Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

The wings

1. We make Buffalo wings with a fairly simple recipe, using ready-made sauces that are easy to find. As is customary, we use only two parts of the chicken wing – the middle and the meatiest part. We cut off the thin tip, or you can often buy wings with the tips already removed in big supermarkets. By the way, we prefer to bake chicken that has never been frozen – it’s juicier. And I’ve noticed that many people make this with drumsticks instead of wings – there’s much more meat on them.

2. Wash the wings and pat them dry with paper towels. Try to remove any leftover feathers and large pieces of fat.

   

   Use a sharp knife to cut each wing into three pieces at the joints. The thin tip isn’t used in this dish – make soup with it, for example.

3. Put the pieces in a bowl, season with salt, and add 0.5 tsp each of dried garlic and dried onion. Grind fresh black pepper over the wings and toss so all the spices are evenly distributed. Drizzle the chicken with 1–1.5 tbsp olive oil and toss.

   

4. Turn on the oven and heat it to 200°C. Let the wings sit with the spices while the oven heats up – there’s no need for a long marinade. Grease a baking sheet with a little olive oil. Lay out the wing pieces with space between them and put the baking sheet in the oven.

   

5. Bake for 30–45 minutes, depending on your oven. While baking, move the pieces around fairly often, about every 10 minutes – they stick to the sheet quickly and firmly.

   What matters is that the chicken is cooked through and starting to brown: when pierced near the bone, the juices run clear, with no pink.

   

The hot sauce

1. The wings will be especially tasty if you make a good sweet and spicy sauce. The original recipes used vinegar, cayenne pepper and real butter. Once the appetizer became popular, people started using ready-made sauces produced specifically for the dish. Interestingly, there are whole festivals devoted to wings, where anyone can cook wings with their own special sauce.

   Our sauce is very simple too. Ready-made Mexican salsa is hot and spicy, with cumin, coriander and quite a few other ingredients – it is there for heat. Thai sweet chili sauce works really well and brings a nice sweet-and-sour note.

2. Heat the salsa and Thai sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar, a little salt and black pepper. For extra heat, add coarsely ground cayenne pepper in small portions.

   The ratio of ingredients is entirely up to you. You can vary the amount of sauces, sugar and spices widely. If you think the sauce isn’t tangy enough, feel free to add vinegar or lemon juice. The sugar is easily replaced with thick honey – it only improves the flavor.

   

4. As soon as the sauces are hot, add the butter (2–3 tbsp) to the saucepan and melt it, stirring.

   

   Once the butter has melted and combined with the sauce, take the saucepan off the heat.

   

Baking in the sauce

1. Transfer the browned wing pieces from the baking sheet to a large bowl and pour the prepared sauce over them. Toss so the sauce coats the wings completely. Line the baking sheet with foil – the sauce caramelizes quickly and sticks to the sheet. Lay the wings on the foil. Use a brush to coat each piece with the leftover sauce – don’t waste a single drop. That would be sacrilege!

   

2. Put the baking sheet back in the oven for another 5–6 minutes so the sauce starts to caramelize. If your oven has a top broiler, you can put the wings under it for 2–3 minutes – that’s even better. After that, the dish is basically ready.

   

Serving

1. I’ve eaten this dish in many countries around the world. It was served in different ways, with different garnishes and special extras. But it always looked great! I recommend making a simple blue cheese dip. It needs no cooking and no complicated ingredients.

2. Mash a piece of Danish blue or a similar cheese. Add sour cream or soured milk, salt, black and hot pepper, and squeeze in lemon juice to taste. Mix thoroughly until there are no lumps.

   The dip can be anything from runny, like sour cream, to thick, like whipped cream. You can add finely chopped garlic, herbs, green onion or finely chopped chili – all to taste.

3. Cut the celery and carrots into sticks of the same size and put them on the plate. Set a small bowl of the cheese dip next to them and add the finished wings in sauce.

   By the way, I really like it when the wings are served on a dark wooden plate. This appetizer is usually eaten with your hands – the wings aren’t too hot to handle.