Cooking: Buffalo Wings

Buffalo wings are really easy to make. You basically only need 2 main ingredients: wings and sauce. The rest should be easily found in a regular pantry. Yeah, it's that easy. Trust me.

 First, chicken wings. You can buy a party pack from the supermarket or go to the butcher like I do. I like the butcher because their wings are really large which makes for meatier wings. I really dislike scrawny wings. If I'm getting my hands dirty while eating, it better be more meaty and delicious food. Anyway, get your wings separated at the joints or do it yourself with a nice cleaver or sharp knife. Keep the drumstick and wing for the recipe. Keep the tips for stock.


Now marinate the wings overnight with salt, pepper, and chili powder. I use a sealable plastic bag. It's convenient and easy for clean up.

The next day, an hour before you plan on cooking the wings, take them out of the fridge to let them come up to room temperature. Unlike most people, I do not fry my wings. Instead, I bake them. It's just much easier for me to make them this way. And the taste is just fine too.

 I place the wings on a baking sheet lined with foil and non-stick spray in an even layer. It's okay if they touch each other but do not crowd them. Then into the oven at 425oF for about 30 minutes until they are cooked through and the skin rendered a bit.

 Once the wings are cooked, toss them into a bowl and smother them with buffalo wing sauce. I like to use Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce. The instructions mention to hear up the sauce with butter but I avoid that. The sauce by itself is much better. If I were to use the original Frank's Red Hot sauce, then I'd add butter. So coat the wings with the sauce until they're uniform and serve immediately. They're best when hot.

 On the side, I mad some blue cheese dressing using 1/4 cup of blue cheese, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 1/2 cup buttermilk. Mix well to combine. If your blue cheese is mild and you want more of that funky flavor, then add more. This recipe is super simple and you can adjust it to your liking. I made the dressing ahead of time so that the ingredients had time to meld together.

The wings came out really juicy and had a nice tang and spice from the sauce. The blue cheese dressing was mild but helped balance the spice level. Like I said, this is so easy and delicious that I can't find myself ordering out for wings again.