Stuff I Wonder

So, making hot wings at home you say? Should I try it? I will get right to the point: ABSOLUTELY!

I was wondering the other day whether it would be worth the trouble making them at home (you know, because there are some things that are just not worth making from scratch, considering the time, money, and end result/flavor, etc.) So, I went ahead and tried it. I ended up trying different recipes, methods, breaded vs unbreaded, frying vs baked, and different sauces.  What I was able to distill from all this edible research astonished me. I had stumbled accross: the easiest way in the world to make the best hot wings in the world. Better than any restaurant I had tried them from.

Yes, as it turns out, making your own hot wings at home is so easy it probably only requires an IQ of 2, and the cooking skills of a newborn, or not even that. Basically, there are only 2 steps to follow; yes, 2 steps, not even 3.

• Step 1: Stick the wings in the oven.
  Yes, I know some of you might be used to have them deep fried. I tried both versions, deep fried and baked, and I was skeptical myself at first. The deep frier version is indeed good but requires more work and ingredients and probably only adds 1 notch of goodness in an overall 110% goodness scale.  Seriously, don’t worry, they’ll still be better than your local restaurant’s and will taste just as sinfully good baked vs fried.

  Also, some of you might be used to breading them, but it only adds another 1 of those flavor notches, and it’s a lot more work and time. Actually the original Buffalo wings from Buffalo, NY were NOT breaded.

  The wings:   I bought just regular old chicken wings from the meat aisle at my local grocery store.  I got the ones that are already cut for you. They cost probably 10 cents more per pound than the uncut ones, and save you from having to use a knife.

  I stuck about 20 wings in the oven for 1 hour at 425 degrees. I didnt even preheat the oven.

• Step 2: Coat them with the wing sauce.
  Now, the sauce is important. The flavor of the sauce is what makes the difference. For this, I found the original sauce used inBuffalo, NY: Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. You can find it in any grocery store.

  Once you get the wings out, you pour the sauce over the wings. The bottle comes with little instructions on how much butter you should mix in with the sauce to get a really awesome taste, but once you’ve got the sauce ready you basically just dip the wings in the sauce and then pour the sauce over the wings until they are good and covered

That’s it. 2 steps.

You can play with the butter/hot sauce mixture, but since I like them really hot I went like 80% sauce and 20% butter.

So, for a recap: for a fraction of the cost and for like 10x better flavor, you can have hot wings at home. But remember, the sauce is what makes the difference. I am in no way affiliated with Frank or his sauce, but I just haven’t found any better wing sauce. If you do, please let me know.