3 Ways to Make the Best Chicken Wings of Your Life

Hey, what's up? Today, I'm gonna show you guys the secrets to making bar quality wings at home using three totally different techniques. I'm also gonna be showing you three different wing sauces that can be mixed and matched for use in any wing style. First up is the classic buffalo hot wing. For that, I'll need some chicken wings. For this recipe and the other two in this three-parter, I'll be starting with four pounds of whole wings, or 12 pieces. The whole wing consists of three parts, the drumette or the drummy, the flat in the middle, and then the wing tip. Now, to break this down, I'll authoritatively slice right through the joints at both the drummy in the flat and the flat and the tip. I'll save the tip for future chicken stock. Now, once I've got all 12 wings cut down into 24 pieces, I'll salt both sides liberally. Bar and grills would normally skip this step, but in my opinion, it makes a pretty noticeable difference without adding really any prep time. Now, to maximize wing crispiness, I'm gonna load these wings into a 250-degree oven to dry them off and to render the skin. Wet wings not only make for a frothy, bubbly deep fryer that's kind of dangerous, but it also makes for wings that have soggy, flabby skin. That's bad. Drying these out is gonna take about 15 minutes, so in the meantime, I'm gonna make the buffalo sauce. For that, into a sauce pan, I'll combine one stick of butter with 15 grams of minced garlic. Then I'll move that over to the stove and fry the garlic until it's fragrant and starting to soften, about five minutes. While that fries, I'll quickly combine 250 grams of hot sauce. I choose Frank's, by the way, as should you. Then 40 grams of wort and eight grams of cornstarch. The cornstarch is gonna help thicken the sauce, making it grip the wings better, but it's also gonna act as an emulsifier to keep the sauce from splitting into an oily mess. Back at the stove, once my garlic is smelling delicious, I'll add in my hot sauce mixture. Then I'll bring the whole thing up to a simmer. As it boils, you can see it's not exactly emulsified. That's to be expected. Just kill the heat and then whisk everything back together. The final texture here should be medium thick, like it should leave a nice trail when you push your spatula through it. If yours is thicker than this, it's probably over-cornstarched or over-reduced. No sweat, just add a little bit more wort and hot sauce and thin it out. Now, I'll just set this sauce aside and then check back on my wings. After 15 to 25 minutes at 250F, you can see they're nice and dry and the skin is really tightened up. This is gonna allow us to get that skin fully rendered and crisped up in the hot oil. Speaking of oil, I'm gonna add about a half gallon's worth into a heavy bottom pot and preheat it to 350F. By the way, make sure the pot is never more than 60% full. Any more and the oil would bubble over the sides when you added the wings and believe me, you would be mega bumming if that happened. And once my oil is somewhere in between 350 and 360F, I'll carefully load in a dozen or half of my oven-dried wings and then I'll set a timer for 10 minutes. And right about now, if you're wondering, hey Brad, can I make buffalo wings in my oven? Of course, but that process is a little bit more complicated. It's tricky to get right and I think it requires its own video. This video is about the best possible chicken wings and in my opinion, the deep fryer is the best way to do that. And after 10 minutes of fry time, the skin is totally rendered out and the wings have taken on some really nice golden color. So I'll lift them out, drain off the excessive oil and then move them right into a medium bowl. Texturally, you just can't beat this hot oil method for a classic wing. All of the fat in the skin has been cooked out and now we're left with what is essentially a chicken skin chicharrone. Now to finish, I'll hit these with about half of my buttery buffalo sauce and then I'll toss to combine. And those are some classic textbook buffalo wings. You guys, the chicken is juicy, it comes right off the bone and there's a perfect balance between tasty meat and buttery spicy sauce. These wings are probably better than anything you've ever had in a bar and they only take 25 minutes to make. The next wing is the Korean fried chicken wing. It's breaded, supremely crunchy and bathed in a spicy, sweet gochujang sauce. To make that sauce, I'll combine 100 grams of gochujang, 20 grams of grated garlic, 20 grams of grated ginger, 30 grams of hot sauce, 40 grams of sugar, 110 grams of honey, 60 grams of mirin, 60 grams of soy sauce and 200 grams of water. Next, I'll scoot this over to the stove, bring it up to a simmer and then reduce for about five to 10 minutes or until the sauce is just starting to get sticky. And I know it's done when the bubbles start to get bigger and the sauce grips a spoon like this. This looks great, so I'll set it aside and then I'll work on my chicken. Just like for the buff wings, I'll start by salting both sides of 24 wings. From there, I'll scoot the wings into a medium bowl and then add in one cup of all-purpose flour. I'll just give that a quick toss to coat and I'll say that the plain base of flour here provides the base layer starch right on the meat that's gonna help the breading stick to the chicken once it's in the fryer. And once my two dozen wings are all dusted up like this, I'll set them aside and then make the breading. For that, I'll combine 350 grams of all-purpose flour, 350 grams of potato starch. You can get this starch at most international grocery stores or off of Amazon or cornstarch would be a totally fine substitute. Next, in goes 15 grams of salt, 10 grams of baking powder, eight grams of garlic powder and eight grams of onion powder. To finish the dry mix, I'll just give it a quick whisk to mix everything together. And there we go. Next, I'll grab a second bowl and shake about a third of the dry mix into that. From there, I'll grab my whisk yet again and then use it to mix in some water. I'm using about 250 grams or somewhere in between a cup or two. Basically, I'm whisking in however much water it takes to create a light slurry that kind of looks like a melted milkshake. Next, I'll drizzle in about a third of that batter into the rest of my dry mix. Then I'll jump in and fluff it all together. This is gonna create a matrix of partially hydrated cracky bits. Those are what's gonna make this chicken extra crisp. Now, to bread these wings, I'll drop four or five at a time into my melted milkshake and toss to coat. Next, I'll lift one out and drip off anything excessive. Then I'll drop it into the cracks. Try not to get too much of this batter into the dry mix, by the way, because over the course of 24 wings, that's gonna get pretty clumpy and that will lead to over breaded wings. And once I've got all 24 of these little babies covered in crags, I'll move over to my stove and drop 12 at a time into 350F oil. And once they're all in, I'll come back right away with my spider and push things around to make sure they're not getting stuck together. Now, I'll just fry these for 11 to 12 minutes and then quickly thank Element for sponsoring this video. I don't know if you guys noticed, but hydration is very important. But staying hydrated is a lot more than just drinking water. You need the proper electrolyte ratio. And no, electrolytes aren't just for athletes, you guys. They're also for anyone who works out a lot, is on a low carb diet, or anyone who just pays attention to their health and wants to optimize their hydration. That's me. I've been using Element to stay hydrated for a few months now because keeping your electrolyte ratio in balance means keeping headaches and muscle cramps at bay. It also improves your cognitive function and helps you get better sleep. That's the important stuff, but the taste is also real dope. Salty. Element is super salty, but in a good way, especially in the mango chili. That's my all-time favorite flavor. So if you want to be a little salt doggy like me and try all of their flavors, you can head to drinklement.com slash Brian Lagerstrom and there, new and returning customers will get a free sample pack that includes a packet of each flavor with any purchase. The link is in my description. Back to the chicken. And after 12 minutes in the fryer, these little birds are looking golden brown and nicely crisped. So it's time to pull them out. One of the things that I love about using potato starch here is that it browns really slowly allowing us to fry these for longer, dehydrating the crust even more. These wings are outrageously crispy. I whiffed on that bite. Now to finish, I'll just slather with my gochujang sauce, toss, and then, oh my gosh. I mean, that is coming really fricking close to the upper limit of how tasty you can make a bite of chicken. That is hot. You got a whisper of ginger. It's a little bit spicy. It's a little bit sweet and tastes like Korea and Kentucky at the same time. Okay, the last wing is a smoked grilled barbecue wing. To start, I'll add 24 wings into a bowl, then dry rub them with 20 grams of salt, three grams of black pepper, three grams of onion powder, three grams of garlic powder, and five grams of chili powder. I'll just give that a quick toss to combine. Then I'll throw it into the fridge to cure it for 15 minutes while I head outside and turn my three burner gas grill into a poor man's barbecue pit. For that, I'll just take off one of the grates here, then drop down my wood chip smoker box. This little thing is super handy and pretty cheap. It perfectly turns your grill into a smoker. And if you don't have one, I'll link to this one down in the description. Next, I'll throw some soaked Applewood chips into that metal box. Then I'll turn the burner underneath it to high. By the way, my other two burners are turned off. This makes a two-zone cooking situation, so I won't overcook my chicken as it smokes. Once my chips are smoking, I'll just drop my rubbed chicken onto the unheated side of the grill, spread them out, and then smoke them until the chips are burned through for about 20 to 25 minutes. The temp of the grill during that smoke should be about 250 to 300 F. While those smoke, I'm gonna head inside and whip up some of Uncle B-Man's signature onion barbecue sauce. For that, into a sauce pan, I'll combine 250 grams of ketchup with 25 grams of hot sauce, 100 grams of molasses, or brown sugar, 30 grams of wort, 25 grams of cider vinegar, 25 grams of yellow mustard, 20 grams of minced garlic, 100 grams of grated red onion, two grams of chili flakes, and five grams of chili powder. Next, I'll just bring that to a simmer on the stovetop and cook for about 15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly. I wanna fully soften the onions and garlic and reduce this sauce by about half. And once the sauce has reached optimal stickiness, it's time to pull it off the heat. Flavor-wise, this sauce is somewhere between Sweet Baby Ray's and Open Pit's onion flavor. Back out at the smoker, these wings are looking very good. The skin has tightened up and dried off, and it's taking on a lot of smoke flavor. Now, you could pull these off right now, but I like to go just a little bit further on the smoke. So I'll refill my smoker box, flip the wings over, and then smoke for another 20 to 25. And after 45 minutes of smoke time, this chicken has taken on a beautiful honey color, and it's just about cooked through. Next, I'll move these wings off the smoker and into a bowl. Then I'll turn up the heat on all of my burners, turning this thing from a smoker back into a grill. Once it's ripping hot, I'll throw the wings back on and get them char-grilled on the outside. This is gonna render out just a little bit more of that chicken fat and sizzle up the skin. It's gonna be insanely flavorful. So I'll just close the lid and let these boogie for five to six minutes. And after about five minutes, ooh, baby, these wings are looking so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good, you guys, and they smell primal. Now, to finish these things, I'm gonna snatch them off the grill, bring them inside, and then sauce them liberally with Uncle B's Onion BBQ. A quick toss to sauce, and there we go. Sticky, smoked, grilled wings. In my opinion, these are gonna be one of the best foods that you eat this summer. Throw in some potato salad, a little bit of grilled corn, and just prepare to be stoked. Mm, oh my God, that is quite smoky for only being on the grill for 45 minutes. It's just enough to kind of grip the outside of this smoky wing, but it's not syrupy. It doesn't like wear you out. It's perfect. So that's three effective techniques for making delicious tasting chicken wings at home, along with three sauces to coat them. I really hope you guys try at least one of these recipes soon. And if you do, please let me know how it went down in the comments. Let's eat this thing!