Chicken: Wings Fried
by Lishka DeVoss

You can brine the wings before using. Up to you.

YIELD 16 wing sections, 2 to 4 servings

MATERIALS

sharp knife
long-handled tongs
sheet pan lined with wax paper for the freezer
sheet pan lined with paper towels and a rack on top for the counter
deep heavy pot for frying

INGREDIENTS

INDIVIDUALLY (ready to use):
8 whole chicken wings, all three segments
butter, to tatse
Crystal hot sauce, to tatse
corn oil for frying (lots)

GALLON ZIPLOCK (or a clean heavy paper bag):
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp dried oregano (optional)

PREPARATION

1. In your sink, prepare a big aluminum bowl full of room-temp water — nicely salted. On your counter, set out a sheet pan that will fit in your freezer and line it with wax paper. (If you have a small freezer, use two jelly roll pans.)

2. With a sharp knife, at the drumette joint, separate each wing into two sections (the drumette and the middle-n-tip). Then cut off as much of the fat and excess skin as you like. As you do this, toss your cut-and-cleaned wing sections into that bowl of salted water in the sink.

3. When done, dump out the water, put the wings in a colander, and gently rinse them off a bit. (Be careful not to splash water all over the place because you’ll just be spreading chicken bacteria around. Make certain you clean off the faucet and handles when you’re done, too.)

4. Using your hand, gently shake some excess water off and flour the wing sections 2 or 3 at a time in GALLON ZIPLOCK. (The point is to not let the flour mixture get mushy on the wings or in the bag — the lighter the better — so quickly toss only a few wings at a time.) Then use tongs to grab and shake off any excess flour mixture and put your wings on the freezer sheet pan(s). Do NOT overlap the wings in any way.

5. When done, place the wings in the freezer for 30 minutes. Wash off your tongs; you’re going to need them.

6. On the counter, line a sheet pan with paper towels and place a rack on top.

7. When ready, in a deep heavy pot, start heating up enough corn oil so that a cooked wing section will float. When you flick some water into the oil and it sizzles immediately — the oil is ready.

8. Pull your wings out of the freezer and start frying. Using long-handled tongs, carefully lower one wing section at a time into the pot. (If your first one doesn’t dramatically sizzle and bubble when you lower it into the hot oil — the oil isn’t ready. Use a sacrificial solo drumette if you’re not certain it’s hot enough. If it isn’t, just let it fry until it floats and then start the rest of your fry. Don’t crowd the wings in the pot because each one lowers the oil’s temperature when added and the oil needs to recover quickly to keep frying consistently.)

9. When a wing section floats for about 10 to 20 seconds (size matters!) it is ready to be taken out of the hot oil. Let the wings rest on the wire rack for a few minutes at least — they are still technically cooking even though they are out of the oil. They will get darker in color on the rack.

10. In a separate small sauce pan, add some butter and Crystal hot sauce — about a 1:2 ratio — heat and whisk together.

TO SERVE Use your Crystal-butter as a dip or just spoon some over each wing section as you eat it. Do NOT pour this sauce over your plate of wings or they will get soggy (yuck!) and taste heavy with fat (double yuck!). Or, to save calories (ha-ha, you ARE eating fried chicken) — just sprinkle any good hot sauce on each crispy wing section right before taking a bite.

Updated 2020-04-27

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