Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings (with Buffalo Sauce)

 

Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings

There are few foods more satisfying or popular than chicken wings. However, for the home cook chicken wings can seem like a daunting task. Why is such a seemingly simple dish so challenging to make well at home? The main reason is that most chicken wings we are accustomed to eating at bars and restaurants are deep-fried, which provides the crispy-crunchy texture we love. Unfortunately, deep frying at home is not exactly a mess-free activity, especially if you don't own specialized equipment. Thus, the question becomes how to recreate a some of the crispiness of industrial-fried wings within the confines of the home, and specifically using the oven?

Fortunately, the chefs and writers over at Serious Eats figured out a great way to make wings at home! Their technique for oven-frying wings is our standard at-home wing approach. Feel free to check out their article at this link, but keep reading below for our take and notes.

In the rest of this post, we hope to inspire your at-home chicken wing adventures by describing this oven-frying or roasting technique for wings. This approach creates wings that are extremely tender inside with a pleasing crispy-chewy texture. Our current standard (favorite) seasoning is a somewhat uncommon combination of an Old Bay Seasoning-based dry rub with a Buffalo-style hot sauce offered by the original Serious Eats article. However, the technique described here can easily adapted to your favorite flavorings. Experiment away!

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp fine sea salt)
• 2 pounds chicken wings
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp Frank's Red Hot (original)
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Crudité and blue-cheese dressing for serving 

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together Old Bay, baking powder, and salt.
2. If using whole wings, cut into drumettes and flats. Optionally, remove the wingtip from the flats, however we leave it attached. The wing tip breaks down really nicely in the oven and creates a crunchy, chewy treat attached to each flat! (Just watch out for the larger tip bone and knuckle bones)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Pat wings dry using paper towels and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle on the Old Bay mixture and toss well to coat wings evenly.
   
   

   

   Seasoned wings ready for the oven. Note the layout of pairs of flats (with tips) sections.

   
   
   
4. Line a baking sheet with foil and place an oven-safe wire rack in the sheet. Stainless steel, oven-safe racks are great for all sorts of things (roasting meat, cooling cookies or bread, etc.)
   
   
5. Place wing pieces, skin side up, in a single layer on the wire rack, leaving a little space between each wing. See picture for our typical layout - pairing flats plus tips makes for an efficient use of the space!
6. Optionally, place the baking sheet with wings into the refrigerator, uncovered, for 8 hours or overnight. This step supposedly helps to dry out the wing skin through a process known as dry-brining. (We have never actually done this and still love the results!)
   
   

   

   Oven-fried wings ready for saucing!

   
   
7. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Move baking sheet to oven and cook until browned and crisp, about 40 to 60 minutes. We typically flip the wings over after 25 minutes and then flip them back to skin side up after another 10-15 minutes (or 35-40 minutes total cook time). Our typical cook time is in the 45-55 minute range. Flipping the wings over provides an even, tender cook, but reduces the amount of time the skin is face up where it can more easily crisp up.
8.  Optionally, finish the wings under the broiler set to the Low setting. Watch the wings carefully so they don't burn! This step helps put a final crisp on the wings' skin.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Melt butter on the stove top in a small sauce pan. Add hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce to pot and whisk together over low heat.
10. Transfer wings to a large bowl then pour sauce mixture over wings. Toss wings and sauce to thoroughly coat wings. Move wings to a platter and serve immediately with crudité and blue-cheese dressing.

Oven-Fried Old Bay Chicken Wings