Try cooking Buffalo Wings at home.

Football (American) championship season. Sports bars, beer, and spicy things that make you want to drink more beer. Darts, pool, loud conversation, an either ill-spent or well-spent youth, depending on your perspective. Once in my early twenties I happened to be in Buffalo, New York for a wedding of a dear friend. On our site-seeing day the gang of us revelers happened to drive right by the Anchor Bar, home of the “Original Buffalo Chicken Wings”. Did you know that Buffalo wings are so called because they were first invented in Buffalo, NY? I didn’t, and it had always been one of those oddities that gnawed at the back of my brain during these beer filled nights. In San Francisco we had Tommy’s Buffalo Burgers made with real buffalo meat. But buffalo wings? Hah! Mystery solved. Buffalo wings are traditionally deep fried. But we don’t have a deep fryer here at home, nor do I intend to risk my kitchen to cobble together one (once you’ve had one kitchen fire you don’t want to repeat the experience.) So, this recipe calls for broiling the wings after they’ve been marinating in a spicy sauce.
               

Buffalo Wings Recipe

INGREDIENTS

Wings

• 2 lbs chicken wings (about 12 wings)
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• 4 Tbsp bottled hot pepper sauce (like Crystal or Frank's Original)
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• Celery sticks (optional)

Blue cheese dip

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar or white vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced

METHOD

Wings

1 Cut off wing tips (discard or reserve for other use such as making stock). Cut wings at the joint. Put chicken wing pieces in a plastic bag. Set aside. Food safety note: when cutting raw chicken it is best to use a cutting board reserved just for cutting raw chicken. Wash thoroughly when finished. Do not let raw chicken juices come in contact with other food.

2 Create a marinade by stirring together the melted butter, hot pepper sauce, paprika, salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the marinade over the chicken pieces in the plastic bag. (Reserve marinade for coating after the pieces come out of the oven.) Seal bag and let marinate at room temperature for half an hour. When marinating is finished, drain marinade and discard bag.

3 Place wing pieces on the rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat for about 10 minutes on each side, until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Remove from oven and baste with reserved marinade. 

Serve with Blue Cheese Dip and celery sticks.

Blue cheese dip

Combine dip ingredients - sour cream, mayonnaise, blue cheese, vinegar, and garlic - in a blender or food processor. Blend or pulse until smooth. Cover and chill up to a week.

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