America's Best Hot Wings

thepostgame ^ | November 29, 2011 | Ryan Glasspiegel

[JoeProBono]

Buffalo wings are such an ingrained part of American culture that, if you didn't already know, you'd assume that their origin dates back further than to 1964, when Teressa Bellissimo prepared the first batch for a voracious group of her son's friends in the kitchen of Anchor Bar in Buffalo, N.Y.

It's hard to imagine life without such a culinary creation that's so versatile that it can be created in hundreds of styles, served boneless or bone-in, taste great with dozens of dips, and served as either an appetizer or a meal. Wings are now on the menu at virtually every bar that serves food, at pizza chains, and even at upscale restaurants. Just 47 years after being introduced to the world, most Americans have several wing options just a phone call away....

[JoeProBono]

http://www.thedailymeal.com/americas-best-buffalo-wings-slideshow?utm_source=yahoo%2Bsports&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=americas %2Bbest%2Bbuffalo%2Bwings&RM_Exclude=Welcome

[donozark]

I make pretty good wings myself. Frank's Red Hot Sauce recipe. Only I add a splash of vinegar. A splash of Tabasco Sauce. Little salt/pepper. Enjoy.

Goes better with a bucket of Rocks. But then, anything does...

[Notwithstanding]

Hole-in-the-wall bars have the best wings.

In the 1980’s in Western New York (near Buffalo) most bars would sell 10-cent wings with $2.50 pitchers of beer. Blue cheese dressing and celery sticks (ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL) were 50-cents. So, for $5 a high school kid had a great night out with friends or a date. This was back when the drinking age was slowly inching up from 18 and it was unusual to be asked for I’d.

[AppyPappy]

Slowly being replaced by drumsticks

[cornfedcowboy]

Add some butter and a little bit of worchestershire. Been doing that for years.

[manic4organic]

Another “throwaway” part that was turned into something tasty. I remember in the 80s finding something called fajitas in Central Texas. Amazing at the time and now found everywhere.

[trebb]

Classic butter and tobasco as the base, with a bit of vinegar and worchester is still tops. Have had some that use mango and, if done right, make a decent hot/sweet wing.

[digger48]

yum. I haven’t tried adding the vinegar. Gonna do that next time.

I do it Franks way too. Kinda, sorta...melt a stick of butter and add a cup or more of Franks. Dunk ‘em and put ‘em back on the grill.

I sauce them 2-3 times while still cooking... pile ‘em up, cover loosely with foil and let them bake on the cool side of the grill for a while.

I like them done to the point you can stick ‘em in your mouth and pull out the bone like a popsickle stick.

Oh yeah....CHARCOAL ONLY!!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

The key to making the dipping sauce is to melt butter - half to a whole stick with a bottle of bbq sauce or buffalo wing sauce - makes the sauce thinner so you can easily drench all of your wings, but doesn’t dilute the flavor.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Yours sound good - I like them breaded so I bread and fry first, then dunk

[BfloGuy]

Slowly being replaced by drumsticks

No one's figured out how to grow more wings on each chicken yet. Wings have become so popular, they're in shorter and shorter supply.

And their popularity is world-wide now. I worked in London in the late nineties. One year, the bosses put the office Christmas party up to a vote. I was hoping for a quaint, English pub, but the Brit employees voted almost unanimously for Buffalo wings at TGIF's.

I had Stout with mine to maintain the foreign experience.

[Mich Patriot]

Wings: a by-product turned into a billion dollar industry. Too much effort for a few bites, and pricey for what you get.

[Notwithstanding]

While that sounds tasty,
I have to note that
Buffalo wings
are NEVER
breaded and fried
like fried chicken.

Sacrilige!

[Poser]

Correct! Breaded wings are evil.

We had a wings specialty restaurant in town. It was named “Wings Your Way.” They only had breaded wings. That was not my way and now “Wings Your Way” has gone away!

I like to order my wings naked with the hot sauce on the side. I dip them myself.

[Notwithstanding]

Buffalo wing rules:

1. Sauce is mainly butter and hot sauce, and is applied only after being cooked.

2. Always served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

3. Never coated in anything before frying (always fried naked).

4. Served with ice cold domestic beer.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Yeah but I’m in Texas where we take those yankee recipes and improve on them... ;^)

[MarkL]

Believe it or not, Hardees (and I believe Carl's Jr) is now serving Buffalo Style chicken tenders. They use Frank's Hot Sauce, and they're really not too bad.

Mark

[mortal19440]

Harleysville Hotel, Harleysville, PA. Crisp, hot and lots of meat.

[aruanan]

My recipe that many have loved for many years:

aruanan's chicken wing recipe

Enough chicken wings that, when cut up, will cover the bottom of 3 9X13 Pyrex pans

Cut up the chicken wings into the forearm and upper arm pieces. Wash the chicken. Pick off any little feathers and hairs, etc. Pretend you’re an ape and the wing is a brother or sister ape that you’re grooming for fleas. Brown the wings in olive oil. Salt and pepper the side up side while the first side is browning. Dab on Chinese or Vietnamese chili garlic sauce.

After thoroughly browned, set the wings aside and clean the pans for the sauce step.

Have these ingredients ready for the sauce:

1 bottle of Krystal Wing sauce (a vinegar/red pepper sauce)
1 bottle Arizona Heat mustard (hot sweet mustard)
2 cans Thai coconut milk
1/2 large can Coco Lopez (sweetened, condensed coconut milk) 1/3 cup whole mustard seeds
1/3 cup fresh minced ginger root
3 fresh jalapeno peppers, cleaned of seeds, and minced
2 Cubanelle peppers, cleaned of seeds, and minced
3 finger peppers, cleaned of seeds, and minced
2 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero peppers, cleaned of seeds, and minced
2 manzana peppers, cleaned of seeds and minced
A pack of dried apricots, minced.
Two or three very ripe peaches, chopped up.
1/3 cup or more raspberry jam
Chinese or Vietnamese chili/garlic sauce
About 6 or 7 pounds of sweet onions
A couple cups brown sugar
A couple cups of water if necessary
1 cup parmesan cheese
Salt

Use a food processor to turn about 3/4 of the onions to puree. Make the other 1/4 finely chopped, but identifiable, bits. Mix them together and set aside 1/4 of it.

Use some of the onion juice and pureed onions to grind up the minced peppers and ginger--but large enough bits to be recognizable. Add this to the 1/4 of the onion mixture that was set aside.

Heat up the apricots and peaches in the microwave in water until everything is rehydrated, then grind this up in a blender (not the food processor—because the dried apricots are HARD to blend in the processor; the short blades of the blender, along with some onion juice, will puree it nicely). Set this aside.

Mix in 1 can of coconut milk into the 3/4 part onion mixture and divide it into a couple of big skillets. Heat over a medium flame while stirring until the mixture become very thick. Then scrape it to the sides of the pan and splat a spoonful onto the middle, let it cook enough to start caramelizing, and then mix it in. Keep doing this until it’s fairly dehydrated. It’ll be about half its original volume. This could take 30-45 minutes. Add the onion/pepper/ginger mixture and keep stirring. Add the fruit mixture and stir it up and then transfer everything to a big bowl. Add the brown sugar, Krystal Wing hot sauce, the Arizona Heat mustard (just half the bottle), the raspberry preserves, the Coco Lopez, a few more tablespoons of the Chinese or Vietnamese chili/garlic, the other can of coconut milk, parmesan cheese, and the ginger seeds. If it’s still too thick and doesn’t look as though it’ll be enough for three pans of chicken, add a cup of water.

Put a cup of the sauce into the bottom of each pan and tilt the pan to coat the bottom. Arrange the wings in such as way as to get the most wing pieces possible in a single layer. Spoon the sauce over the wings until they’re all covered and all the sauce is used up.

Put into a 350F oven for 30 minutes, then turn down to 250 for another 3 or 4 hours. Cover lightly with aluminum foil for the first few hours. Near the end, check to make sure the chicken is falling off the bones and that the cartilage is cooked away. When the cartilage is gone, uncover the pans and keep going until the top becomes browned and the sauce starts dehydrating. You’ll know when it’s getting near done because the coconut milk smell will start to become very noticeable.

Thick leftover sauce on the bottom of the pan is really good on toast.

[trisham]

My husband makes the best buffalo wings. He bakes the wings, which gives them a crispy outside and moist inside, melts a stick or two of butter, mixes it with some Frank’s hot sauce, and combines it with the wings in a large bowl just before serving. Absolutely delicious.