When I first made these, my initial goal was to create an authentic product. There seemed to be a lot of hatred in the world for buffalo wings if you didn't strictly adhere to the anchor bar recipe and the buffalonian method. I tried everything in the book, from coating, naked wings, baking, and frying. What I found was that the authentic and simple method was in fact the best tasting, BUT not by leaps and bounds. All of the alternative methods were almost as good . Also, I found that I HATED the standard homemade blue cheese dressing of mayonnaise, sour cream, etc. I looked around though, and found one that I honestly feel is leaps and bounds better than it.
note:
One thing I MUST mention is that naked, fried wings are absolutely not a good idea if you are making a large number of them in many batches. This is because the crispy skin on naked wings turn into flabby, sogginess in about 10 minutes of sitting in sauce. Naked fried wings only work if you are going to eat them within a few minutes of making them. In the case of making a large number of them and in many batches, flouring is a MUST to maintain a crispy, crunchy exterior over time. Naked fried wings have a bubbly, crackly exterior while a floured wing has a more crunchy exterior. For me personally, if I were making just a batch for myself or for me and my friend, I would fry them naked. Any more than 2 people however, I would flour then fry.
Baking is definitely a viable option but they do take longer, require attention so they don't burn, and need to be flipped a few times for an even crust. This does produce a solid wing, but is not my preferred method as the extra work and time doesn't justify its slight health benefits and slightly less mess when cooking.
I tried making the standard blue cheese dressing about 10 times and it just never tasted right to me. It was always either overly mayonnaisey or overly sour. I then found bobby flays yogurt blue cheese dressing and it was fucking amazing. Yogurt is already fatty, creamy, tangy, and thick. It's like sour cream, mayonnaise, and butter milk combined. There was no comparison between the two dressings.
yogurt blue cheese dressing:
ingredients:
1. 6 oz Olympus traditional greek yogurt strained. 10% plain
2. 3/4 cup Stella Blue cheese (crumbled)
3. 3-5 tbls whole milk
note:
Get the brand of yogurt I listed. It won the Cooks Illustrated taste test and is available at regular supermarkets. I tried other brands and they didn't measure up. Also, don't skimp on the fat and get leaner versions. The 10% is the fattiest version you can get.
Stella Blue cheese comes crumbled in a small plastic container and was available at my local super market. I can't speak for other brands, but stella tastes great and comes pre crumbled so I don't have to worry about equal measurements with other brands or solid blocks of blue cheese.
I found that 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese was noticeably lacking in cheese flavor, while 1 cup of blue cheese was too overpowering. 3/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese is a perfect amount. It is perfectly balanced with the yogurt so measure accurately.
recipe:
1. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and thoroughly mash with a fork.
2. If it is still too thick for your tastes, add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until you are satisfied with it.
3. Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat.
4. If at any time the dressing seems too thick, just add another tablespoon of milk and mix to loosen it up.
buffalo wing sauce:
enough to coat 16 wings (32 pieces)
ingredients:
1. 5 tbls butter
2. 1 tbls regular white vinegar
3. 1/4 cup tobasco original red
4. 1/3 cup franks original
recipe:
1. Melt down butter in a bowl. Put in other ingredients and mix well.
note:
This sauce has a nice tang to it with a slight kick. Its not too weak but not too strong. That being said, if you are with a group who wants something a little stronger, increase tobasco to 1/3 cup or even ‘slightly’ more if you really want it really spicy.
This recipe is a carefully practiced, trial and error proportion. Don't eyeball it, measure EXACTLY. Also, like most sauces, its difficult to tell what it will taste like on food just by tasting the sauce alone. At the very least, sauce one wing and taste it, then make slight adjustments to the sauce if you want.
buffalo wings:
ingredients:
1. 1 quart of vegetable oil
2. 16 wings, 32 pieces - tips removed and divided at the joint
3. Cup of ap flour (optional)
4. Pinch of salt (optional)
recipe:
1. Place oil into appropriately sized pot or deep pan and heat the oil to 375.
2. Pat chicken with paper towel as dry as possible.
3. If flouring, place flour and a healthy pinch of salt into a bowl and mix. Dredge wings into flour and shake and pat off any excess.
4. Don't over crowd the oil. Work in 2 batches if necessary.
5. Deep fry chicken wings in oil until done, about 10 minutes.
6. Remove chicken and drain on paper towels.
7. Drop into sauce and thoroughly coat.
8. Plate and serve with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.
note:
I won't give a recipe for baked wings as the method I used was to pre-boil the wings then broil them on high with constant flipping until crusty. Even though they turned out great, I don't feel like this is the ideal method for baking them and so will not endorse a baking a method.
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