Nashville Hot Chicken Wings

Marinating the wings

1. The exact sauce and marinade ingredients and the cooking method are usually a closely guarded secret of each cook and restaurant, so there is no single, definitive recipe. Nashville hot wings are largely a matter of imagination and taste, if you like. Buy chicken wings: stores often sell packs prepared for dishes like this, without the tips, or even just the drumettes, which have plenty of meat.

   The marinade for Nashville wings is a little unusual, but it turned out to be a very good one, and not only for chicken. It works for almost any meat that will be breaded and fried.

2. Mix the marinade. Take 1 cup of buttermilk or kefir, which is always easy to find in stores. Choose the thickest one you can, so it doesn’t run off the meat too much.

   

   Add 50 ml of brine from a jar of pickles, one egg and a quarter cup (50 ml) of Louisiana-style hot sauce. Whisk: the marinade should be about as thick as medium-thick sour cream.

   

3. Prepare and marinate the wings. Wash the chicken wings and remove any leftover feathers, excess fat and anything else you don’t need. If your wings still have the tips, cut them off – there is almost nothing to eat there, and they only get in the way when frying. Put the wings in a container with a lid or a pot and pour over the marinade – the chicken should be completely covered. Cover with the lid and refrigerate for at least 3–4 hours, preferably longer.

   

Frying the wings

1. Double-bread the wings. In a large bowl, mix 2 cups of flour (260 g) with 1 tsp of fine salt (6 g). Take the wings out of the marinade, pat them dry with paper towels and coat them in the flour and salt mixture. Then dip them in the marinade again and immediately coat them in flour once more. Lay the breaded wings on a paper towel so the coating can dry a little.

   

2. Heat the oil and add the wings. You can cook the breaded wings in the oven, but I prefer frying them in oil. Any neutral vegetable oil or frying blend will do. You need plenty of oil: the wings should be half submerged while frying, and the breading absorbs a lot of fat. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the breaded wings without crowding them – fry in batches if needed.

   

3. Fry the wings until dark golden. Fry over medium-low heat so the chicken cooks through without the breading burning. Turn the wings carefully so they brown evenly – not with a fork or a spatula (if you drop a wing, the oil will splatter), but with small tongs that give you a good grip. Fry until deeply browned: the breading should be dark golden and the meat cooked through, with no pink juices near the bone. Transfer the finished wings to a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up excess fat.

   

Nashville hot glaze

1. While the wings are frying, make the glaze. It’s easy, and all the spices are easy to find. The base of the sauce is equal amounts of real butter and lard.

2. Mix the dry spices for the glaze: chili flakes (often with the seeds), brown or muscovado sugar (muscovado works best), sweet paprika and dried granulated garlic, plus a little salt and ground black pepper. Mix all the dry spices in advance so you can add them to the glaze in one go.

   

3. Make the glaze. The lard can be store-bought or rendered from fresh pork fat: dice the fat and fry it until crisp, then pour the rendered fat into a cup and let it cool to room temperature. Heat the butter and lard in a frying pan. When the fat starts to bubble gently, add the spice mixture, cook, stirring, for 1-2 min and take it off the heat right away.

   

Serving

1. Brush the fried wings with the sauce while they are hot and transfer them to a large plate. If you like, serve extra sauce on the side.

   

2. Serve the hot wings warm. As most recipes suggest, they are usually served with slices of white bread, often with pickles. They also go well with French fries, vegetable salads or roasted vegetables.

   Sometimes the sauced wings are left in the fridge to soak up the sauce and served cold, or reheated – as you prefer. The sauce keeps in the fridge for quite a while; just reheat it as needed.