Mid-Morning with Aundrea: Super Crispy Fried Chicken Wings

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Kristian Wiggins shows us how to make super crispy fried chicken wings.

Super Crispy Fried Chicken Wings That Stay Crispy (2 Wing Sauces)

INGREDIENTS US Metric

• 4-5 Lbs of Chicken Wings, drumettes and flats separated
• Fry oil
• 2 Cups of AP Flour
• 2 Cups Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Cornstarch or Tapioca starch
• 1 Tablespoon Baking powder
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Teaspoon of Garlic powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Onion powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Paprika
• 1 Tablespoon of Black Pepper
• 1 Teaspoon of Italian Seasoning
• 1 Teaspoon of Cayenne powder
• Salt

Buffalo Sauce

• 1 12 oz bottle of Franks Red Hot
• 4 Tablespoons of Unsalted Butter, Cold

Simple Teriyaki Sauce (the ratio is 1 to 1 to 1)

• 1 Cup Soy Sauce
• 1 Cup of Mirin
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• Optional: garlic, ginger and scallions (steeped and then strained)

INSTRUCTIONS

Crispy Twice Cooked Chicken Wings

1. If you can, prep the chicken the night before. Separate the flats from the drumettes by finding the joint that connects them and cutting through it. If you can get them separated so you don’t have to do it. Then arrange them on a sheet tray, season with salt, and let them sit in the fridge, uncovered overnight to allow the skin to dry out and to allow the salt to penetrate the meat, seasoning it throughout while also tenderizing it.
2. The next day, get a heavy-bottomed pot on the stove and fill it up halfway with your preferred frying oil. Slowly heat that up until its around 325 F – 350 F degrees. While that comes up to temp, prep the dredge.
3. In a bowl add the flour, the potato starch, the baking powder, the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, Italian seasoning, cayenne, and salt and mix together well. Transfer all but about 1 cup of the flour dredge to a larger container large enough to toss all the chicken, leaving 1 cup of the flour dredge left in a bowl. Then add the vodka and the water. The vodka is optional, if you don’t have or don’t want to use it, just replace with water. Stir to form a thin batter. Then add the chicken to the batter and toss to coat each wing completely. Then transfer them to the flour dredge and toss them until they are completely coated in flour. If you see any wet spots, get them coated, and then let them sit to hydrate that flour and dry a bit. If at any point you see any bald spots or wet spots, you’re going to want to make sure they get coated in flour. Let them sit for about 15-30 minutes before frying.
4. Once the frying oil is closer to 350 F degrees (we want the oil to be 325 F but we know when we add the chicken the temp will drop so heating the oil at 350 will compensate for that drop in temp), start adding the chicken a few at a tip, dangling them in the oil for 3 seconds to set the flour before gently dropping into the oil. Fry in batches of no more than 8 at a time. After a minute or two, use a Spyder or tongs to gently move around to make sure nothing is sticking to each other or the pan and then cook the chicken for about 5-7 minutes until lightly golden brown and then remove them from the oil to rest on a wire rack. Continue frying the rest of the chicken. This is the first fry and at this point, we want to let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes. This rest will allow any residual moisture to seep out of the chicken that will contribute to soggy skin. We actually want the skin to get soft so that we can fry it a second time to remove that moisture and produce an extremely crispy wing.
5. If you were entertaining you could prep the wings up to this point. Store them, then when you’re ready to entertain, fire the fryer oil and finish them last minute. Once the chicken has rested, increase the frying oil temp to 375 F (again, the temp will drop when you add the chicken so heat the oil to a slightly higher temp). Add the chicken but since they are already cooked, you can add much more chicken to each batch. Cook the chicken for a few minutes at that higher temp until the chicken achieves a darker golden brown and very crispy exterior. Then remove from the oil and let it dry a final time on the wire rack. This second fry at a higher temp is the key to the crispiness of the chicken.
6. Divide up the chicken based on how many sauces you want to use and then add them to separate bowls, sauce up the wings and toss to coat, then serve with blue cheese and you should have a wing that will stay crunchy even after being sauced.

Buffalo Sauce

1. Get a small pot and add a bottle of franks red hot. Get it on the stove and bring it up to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat off and add about a 1/2 stick of cold butter slowly whisking it in until the sauce is thickened, set that off to the side.

Teriyaki Sauce

1. Get all the ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and then cook until the sauce is thickened. This sauce significantly thickens as it cools so you need to pull it when it coats a spoon and holds a line when you run your finger across it. You can also use a plate to judge the thickness and consistency of your sauce. Reducing sauces is very much a judgment call. Just make sure you take the sauce off the heat before it really starts to glaze and thicken, by that point it will have gone too far and it will cool and become too thick. Once you have it to the right consistency, get it off the heat, and if you added the aromatics, strain and let it cool.

Original Source: https://www.notanothercookingshow.tv/post/super-crispy-chicken-wings