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Ah, wings! Who the hell doesn’t love wings? It’s an all American classic and it’s never going away. It’s so versatile, from the different sauces and rubs you can throw on it, to the different ways you can cook it. Seriously, find me one person that would not get down and dirty with their sleeves rolled up, going to town on some wings and I will literally pay you! Vegans don’t count ;).
Anyway, wings are the shit so please pay attention! I’ve learned that it takes practice to perfect cooking damn good wings. You can’t just bake them. You can’t just fry them. They need to be twice cooked. And I will hands down say that Sir Alton Brown has the best way of cooking wings. Never have they come out better.
As you may have realized by now, this post will focus more on the technique of cooking your wings over how you dress them. Honestly, put whatever you want on them, I don’t care. Although, I do have to say that this jerk-buffalo combo is completely out of this world! But please, cook them right, because next thing you know, you have the most delicious sauce known to man ready to dress some soggy ass wings. I swear on the old gods and the new that I will personally come over and chop off your right hand if you do this. Okay, not really, I just watch too much Game of Thrones. In any case, please do not commit the sin of cooking shitty wings. Know it will take time. I warn you now; this is not a quick 30-min meal!
So Alton suggests that the perfect method of cooking wings is to first steam them then bake them. Steaming them is supposed to make ‘em sweat to get rid of the extra, unwanted fat that lives under the skin. Then, since your wings are now a bit wet and soggy, put them in the fridge uncovered to dry. Now, they are good and ready to be baked into crispy but still juicy, delicious wings!
The recipe you see below is for my favorite wing flavor: the incredible taste that manifests when you combine classic buffalo sauce with Jamaican jerk seasoning. The dry rub from the jerk also helps dry out the skin on the wings and gives them an extra crisp. But the best part is the sweetness from the jerk season that mixes with the butter spiciness from the buffalo sauce. It is truly fan-f*cking-tastic!
I like to marinate the wings in the jerk seasoning overnight to get maximum flavor, but if that’s not an option for you, I recommend at least an hour. That being said, I hope your not reading this recipe starving with a tray of raw wings next to you and people are coming over in 30 mins. If that’s you right now, you better go call Buffalo Wild Wings ASAP. But if you have time, perfect! Hop to it and come back later to let me know how this method and sauce turned out for you!
- 20 chicken wings
- 3 tbsp dry jerk seasoning (see below)
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- Generously season wings with jerk seasoning and marinate for at least 1 hour.
- Fill a large pot with about one inch of water. Place a large steamer basket in the pot and place wings evenly on the steamer basket. Try not to overcrowd wings. Set to medium/low heat, cover and steam wings for 45 minutes. The wings should have shrunken a bit when done.
- Place wings on a baking rack and refridgerate for 30 minutes. Make sure to situate wings on the lowest level possible in the fridge and line the bottom with paper towels.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake wings on baking rack for 30 minutes.
- When wings are almost done baking, melt butter in a small sauce pan, then add hot sauce and bring to a simmer. Once wings are cooked, place in a large bowl with a lid and cover in sauce. Cover bowl with the lid and toss wings until fully coated.
- Serve with ranch or blue cheese, celery and carrots.
*******Bonus Recipe!*******
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 2 tsp cayanne pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp all spice
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt