Chicken wings...hot, super hot or mild are a great treat for a simple meal, but they are at their best at a party.
Most Super Bowl
parties feature platters of this tasty finger food to munch on before during or after the game.
The concept of bathing deep fried chicken wings in peppery hot sauce was born in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. Teresa Bellissimo cooked a batch of leftover wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends.
The boys raved so much about the hot wings, that the Bellissimos put them on the menu the next day.
A platter of hot chicken wings with celery slices and bleu cheese dip earned the signature name Buffalo Wings and were an instant hit. Recognizing a great idea, Dominic Bellissimo, the son who started the whole thing, and Dick Winger, who
sold hot sauce to the bar, began a sales campaign to introduce the fiery snack to bars and restaurants around the country.
Since then, he National Buffalo Wing Fest has become an annual Labor Day weekend bash (located in Buffalo, New York, of course) featuring live music, 25 Buffalo Wing restaurants showing off their specialties, topped off by the United States Chicken Wing Eating championship. (There's even a "Miss Buffalo Wing".)
If you've developed a sweet spot for the combo of intensely hot spicy chicken wings -- with the cool bleu cheese
dressing and a celery chaser -- there's a basic recipe to try just up ahead.
Although creative chefs have delved into baked and broiled varieties of Buffalo chicken wings, the following is based on the authentic recipe that calls for deep-frying:
Buffalo wings recipe
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 chicken wings, split at the joints with tips removed
oil for deep frying
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup hot sauce
DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt.
2. Dredge chicken wing pieces through the flour mixture until they are evenly coated.
3. Add about an inch of oil to a deep fryer and heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Fry chicken wings for about 10 minutes or until golden brown, remove from heat and place on paper towels or metal rack to drain.
4. In a small saucepan, add the butter and hot sauce over low heat
5. Combine the butter, and hot sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted and simmer for a few minutes more until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and reserve for serving.
6. In a large serving bowl, place wings and hot sauce and stir together until wings are thoroughly coated.
Serve with plenty of bleu cheese dressing and celery sticks.
More about buffalo wings around the Web:
How
to Make Classic Buffalo Chicken Wings - Here's just one recipe for the original Anchor bar style Buffalo
chicken wings, but this one has the recipe for the bleu cheese dip to top it off. Many think the sauce is the best part of
the wings so this is a real treasure...
The History of Buffalo
Chicken Wings - Check out an interesting read on their origins, plus a step-by-step photo guide on how to make them, from the Kitchen Project.