Soup Noodles

I love chicken wings. They’re the best part of the chicken. Yes, even better than those wonderful soft tenderloinish “oysters” that are imbedded in the chicken’s back. Yes, even better than the luscious liver, firm gizzards and resilient heart. Those bits can be made into something delicious, no question about it, but you wouldn’t want to make a meal of them.

Chicken wings are cheap. That’s odd, really. They only come two per chicken, so they ought to be scarce. They’re easy to cook, so they ought to command the sort of premium that a beef tenderloin does. Why aren’t chicken wings expensive?

My own theory is that the relatively high cost of things like tenderloin and chicken breast in the U.S. is due to the influence of French cuisine ideas here. The relatively flavorless filet mignon (note the adoption of the French name) and chicken breast (okay, I don’t know how to say that in French) form an ideal placid substrate for the sauces that are considered by some to be the glory of French cuisine. Glory or not, this is the sort of thing that gets considered hifalutin’ cooking in the U.S. So the easily-overcooked, realatively flavorless chicken breast costs more per pound than a tasty drumstick or savory wing.

Consider the positive qualities of the chicken wing. It deep-fries to a beautiful crispness, leaving you with a perfect skin-to-meat ratio. It stews well, better than any other part of the chicken, and without a tendency to shed its skin. It’s actually hard to overcook. Wings fried 6 minutes in 375 degree oil are juicy and flavorful; wings fried 12 minutes are sort of gnarled but chewy and tasty. A single chicken wing provides its own variety — the larger bite of the mini-drumstick segment, and the ultimate meat-on-the-bone experience of chewing all those glistening bits off of the two-bone segment. It retains its flavor even in the presence of aggressive spicing. It’s fun to chew. It defies pretensions — just try eating chicken wings with a knife and fork. And, it looks cool.

So why aren’t there more wonderful chicken wing recipes? Actually, there are pretty many. It’s just that I haven’t found as many as I think there should be. I admit I don’t know what the French and Italians do with chicken wings as a separate piece, but I have enought respect for both of those cuisines that I imagine that they must have figured out something. The Chinese, of course, have not missed out on the special qualities of the chicken wing. More to come on that point.

Even the U.S., which barely has a cuisine outside of the South, has a special chicken wing recipe. It’s almost trivially simple, and really really delicious.

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Oil for frying

At least 6-8 cups. I prefer peanut oil for its ability to withstand high temperatures, and avoid corn oil, mainly for reasons of flavor.

Chicken wings

I like to make about 4 lbs at a time

Frank’s Hot Sauce

Very roughly, 1/2 cup of Frank’s per lb of wings. You MUST obtain Frank’s Hot Sauce in order to make the true Buffalo Chicken Wing. It’s milder than other hot sauces, or 1/2 cup of it would about kill you. Franks has its own distinctive and special flavor; it’s not fruity like other hot sauces. Substitution just won’t work here. But I’ve found Frank’s Hot Sauce to be pretty available in various parts of the U.S., which makes it pretty shocking to me that restaurant wings rarely seem to use it.

Butter

About 1/4 - 1/2 as much butter as hot sauce, to taste. Salted or unsalted, doesn’t seem to matter much.

White vinegar

A matter of taste. If, at the very end, your sauce isn’t lively enough for your taste, add just a little white vinegar to liven it up.

Traditional Accompaniments (optional)

Celery

Thick blue cheese dressing

Cut the wings into their 3 segments, discarding the wingtips or saving them for stock-making. Rinse them and dry very thoroughly to avoid spatter.

Heat the oil to 400 degrees in a pan deep enough that the inevitable spatter won’t set your kitchen on fire. Fry the chicken wings in batches until golden brown and cooked through, at least 6 minutes per batch, and drain on paper towels. You should judge your batch size by how much heat your stove can put out. I’ve made them with an apartment stove that could only support 6 wing segments per batch, and I’ve made them over my 30,000 BTU wok burner, which supports about 1 - 1 1/3 lbs per batch, and on some stoves in between.

Heat the hot sauce in a small saucepan until just simmering. Stir in the butter (cut it into small chunks first if it’s cold). You want that French “finishing a sauce” effect where they butter doesn’t heat so much that it turns greasy instead of creamy. When the butter is just melted, and there’s enough of it to get the balance between the rich creaminess of the butter and the bite of the hot sauce right (add vinegar if needed to satisfy your palate here), take it off the heat.

Put the wings in a large, low bowl, and pour enough sauce over to coat, then toss until the wings are thoroughly and generously coated.

Serve with extra sauce on the side for dipping. To be traditional, also serve washed celery sticks and blue cheese dressing for dipping the celery in.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 11:09 am and is filed under Recipes, Cooking, Chinese Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.