Buffalo Wings

Somewhere over a year ago, we discovered a place serving up buffalo wings near our house. Things started out innocently enough, as we ordered wings for the first time when my parents were visiting. Over the course of the next year, there were one or two more meetings with this lovely buffalo wing joint (no pun intended). Recently, my husband has been requesting it more and more often. I caved one night and agreed. Then he said, "We should do this every Thursday!"  Hold the phone. Definitely not! I had to find a way to make good wings at home, because once a week wing ordering was NOT going to happen here!

Tucked away in the back of my mind, for quite some time now, was Alton Brown's buffalo wing episode of Good Eats (The Wing and I). It was definitely time to bring up that recipe and put it to good use! After waiting over a month for the darn wings to go on sale at the store, I finally was able to pick some up and prepare wings, at home, for my buffalo-adoring husband. The method, although not at fast as picking up the phone and driving a mile down the road, worked out quite well and produced wonderfully moist and flavorful roasted wings. I ended up using a bottle of buffalo sauce we got from the Anchor Bar ages ago instead of Alton's sauce, but when that bottle runs out I will surely be trying Alton's.

Buffalo Wings
Source: Alton Brown

• 12 whole chicken wings
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.
2. Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
4. Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.
5. While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.
6. Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.