Wings a la Alton Brown
Years back I saw an episode of "good eats" (what ever happened to that show?) where he made buffalo wings. I tried it out, found that I loved them, and have been making them ever since.. Perfect food for superbowl.
First, I get whole wings and butcher them myself. It is much cheaper this way. I remove and toss out the wing tips, and cut them into winglets and drumets.
I then steam them for 25 minutes. This cooks them, moistens them, and (most importantly) removes a lot of the fat so that the wings do not catch fire in the oven.
Once steamed, I cool them over night in the fridge.
The next day, I cook them on a wire rack that is sitting on a sheet pan (to catch the drippings). I blast them in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes, flip the wings over, then cook for another 25 minutes (again at 450).
This high temp actually fries the chicken in its own fat. resulting in tender, moist meat with "tissue paper" skin. I can not tell you how fantastic they turned out!
For sauce, I made my own.. A shot of garlic, 1 stick of melted butter, 1/2 cup of hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Whisk until blended. Add wings hot out of the oven into the sauce and toss. serve with celery and ranch dressing on the side.
I made a boat load of these wings. They lasted 20 minutes and then were all gone! They actually went faster than the shrimp!
Sorry that I only have a couple of pictures. I was cooking several things at once and simply forgot to take more.
Here are the few pics that I took.
- two family packs of wings
- showing half of the cut up wings because...
- the first half is in the steamer.
