Sunday’s Football wings. . .my best sauce yet.
Well, for those of you ‘in the know’, I am a fan of hot wings. A big fan. For years I have worked to perfect the art. Which, of course, I still haven’t. But, I am getting closer, and this recipe is a further step towards a perfection that I will never achieve.
I have progressed over the years through hard dedication and the advise of others. And by ‘advise’, I actually refer to some harsh comments about a previous post where I baked the wings. Not sure of the exact phrase, but in my mind it rang as “You JACKASS, you can’t bake wings.” The reader didn’t really say that but not only was it the underlying message, the message was correct.
This ‘advice’ shamed me and caused the purchase of a deep-fryer (something which I had actively avoided for years, reason why can be read about here), and, I am sure, added a couple of extra pounds to my frame. Deep frying wings is vastly superior, and has created a little bit of experimentation over the last few weeks. The level of heat on the fryer as well as the length of time the wings bathe in the hot fat vary by fryer. Still working on that, and getting closer to perfection.
I actually use a Delonghi Roto, which works REALLY well. Has some great features including the rotary basket which spins during cooking. This model is wonderfully easy to clean, and the fat of choice (I use peanut oil) is easily drained, cleaned and re-usable.
This weekend I fried at 360 for 12 minutes per batch. Not quite as crispy as I would have liked, but they were VERY juicy, which was good. I think next time I will try 370 for the same amount of time. See if we can increase the crispiness of the wings.
For the sauce (which ultimately is the point of this post) here is what I did. It’s very basic (which sometimes works best). I thought it was really good. Wife thought it was amazing!
- 8 T of unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 2 t crushed garlic (use a press)
- 1/2 t cayenne
- 1 12 ounce bottle Frank’s Red Hot (it used to be called Durkee’s, and may be still called that in some places)
Seriously that is it for ingredients. Cook the wings as you normally would (deep fried works best, although if you MUST bake them, here is a post on that). Once the wings are cooked, keep them warm at 220 in your oven. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large sauce pan. Once heated, add the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes being careful not to brown the garlic as it will get bitter. Add the Cayenne, stirring just to heat the essential oils in the pepper. Turn off the heat, add the Frank’s, and stir to combine. Toss in the wings and serve with Blue Cheese dressing (or Ranch, if you must . . . another chastisement I have gotten from readers).
This should be enough sauce to cover about 4 pounds of wings. I cooked about 2 1/2 pounds and had some sauce left over.
These won’t be super-spicy wings, but they do carry some heat. I was sweating a little by the time I was done. And, as I always say, if they don’t make you sweat, its not worth the effort.
Enjoy!
