This post is kinda serendipitious. You know, happily accidental. In my food wanderings online recently, I stumbled on this baked method of making buffalo wings by the famous Kenji Lopez at Serious Eats and got really excited by it. Ironically, I totally didn't realize that Super Sunday, the holy grail of buffalo winging, was coming right up! It's hard to remember that date here in HK, lol.
My hubby loves buffalo wings. Not really sure why but it's okay cuz we love them too, just not as much, haha. We've made them many times before, baking the chicken wings before dunking into that gorgeous buffalo sauce. But they never seemed quite right, the baked skins lacking the crispness of the deep fried buffalo wings that you can get at restaurants. Without that crispiness the sauce just doesn't cling convincingly enough, does it?
So Kenji's method is supposed to make the baked chicken wing's skin as crisp as if you deep fried the wings! Does it work? Oh yeah, it sure does! Super crispy skinned juicy baked buffalo wings coming right up!
Start with good chicken wings. You know air chilled, free range, organic, no hormones, no antibiotic, etc. We bought ours frozen so had to defrost them first.
One thing to note regarding the chicken wings at this stage is that they should be as dry as you can get them. In this method, dryness is important! Use paper towels to dab away as much moisture as possible.
So what is the secret to this method of making the best crispy skinned chicken wings in the oven? Baking powder! I know, right, I was the same...like, what the heck, baking powder? This is where all that high school chemistry should have been useful, right? Umm...not...
Turns out that baking powder works some magic on that chicken skin. A mixture of baking powder and salt is sprinkled all over the wings. If you look close you can just see the white layer on the wings in the photo above. This coating breaks down protein in the skin, draws moisture to the surface and aids in browning the wings.
Note: Some folks use baking soda to crisp up the skin. We don't recommend this as baking soda can affect the taste weirdly.
And then, to aid those wings achieve even more winged perfection, the coated wings are placed on the cooking rack uncovered and refrigerated overnight. The next day when you take them out you'll find that the skins are nice and dry. Perfect!
Place the rack over a foil lined tray to catch drips. Then it's into the oven we go!
OvenWatch! This is the oven shot of the chicken wings baking. Here you can see the skin is crisping up and browning. Also note that the skin is bubbling! This is the baking powder in action, forming carbon dioxide gas which then bubbles through the skin and gets hardened by the heat. This bubbly skin is the same as what happens when you deep fry wings!
Bubbling creates the crackly skin that creates great crunch and provides all the tiny crevices that are gonna soak up and hold in the buffalo sauce.
Note: Here we encountered a slight technical problem. Extreme smokiness in the oven. Not sure why as we've baked plenty in our oven and never have had the problem of smoke. But there it was. After the fact I did some research and discovered that if you lay down a layer of baking soda in your drip tray this will eliminate any smokiness. Cool tip, right?
Omgosh, look at these golden babies! Out of the oven, skins crisp and bubbly. Let me tell you this baking powder packs some serious chemistry! It really makes crispy skin!
Jumping back in time a bit, while the wings are crisping up it's time to make the buffalo sauce. It's a simple sauce of butter, hot sauce and a bit of seasoning to adjust sauce to your liking. Traditionally the hot sauce used is Frank's RedHot but if you can't find it (like us) you can substitute in any vinegar based cayenne hot sauce. We used Tabasco. To make the sauce thicker and more clingy throw a bit of flour in the butter as it melts.
Now is also the time to whip up the blue cheese dipping sauce and celery sticks. CANNOT have buffalo wings without these two side accomplices, they just totally fit together and balance each other out. Plus I love blue cheese and it's a great excuse to cheese out! And we like to sneak dip our buffalo wings in the blue cheese dip, so yummy! I forgot to photograph these but no worry, we've included them in the recipe below.
A last peek at the crispy chicken wing skins before we toss it with the sauce. It really does look just like deep fried wings, no?
The hot buffalo sauce goes into the chicken wings. Ooo, nice, amirite?! Give the wings a couple or more tosses and the sauce should coat and cling nicely to the skins.
Serve your crispy skinned, juicy baked Buffalo Wings hot and saucy with a big bowl of celery sticks and blue cheese dipping sauce. Happy wingings everyone!
Buffalo Wings Baked in the Oven
(makes 6 servings. or approx 24 wings)
Prep time: 5 mins Marinate: overnight Cook time: 35 mins
Adapted from recipe here
Ingredients:
Chicken Wings
Buffalo Sauce
Celery and Blue Cheese Dip
- 2.5 lbs chicken wings, 1200g
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup baking soda
Buffalo Sauce
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 57g
- 1 tsp flour
- 4 tbsp Frank's RedHot Sauce
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
Celery and Blue Cheese Dip
- 8 celery stalks
- 2 oz blue cheese, 60g
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lime or lemon juice, or to taste
- pinch salt
- 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- milk to thin out, if necessary
Directions:
Make the Chicken Wings: Defrost chicken wings if necessary. Dry the wings with paper towels as much as possible. Toss with baking powder, cornstarch and salt. Brush cooking rack lightly with oil and then place the wings on it, with 1/2 inch space in between pieces. Place uncovered in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).
Prepare a foil lined drip pan to catch drips from the wings as they bake. Lay down a layer of baking soda in bottom of drip tray.
Place rack with wings over drip tray and into the middle of the oven they go for 35-50 mins until they are golden brown and crisp. As different ovens might run at slightly different heats, please use your eyes and nose to check your wings for doneness!
You can also take the wings out after 15 mins to flip over, then return to oven. We didn't tho and it turned out just fine.
Make the Buffalo Sauce: In a small pot over low heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour while the butter is melting. Add in the hot sauce and stir to incorporate. Add in salt and sugar to taste. Remove from heat but keep warm.
Make Celery Sticks and Dip: Wash celery stalks. Cut off the ends and slice into 3 inch lengths. For the dip, crumble blue cheese into a mixing bowl. Add sour cream, mayonnaise and stir to mix. You can stir more to make the dip smooth or you can stir a bit less to leave small chunks of blue cheese in the dip, yum! Add lime /lemon juice to taste. Add salt and sugar, also to taste. If the dip is too thick for your liking add a bit of milk to thin it out. Cover and place in the fridge while waiting for the wings to be done.
Toss the Chicken Wings: Add the crispy baked wings to a large mixing bowl. Pour hot buffalo sauce over the wings and then toss to coat evenly.
Serve the buffalo wings, hot and saucy, along with the celery sticks and blue cheese dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Chickenlicious Recipes at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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