Oven-baked wings that taste like they were fried

Food & Cooking
1

I’ve posted about this project in other forums I belong to, so I figured, why not here too?  :slight_smile:

Something I’ve been working on for several months is, to try to make chicken wings in the oven, that taste like they’ve been fried. My goal was to develop another method to make fried-like wings in the oven on days when either it’s not feasible to grill (raining, too cold, etc.), or deploying a deep-fryer indoors isn’t feasible.

Serious Eats had an article a while back about using baking powder + salt to dry-brine the wings overnight in the fridge, resulting in a crispy skin.

I’ve found that air-drying the wings in the fridge, overnight (for at least 12 hours, and preferably, for 24) on a stainless cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet, minus the BP/salt, can provide nearly the same crispiness as the baking powder/salt method.

This can work well for folks who love wings but are trying to watch their sodium intake.

I cook my wings for 1 hour @ 400°F (sometimes a little longer, depending on wing done-ness/crispiness). I also employ various spice rubs (pre-cook) and sauces (post-cook), depending on the flavor I’m after.

An early batch that went onto the grill instead of into the oven:

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One of the first batches that went into the oven:

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A pic of my latest work (these were also oven-baked):

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I think my wing obsession is likely incurable, but IMO there are worse ways to go.  ;D

2

Very nice.
In the winter time, I like to do them the “Alton Brown” way in the oven. They come out nice with crispy skin. He puts them in a steamer for a few minutes before they go into the fridge.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/buffalo-wings-recipe-1937515

3

I’m a wing addict as well, this is awesome! So you just spread them out and let them dry in the fridge? Nothing else? What do you use to get the dry rub to stick?
Care to share any of your favorite rub and sauce recipes? I’ve found a few commercial rubs that I like but I’d love a place to start on my own recipe.

4

Yes, the wings just go onto a cooling rack, with no add’l spices/rubs added, and then into the fridge for a 24-hr nap.

If you really wanted to, you could add a rub to the wings before their fridge nap, but the last time I did that, it smelled up the entire fridge, and my wife was none too happy about that.

To get the spice rub to stick, the wings get a very light shot of neutral cooking spray on both sides immediately before cooking, then I sprinkle on the spice rub (again, both sides), and then into the oven, on the middle rack, center.

I use Penzey’s spice rubs a lot (BBQ 3000/3001, Chicago Steak seasoning, Galena St., etc.), but even plain ol’ salt and pepper is fine.

For a homemade rub, I’d start with someting along these lines and tweak to your taste:

1 TBS each of paprika (preferably smoked) and chili powder

1 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and cumin

1/2 tsp each of ground black pepper and ground cayenne pepper

Some rub recipes seem to like adding in brown sugar; for wings, I say skip the brown sugar.

For sauces, I’m partial to Frank’s wing sauce (storebought), but the old standby of mixing melted butter w/ plain hot sauce works well, too.

5

Thanks.  :slight_smile:

I’ve seen the AB method, and one nice thing about my method is, it doesn’t require steaming the wings prior to baking, so one can enjoy wings in a little over an hour from when they hit the oven.

6

Thanks! Yep, I go with Frank’s as well, was just wondering if you had some magical sauce recipe [emoji12]

7

Drying out the skin for a day or so is the “secret” to  Peking Duck; why didn’t I think of using it on other poultry?! I might try it for a whole chicken!  For Peking duck they work to get some separation of the skin from the meat so it sort of dries from both sides.  Probably couldn’t do that on a wing!  Thanks for the tip.