OK, guys. I need a little advice. Whats the best way to do frying on your stove top? I don’t have a fry-daddy or any type of deep frier and I’ve got a hankerin’ to make some hot wings. I know you can heat up the oil on the cooktop in some type of pan, but frankly I’m a little unsure of how to go about it.
Care to enlighten me?
Make sure the pan is deep enough so that you don’t need to have it more than 1/3 full of oil. Get a deep-fry or candy thermometer and keep one eye on it at all times. Don’t let the oil get over 375 degrees. Also, if it starts to smoke take it off the heat immediately and put a lid on it.
You can re-use oil a few times; store it in the fridge.
Why kind of fat? Mr Alton Brown likes to fry in Crisco, others apparently use canola or safflower oil.
Also how much do you need? Does it need to be deep enough to totally cover the wings, or can you just flip it as if you were doings southern fried chicken?
I don’t know bout oil…I mean I don’t know what the prefered choice is, but as long as it’s one that can take the tempurature without burning, you should be alright. I’ve always used standard vegetable (canola) oil.
You want a heavy pan (the better not to scorch the oil) and one you can take things in and out of quickly. I’ve made deep fried dumpling in a wok, somethng wok shaped works well.
I don’t se why you couldn’t do them in a shallow pan and turn them over…but then that’s not deep frying is it? 
The idea is to submerge them, let them cook very very quickly, and take them out again.
Which is why the main thing you have to think about is the temperature. If you’re cooking in batches (as you almost have to be if you don’t want to heat up ten gallons of oil) the temperature will go down with each batch. Make sure it’s back up to the right temp. before continuing, not quite hot enough oil will result in soggy greasy food.
With a chip pan of course.
They sell them as a set, but you should be able to buy the basket seperately for a couple of dollars. Use any large saucepan.
Keep a fire blanket handy. In case of fire, do not douse with water unless you sincerely want to be burnt alive. I am not joking, I’ve seen a fire brigade demonstration. Prevention’s better than cure, though.
Be sure to line the area above and around your stove with newspaper and turn on your fans, unless you want to spend a few hours scrubbing grease.
Of course, you’ll be scrubbing grease anyway, but hopefully if you do it this way you’ll only need to worry about those filtery parts in your ventilation unit.
Or just get a splatter guard. It’s a fine mesh screen with a handle you put over your pan/pot. Works wonders.
Usa a deep, wide, heavy pan. Dutch ovens work well. Fill about 1/3rd with a neutral oil (canola, vegetable, safflower, etc.). Some people will fry in olive oil (not extra-virgin, though), but I wouldn’t suggest it. You want to fry in small batches at a temperature of 375 degrees. Remember, when you put the food in, temperature will drop. I tend to heat oil to 380 to account for this. Try not to heat oil above 400. If it smokes, it’s useless. A frying or candy thermometer, IMO, is key to frying on the stovetop; both a lid and a splatter screen help greatly.
You can reuse frying oil. I strongly suggest straining cooled oil through several layers of cheesecloth before reusing.
I’ve done this to make doughnuts.
I used a dutch oven, filled about 1/3 full. Definitely don’t fill it as much as half. You need plenty of pan wall height over the top of the oil to prevent the oil from bubbling up and over the sides of the pan and starting a fire. And those guys can hold a LOT of oil.
For quality control, a good thermometer is helpful. I’ve found that using the remote sensor thermometer that I use for cooking turkeys and roasts does a much better job of measuring temperatures for me than the candy thermometers that clip onto the side of the pan.
You don’t have to have a thermometer, but it does take some of the guesswork out of things, particularly if you don’t have the frying experience to allow you to eyeball things.
When I make wings, I don’t deep fry them. I use a frying pan with an inch or so of oil. Just flip 'em over when they’re halfway done, and they come out fine.
Which is why, when I am in the mood for wings, I stop at a local bar and buy a dozen!
I use a stock pot. The tall sides make for an easier time of it with spattering.
Use a thermometer and spider (a basket like spoon on a stick). Better than a slotted spoon or tongs.
Use a wok. I use mine for everything. It requires less oil to deepfry and is better than anything else for pasta due to the huge water surface area. You only need a wok turner and a Chinese wire mesh skimmer for all your wok cooking. I rarely use anything else now just a small wok and a large wok for 90% of my stove top cooking.
I don’t fry my hot wings… I know… travesty.
I lay them out on a baking sheet, season, and bake away at about 400F until they are nice and brown and crispy. I then toss in the buffalo sauce.
If I’ve got breaded wings, then I fry, but for regular, unbreaded, straight from the chicken wings, I bake them.
Make sure you have a nice deep pot. If it isn’t deep enough and the oil starts to splatter, the stove can catch on fire. Then because you are so accustomed to kitchen fires you will wait until the fire extinguishes itself. When it starts to brown the ceiling you will decide that maybe it isn’t going out on its’ own.
The chemicals from a fire extinguisher make your food taste really…um…special.
Or at least that’s what I hear can happen.
Just to clarify what everyone else has said:
Use a good heavy pot that has a tight fitting lid and simple canola oil. The two big things to keep in mind are
don’t fill the pot more than half way, when you add the wings the oil will bubble and expand–a lot!
pick up a candy themometer, Wal-mart has them in the kitchen section for about $2. Then keep the oil as close to 375 as you can without going over.
Other than that its kind of like boiling things in water, only the water in this case is highly flamable and is at 375degrees. Try to avoid over-filling the pot, that is to say fry up your wings in small batches. Then toss with hotsauce and finish in the oven for a few minutes.
Personally, I’d rather you didn’t use a wok. I realize there are billions of Chinese that would disagree with me, but I find them tippy and unstable. Its also not a bad idea to have a fire extinguisher on hand along with the tight fitting lid.
This cannot be said enough…If you’re using a pot with a handle, point the handle toward the rear of the stove.
This is what I do too. I use peanut oil.
If I was going to deep fry, I’d just suck it up and buy a Fry Daddy or similar - they aren’t expensive, only $20 or $30. It’s safer and less messy. I really dislike cleaning up splattered grease.
