The question is a little academic at this point, as the offenders themselves are actually in the oven right now with nary but salt and pepper. I decided to go minimalist for my first serious seasoning effort. (And no, I didn’t toss them in the sauce before putting them in the oven. I like 'em nice and drippy, and the idea of shaking baked wings in the same thing of sauce as I just shook raw chicken in an hour earlier is not appealing.) Anyway, do share your secrets, if you can.
My method: remove wing tips and separate drummettes. Toss in flour seasoned liberally with Tony Chachere’s seasoned salt. Deep fry for 8 minutes, being careful not to overload the fryer. Remove to a cookie sheet equipped with a wire rack in a 225F degree oven. When they’re all finished, I toss in the sauce - optimally 40% butter (life’s too short for margarine) and 60% Frank’s hot sauce.
Optimally, wings are best tossed in the hot sauce directly from the fryer and consumed immediately, but this is hard to do unless you’ve got a massive fryer. Hence my oven method. Adds “Fry Daddy” to Christmas wish list I save the wings in the freezer for stock along with backs and necks from whole chickens.
Man now I think I want wings for dinner.
I was looking for answers to this about a month ago, too. Everywhere I looked everyone said half margarine and half Frank’s Red Hot… but I would much rather use another hot sauce or roll my own wing sauce. I don’t have much to add but consider this a subscription bump.
You’re talking about sauce, I’m talking about seasoning. Margarine (or butter) and Frank’s Red Hot is the accepted recipe for Buffalo sauce–it’s pretty much the thing that defines Buffalo chicken as Buffalo chicken, really. 1:1 is a decent ratio if you’re really wimpy about your hot sauce. No offense, I know some people are. At Wings N Things (I know, not exactly the Anchor Bar, but I live in freakin’ California, cut me some slack), the Mild sauce is 1:1, the Medium is 2:1 Frank’s:butter, and the Hot is 3:1. I make my sauce to taste, but I would estimate that it’s at least 3.5:1. Probably more like 4 or 4.5.
AIUI, margarine is typically preferred by Buffalo sauce puritans because it lends the sauce the exact consistency and flavor of the original stuff at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, not because it’s lighter. But I use butter because I have tons of butter in the fridge and no margarine.
I would also mention that authentic buffalo wings should not have any coating or batter on them whatsoever, and they should also not be baked. They need to be deep fried in oil, then immediately moved to a bowl, then dump the sauce on them and toss them around to coat.
I do not season my wings, but I will add a couple extra ingredients to the sauce. I still go with the standard 1:1 ratio of margarine to hot sauce, however. If I want to kick it up hotter, I do not alter the ratio, I simply add a hotter sauce in addition to the red hot. You can’t mess with the amount of margarine without seriously messing up how it sticks and reacts to the chicken.
I don’t have a deep fryer though, and anyway I’m watching my weight.
What, exactly, do you add to the sauce? Inquiring minds need to know!
heh I thought you might ask. OK, I guess I can trust you.
I add garlic powder, onion powder, soy sauce, ketchup, tabasco sauce, and worcestershire sauce. In small amounts, of course. I dont want to overpower the sauce, or change the essence of what it is, but simply add a little something that makes it a little different.
And you don’t need a deep fryer. I use a cast iron dutch oven to deep fry in. The cast iron keeps the temperature much more consistent. And truthfully, the weight thing is not going to hinge on deep frying. Deep frying gets a bad rap, but if it is done at high temperatures, the amount of oil added to the food is miniscule. Less than a tablespoon.
Really, the place where you are getting a lot of calories from is the margarine or butter. So I say if you are going to make hot wings, you might as well go all out. Just dont have them every day.
Interesting! I’ve thought of adding garlic powder, but I must say that none of the other ones occurred to me. Seeing as I’m not a huge fan of Tabasco, do you think something like Crystal Extra Hot would go well in its stead? I guess I might as well try it myself, anyway…
I agree with everything said here, including the margarine part. You know your wings.
When I want to sex up my wings a little, I add any of the following:
Yellow mustard (this is my standard addition to Buffalo wings)
Freshly crushed garlic
Honey (this cuts the acidity and seems to perk up the other flavors. Passed on to me by a Buffalonian)
Worcestershire (only a little bit)
Tabasco (although I usually prefer this tableside)
Cajun/creole seasoning
And I just deep fry in a pot. No need for a deep fryer.
Absolutely. Whatever extra hot sauce you like. I am just trying to kick the temperature up a notch, without upsetting the proportion between hot sauce and margarine. So if you are partial to some other sauce besides tabasco, use it instead. Just don’t mess with the amount of Red Hot and margarine.
I asked because I’ve heard people say that adding hot sauce to hot sauce provides “more hot” without actually making the whole thing “hotter”, per se. I haven’t mixed hot sauce enough to say for myself, having never really seen a reason to.
I have to think that any seasoning you put on the wings before you cook them is going to be overwhelmed by the sauce. I just throw on some salt and pepper and throw them in the oven.
Agree 100% - a lot of calories also come from the skin.
I added garlic powder to my sauce this evening. Holy hot damn, that’s good eats. Wings, beer and celery - a complete and balanced dinner. 
You missed the ranch or blue cheese. That’s your dairy. THEN you have a balanced dinner. 
But I put butter in the sauce! That counts as dairy, right?
There’s a durkee’s buffalo wing seasoning that is a pretty effective generic seasoning. Comes in a big pro kitchen size and is good as a subtle seasoning to breadings and batters, as well. Has some serious cayenne kick.
Of course this is a dry seasoning mix and is really only suitable for baked wings.
It is a good seaoning layer, however, to a final baked and sauced wing. That is one of the advantages to baked wings. A baked in, basted, seasoning layer propitious to the added fresh spice layers of the saucing.
Yep you are right. Totally forgot that butter equals dairy. Carry on then.
You people add margarine to Franks? Straight Franks here, some celery, and some Jimmy’s Ranch Dressing. Nothing else is needed.
Until an actual Buffalonian chimes in, I feel compelled to pipe up on behalf of our neighbours*: if you’re making “Buffalo wings,” you gots to put in the margarine.
- The spelling should tell you where I’m situated in relation to Buffalo.