Day 27: Buffalo hot-wings with blue cheese sauce
I love buffalo hot-wings. I was introduced to them on my first trip to the US and have loved them ever since. Contrary to the name they are not made of buffalo but are chicken wings (wing or drum or both). The origin is in dispute but all agree it came from the city of Buffalo. For me the taste isn’t ‘right’ if Frank’s RedHot sauce isn’t used and a lot of it! No dry hot-wings for me!
Almost every recipe I found called for deep-frying the chicken but I really didn’t fancy it so I found one that used grilled chicken. I honestly couldn’t say that the deep-fried variety had any advantage over this apart from speed.
The overall result was gorgeous! I will try to make a healthier version next time 🙂
The chicken
1kg chicken drumsticks
Preheat the oven to 210C.
Heat up a big pot of boiling water. Season the water like you would for cooking pasta (taste the water to make sure it’s salty like sea water). Boil the chicken wings for 7-8 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack so the excess water can drain off. Let them drip dry a little bit, then dry them well with a paper towel.
I was suspicious about boiling it but it is to render the chicken fat which helps to make it crisper.
Season the chicken lightly with salt and put it on the grill above a pan. Bake the chicken wings for 30 minutes on one side, then flip the wings and bake for another 10 minutes on the other side.
Blue cheese dip
- 150g mild blue cheese (such as Blue Castello)
- 1/2 cup (125g) light sour cream
- 1/2 cup (125g) mayonnaise (I made my own so it was a ‘light’ version)
Mix it all up. This was a lot of dip, a lot more than I can see 2 people could ever need, or 4 people.
In the future I would use 50g of mayo and 50g sour cream mixed with most of the cheese (I think that particular cheese is lovely on it’s own, once mixed it became weak), then top up the mix as needed for taste. Actually, thinking about it, I would be curious to try to use natural yoghurt instead of sour-cream.
Ingredients for the hot sauce
- 6 tbsp Frank’s hot sauce
- 2 tbsp butter
- dash of worcestershire sauce
- ground cayenne pepper to taste, optional
Heat up the hot sauce, butter, worcestershire sauce and cayenne pepper, until melted and combined.
Toss the hot-wings in the sauce, and serve immediately. Eat them while they’re still crisp, and coated with sauce.
