Flabby wet balls of chicken fat, instead of wings, was such a disappointment. It was in this moment I decided, I *must* figure out how to just make my own.
BUT, here's a secret, I hate frying food. Not for health or taste reasons (that would just be silly).
No, I hate frying for other logistical reasons:
1) It makes the house smell and the smell lasts forever. I don't need to smell like fried food for a week.
2) It gets this weird grease film all over the kitchen, I'm lazy, I don't wanna clean all that up :P
3) Like I said in 2, I'm lazy and I hate having to clean up all that fryer oil.
This meant that, somehow, baked wings had to happen. Christian and I agreed though, soggy flabby wings are the worst, the WORST, and, if I was going to do this, then I had better figure it out, fast. Thus internet research began!! Eventually I settled on a plan that was a combination of Pinterest science magic and good old Alton Brown. Needless to say, it worked!! Now I will share with you the second round, with my new combo recipe, plus all the fine tunes and tweaks made from the first round.
Ingredients
Wings, I did about 2.5 lbs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking POWDER (not soda)
3 oz Butter
1/2 cup Hot sauce
1 clove garlic minced
1) Prep a cookie sheet by lining it with foil and then putting a layer or 2 of paper towels down. Then, get a pan ready with a little bit of boiling water and a steaming tray/device. There are lost of ways to do this. I used a large shallow pan with a steamer basket. Place the wings in the steaming device and steam for 10 minutes. You will have to do this in shifts as not all the wings will fit.
When 10 minutes is up, place the wings on the waiting paper towels. Keep this up until all the wings are processed.
Now there's no need to sugar coat it, right now these wings look gross, and they are. These wings are NOT cooked. This step is to help start rendering fat out of the wings before you place them in the oven. Supposedly by doing this, it helps keep the wings dryer, and therefore crispier, during your baking process. WIN
2) Once cool enough to touch, put the wings in a big a$$ bowl. Sprinkle them with the salt and baking powder and toss all together with your hands till everything looks evenly distributed. This is where the cool science stuff comes in. The baking powder and salt are going to do their chemical magic, tweak some pH, and eventually help make these crispy little bites of yum. This isn't supposed to be a breading so its ok if you feel like the wings aren't just covered in stuff.
3) Remove the paper towels from your foil lined tray and place a rack in there. The rack helps air circulate all around the wing and prevents it from sitting in stuff while baking, both are crucial for non flabby saggy wings. Place the wings evenly across the rack making sure to leave space between them (remember when I said air circulation is important, let that air get all the way around the wing). Place this sheet of wings in the fridge for at least an hour. This gives the salt and powder time to work their magic. Mine sat for about 6 hours as I had prepped them in the morning.
4) Pre-heat oven to 450. Once ready, place wings on the medium high shelf of the oven, so they're up but not too far up.
Let them cook for 20 minutes the pull them out and flip them over. Place back in oven and cook for another 20 minutes. At this point the wings are technically done.
Now, we like to make sure they are good and crunchy, so I turn on the broiler and make sure to cook each side under the broiler till they're really crunchy. Times on this vary so you'll just have to use your judgement, I trust you. Here's what ours looked like.
You can see they look a little more brown and crunchy.
5) Melt butter and add hot sauce and garlic. Mix them together till thoroughly combined and then add the hot wings and toss to coat.
6) EAT THEM!!!
