Buffalo-Style Hot Wings

Tonight's dinner: Buffalo wings with creamy bleu cheese dressing and a salad.  For dessert, a slice of homeade blueberry pie and a cup of iced Strawberry Bliss tea brewed fresh from my loose tea stash.  What more can you ask of an evening?

I am constantly craving finger foods, the kind you would find in bars like potato skins and buffalo wings.  Tonight I decided to finally tackle the short learning curve and make my own buffalo wings.  Being from NY, I wanted to make the authentic wings that originated in Buffalo, NY.  Alton Brown came to the rescue with this authentic recipe sans the deep frying since this is adapted for the home.

First, a little lesson on the anatomy of the chicken wing:

My whole life, I had thought there were these tiny chickens running around that were specifically grown for the purpose of hot wings, having tiny legs for the drum sticks part of hot wings and tiny wings.  Now that I've been educated by my brief google search, I know the standard chicken wing is cut into three parts, the tip, which is discarded or saved to boil into chicken stock, the Wingette, which is the two boned portion of the wing, and the drumette, which is the tiny chicken leg like portion of the wing.  When sharing a portion of hot wings, usually there is someone who loves the drumette and someone who loves the wingette, creating hot wing harmony.  If we ever find ourselves sharing wings, I prefer the drummette as it is so much less messy to eat.

Now that we've got that cleared up, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

• 12 whole chicken wings
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

 

Directions

Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.  Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes.

Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

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