Buffalo Wings

Modified from Kenji’s ‘Best Buffalo Wings Recipe.

Ingredients

• Enough tallow to get about 1" depth in your frying pan
• 3 pounds chicken wings, cut into drumettes and flats
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons hot sauce (Frank’s, sriracha, or something more daring)
• Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing
• Celery sticks

Process

1. Spread wings out on a rack-lined rimmed baking sheet. Pat dry with a paper towel and salt. Don’t overdo the salt, ‘cause these don’t have a lot of meat on them. Place in refrigerator to allow salt to penetrate, at least 1 hour up to overnight¹.

2. Place oil and chicken wings in a large cast iron skillet. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it registers 225 to 250°F on an instant-read thermometer (chicken should be gently bubbling). Continue to cook, stirring and flipping chicken occasionally while adjusting heat to maintain a temperature of 225 to 250°F until chicken is cooked through and skin is tender but not crisp or browned, about 20 minutes total. Transfer chicken with a wire mesh spider to a rimmed baking sheet lined with paper towels. Allow chicken to rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour, or cover and rest in the fridge for up to three nights.

3. When ready to serve, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

4. Heat oil to 400°F. Carefully add one third of chicken and cook, stirring and flipping chicken occasionally while adjusting heat to maintain a temperature of 375 to 400°F until golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes total. Transfer to bowl with sauce, toss to coat, and serve with blue cheese dressing and celery.

5. Combine 1 part butter with 1 part hot sauce in a bowl². Add wings to bowl, toss to coat, and serve with blue cheese dressing and celery. Repeat with remaining batches, serving one batch at a time.

6. In order to sauce one batch of wings while others are frying, preheat an oven to 200°F and place sauced wings in oven on rack-lined rimmed baking sheet until all wings are done. This keeps the wings warm and seems to help set the sauce to prevent them from being too saucy.

Impressions

I agree, these are the best chicken wings. They are juicy and tender inside with a thin crackling skin on the outside that holds sauce well.

Next Time

I under-sauced this initial batch so they weren’t very hot (even the ones coated in super-hot hot sauces, like Hellfire Kranked, but they still tasted awesome. All the wings got a coating of Umami Everyday Sauce (because I didn’t clean out the bowl after treating the first wings with them and sauce remained) which couldn’t have hurt, that sauce creates a great base flavor.