'd cook and freeze in bulk.
A note on “The Cookbook Collection”. If you know me, you know that I have quite a large cookbook collection….and that most of it is still packed up from last year’s move. I’m working on getting the cookbook library/craft room set up this winter, so I should be getting that unpacked over the next couple months. I've added a few new chicken cookbooks to the collection in anticipation of this year's challenge and I'll have the older ones dug out soon.
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