I Heart Chicken Wings!

As the title of this post suggests, I love chicken wings... so does Justin, for that matter. They've pretty much become a once a week staple for the two of us. The only problem I have with this is that they can get get kinda pricey and places don't always make a consistently good wing (except for Dinosaur BBQ and maybe Marvin Mozzeroni's...) Because of said problem, I made it my mission to conquer the homemade, oven-fried, crispy wing. It took a while of searching... but then I stumbled upon perfect recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/the-best-buffalo-wings-oven-fried-wings-recipe.html

Oven Fried Buffalo Wings

(That's right! I took that photo!)

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds chicken wings, cut into drumettes and flats*
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter*
• 1 cup Frank's RedHot Sauce
• Blue cheese dressing
• Celery sticks

Method:

• Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and set a wire cooling rack inside. 
• Carefully dry chicken wings with paper towels. Place 1/3 of wings in large bowl, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt, and toss until thoroughly and evenly coated. Place on rack, leaving slight space between each wing. Repeat with remaining two batches of wings.
• Place the baking sheet with wings in the refrigerator and allow to rest, uncovered, at least 8 hours, and up to 18 hours.
• Adjust the top oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Add the chicken wings and cook for 20 minutes. Flip the wings and continue to cook until crisp and golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes longer.
• Meanwhile, combine butter and hot sauce in small saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking until combined. Transfer wings to large bowl, add sauce, toss to thoroughly coat, and serve immediately with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks, conspicuously shunning anyone who says that real buffalo wings must be fried.

The recipe above is the original from the Serious Eats. I usually make a half recipe of this, but that's the only thing I change from this. I feel it doesn't really need tweaking 'cuz it works every time. 

*Notes: 

• The key for the sauce, in my opinion, is the butter. It adds some richness to the flavor of the wings that make them seem all the tastier. This being said, I splurge and use some grass-fed Kerrygold Butter (sooo tastey!) Being paleo, I'm technically not allowed to have butter; however, I'll make an exception for the good stuff. For those following a more strict diet, I'm sure leaving the butter out is fine. You could also sub in some coconut oil or coconut butter... or bacon fat (mmm... bacon...)
• Also, I find using organic, pastured chicken wings instead of the usual grocery store brand produce a more pronounced chicken-y taste to the wings, something that Justin and I tend to prefer. (Yes, I know they're more expensive... But in all reality, these still end up being cheaper than buying wings from the local pizza shop. Plus, they taste better, have more meat on them and aren't shot full of hormones. Happy chickens = yummy wings!) 

As far as the time and effort of these... Most of this recipe involves inactive prep. I find the easiest way make these suckers, and not wanna pull all the hair out of my head, is to get the chicken in the fridge the night before. The next day, all you've really gotta do is preheat the oven and bake the wings. The sauce can be made in the microwave in a large microwave safe bowl. I usually do a 1 1/2 minutes on high, just before the wings are done. From here, you throw the wings into the sauce bowl, toss and serve. Easy peasy! 

In short... these homemade wings ROCK! They're easy, cheap and absolutely delicious!