The room-dog brought home 4.31 lbs of frozen chicken wings. This is his way of saying, “I want delicious Buffalo Wings!”
Ok. So I did a bit or research here in CS, and it seems it’s all about deep frying and some mysterious product called Frank’s Red Hot sauce.
Never heard of it.
What I did read about, is that the original Buffalo Wings were created by a woman. Probably not named Frank.
So let’s assume I have no idea where Frank’s Red Hot sauce is in my local grocery, and I’d still like to make me some delicious wings.
I’m willing to deep fry. But gimme your sauce recipes. I like the traditional orangey-red colored tangy spicey hot makes-you-cough-style Buffalo Wings. Surely you don’t need this Frank person’s hot sauce to do it.
I’m totally open to other recipe tastes, too. I have a great Jerk Chicken sauce recipe that I think would be great with wings. But what do I do? Just deep fry 'em & then slop sauce on 'em?
I really want that original orangey-red sauce. I don’t want to seach all over town for that Frank’s pretentious asshole stole-it-from-the-woman-who-originally-made-it sauce.
Ah… I tried Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, and found it very, very good. Great flavor. Kills anything else out there, IMO (though one of my friends swears by “Texas Pete’s”… though he is from Texas).
I did mine much healthier, in that I baked the wings before smothering them in sauce. I realize to some its blasphemy, but I like it :D.
Still, there must be a recipe without having to buy Frank’s patented pre-bottled up version.
At any rate, how do you make the sauce ‘stick’ to the wings? Anyone can deep fry or bake some wings & then slather 'em with sauce. It’s just not the same as what you get at places that do wings, though.
Okay, I haven’t read the Wikipedia article, but quoting from your quote,
.
So she used Frank’s Hot sauce, but it sounds like that’s not all there was to it.
And you can’t say “Well, it was probably just hot sauce” 'cause I love hot sauces, and hot peppers, and everything hot. Buffalo Wings aren’t just “hot sauce.” I’d know.
You are confusing yourself. You said what was Frank’s Red Hot Sauce used for before hot wings. And I said it was just a hot sauce.
And yeah hot wing sauce is vinegar and butter, and salt and garlic along with the Hot Sauce. You can change up the spices a bit, but really, in the end, it’s really just hot sauce with vinegar and butter. It’s not exactly rocket science with the ingrediants ;).
Okay, so how exactly does butter figure into it? Butter seems to be emerging as another secret ingredient I don’t quite understand. You smear butter on the wings? At what point? You add butter to the sauce? You smear butter all over your hand and then eat the wings? Throw butter at your neighbor’s house and yell “Wings are done!”
Why would you put it in the bottle? You have to TOSS the wings in the sauce, right? So get the butter nice and melted, combine it with the hot sauce in a bowl and toss the wings in said bowl.
Or get Frank’s Red Hot Wing Sauce and skip the butter melting part.
It’s actually incredibly easy to make hot wings. The worst part is cutting up the wings.
I love classic Buffalo wings, but I love even more the Asian buffalo wings that I make for office potlucks:
Get five pounds of wings, cut each wing into three pieces and toss the wing tip pieces. Broil or barbecue the wings until they’re cooked through and toss them in a sauce made up of about 1 cup of bottled teriyaki sauce, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar, several drops of sesame oil, and 1/4 cup of Frank’s red hot sauce. These always disappear first off of the potluck table.
I had a buddy from the area show me how to make them a few years ago, and I get raves for my wings…
Cut up the wings as previously stated. Fry them (I actually use a stock pot to cut down the splatter) about 10 minutes per side. I fry the skin side down first, then after the other side is done, I turn them back over on the skin side for about a minute to crisp them up a bit. I haven’t deep fried them, so I’m not sure about the timing on that, but you can probably eyeball it and do just fine. They should be lightly browned and crispy, but be careful not to burn them (you’re screwed if you burn them). Toss them in the sauce and serve.
The Sauce:
Do not buy pre-mixed sauce. (that’s a good rule of thumb for just about anything)
You can use Frank’s or Texas Pete’s or Crystal, they all taste pretty good to me. I’m sure someone will come in and call me the antichrist for saying that, but whatever.
In a large bowl, combine a couple of tablespoons of melted butter, shake in some garlic powder and a little bit of salt (not too much, the hot sauce is salty), then adding hot sauce as you whisk it together. If you want mild wings, add hot sauce until it’s orange; the hotter you want them the redder it should be. I like a sort of scarlet color.
The butter binds the sauce and helps it stick to the wings better. I’m not Alton Brown, so I don’t know the science of it, but it may have something to do with the fat in the butter and the fat from the fried wings bonding or something.
Serve with some blue cheese dressing and celery/carrots. I also like to have some plain rice (like basmati) or some crusty bread, as those things are more effective at putting out the fire than liquidy things.
Oh, and a liberal amount of cold beer is necessary for your body to integrate all the flavors and textures.
