Buffalo Chicken Wings

If you think a restaurant is the only place you can get good buffalo wings you are poorly informed. I would even venture to guess that most restaurants don't even get them right and what you "think" are good chicken wings, are actually mediocre. The only way you'll be able to find out what good chicken wings are will be to taste them. Once you do that you'll understand what I've meant by the above. For good Chicken wings visit:

Amici (Mount Sinai, New York on route 347)
Mandalay Beach Bar (Clearwater Beach, Florida)
The Anchor Bar (Buffalo, New York)

So, when you think of the chicken wing, you should think of four things, and ranch dressing should not be one of them by the way. You've got wings, to and include, drumettes and winglets, the "sauce", blue cheese dressing, and celery. Now this is another one of those "no place to hide" recipes, as I call it. There isn't much going on so if you skimp out and get crappy ingredients, they won't knock your socks off. Lets start at the top....

Chicken wings, in their growing popularity conjoined with our ever effective capitalistic economy unfortunately inevitably yields one resort. Higher demand = Higher Prices. So, the best way around this is to buy the least processed chicken wing you can get. What do I mean by processed? I mean, buy the drummette and the little wing attached together. Cutting them apart takes a little bit of knowhow and maybe 15 minutes, but if you are making enough for a party or at least 4 people, you can definitely save some bucks. So, by your chicken from your local market. Do your best to get wings that aren't completely covered in gelatines fat and you have to make sure that they are fresh. When you get them home, rinse them under some cold water and set them on a racked baking sheet to dry. Go get your sharpest chef's knife and a poultry cutting board and take hold of one wing. Place it with the V of the drummette and wing facing away from you. If you rub your finger on the joint between those two parts you will feel a knuckle. There are a 100 different ways to actually seperate these two but basically you need to place your knife in the center of the knuckle and push down with some vigor. If you need help, call me. I'll explain in detail. Anyways....

The Sauce:
Listen, it's nice when people say, yeah I made my own bbq sauce, oooohhh I made homemade ketchup try it... But look, someone, somewhere, already figured out the best buffalo sauce recipe. There is no point in trying to duplicate it's magic, it's impossible and will probably cost you a lot of money on imported peppers. This sauce is the one and only Frank's Red Hot. It was the original sauce back in Buffalo, NY and in my opinion (and probably more than half of the rest of the countries) it makes the best wing. All you do is heat it gently in a pan and stir in cold butter until you get the desired heat level. That's it. Thats the sauce. No garlic powder, no salt, no cumin and smoked hungarian paprika. None of it. As Alton would say, all that's another post.

Blue Cheese:
I'm a big fan of making my own blue cheese. It's terribly easy and it lets you control the blue cheese you have in the dressing. I get the brown labeled store brand blue cheese from whole foods and it works excellently. Just search until you find one you like. The recipe is simple. Add a little half and half to mayonnaise until it looks like a loose chowdah. If you want a cup of dressing then it's about 1/3 cup mayo and 1/3 cup half and half. Add a little salt and garlic powder and pour in the blue cheese. I can't say how much, it just needs to be "enough." Let this sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Overnight is better but you should use it within 5 days or so.

My computer battery is running out of power and I need to wrap this up.

The best way to do the wings is:

Make sure they dry very well on the rack, you can pat them with papertowels if you get anxious. Salt them about 5 minutes prior to cooking. Heat up Canola, Peanut, Safflower etc oil to 350 degrees in a medium to small saucepan. The idea is you are going mimick deep frying (like in our hamburger recipe) for about 10-12 minutes or until they are golden brown and cooked through. Do them in batches, so you don't crowd the oil and drop the tempereture too low. That will make for a soft wing. After the wing is cooked you simply add it to the hot sauce and toss till coated. Put them right in the serving dish and repeat until all the wings are completed. They are amazing, the blue cheese is a great compliment. Need to wrap it up but I'll elaborate and re-write some stuff later.