Even with all the fast food joints and pizza places in Oneida, I don’t know of a single place to get good chicken wings delivered from. Supposing that I could find such a place, I most likely couldn’t eat them, because of my diet. That’s why I was excited to see that in The Wing and I, Alton Brown had a recipe for baking chicken wings.
I decided to give the recipe a try tonight, so I picked up a cooling rack and some chicken wingettes at the store. AB says to get full wings and chop them up yourself, but I hate dealing with chicken, so I wimped out. As the recipe says to, I steamed the chicken wings, but I had to do it in a couple of batches because they wouldn’t all fit. I put the wings on the cooling rack but because it had some sort of non-stick coating, I wasn’t sure it would fare well in the oven. So I ended up just throwing the wings on a cookie sheet and baking them that way. This caused a bit of a problem as just a few minutes later the fire alarm went off. I couldn’t see any smoke so I just pulled the battery out, and went on cooking. For the sauce, I cut back on the butter since I didn’t think it was all that necessary. After 2+ hours of prep/cook time, I tossed the wings in the sauce and dug in. While they weren’t as crispy as I would have liked, they were a lot better than any other baked chicken wings I’ve ever had. Rather than being slimy, these were actually good. Inside, the meat was juicy and tender. Even so, I think I’ll have to do some experimenting to get the time and temperature just right. Some very tasty experimenting.
These aren’t my dinner. I’m not patient enough to take pictures before I eat. These are the leftovers that are currently in the fridge, taunting me. Eat me, EAT ME!
[Joe]
June 11th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
mmmm…those look very good. Now just figure out how to do a low-fat version of Zebb Original wings, and you’ll be my hero forever
June 12th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I’m with Jenny! Zebb Original wings are the best. Going to be hard to make those diet food, though, with the bleu cheese. LOL
For reference, I dropped the recipe in that recipe program I have. Here is the nutritional info for all 12 whole wings:
Calories: 1918
Protein: 109g
Total fat: 162g
Saturated fat: 70g
Cholesterol: 633mg
Carb: 2g
Fiber: 0g
Sugar: 1g
Calcium: 101mg
Iron: 6mg
That’s pretty good, actually, if you divide by the number of actual pieces.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I’ve been meaning to give this recipe a try. We actually do have a good wing place, but it just looked like fun.
Glad to know if works ok for people other than AB. Also, I think the cooling rack in the oven trick would help get them crispier.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:57 am
It would also be a bit healthier. The amount of fat that renders out while baking is amazing. There was something like 2-3 Tbsp. of fat left on the cookie sheet. That’s on top of the fat that comes out in the steaming process.
The estimate I saw for roasted chicken wings was something like 6-7 grams of fat per wing. I think you could do away with the butter altogether. That makes half a dozen wings, admittedly a compromise compared to my pre-diet days, something like 40 grams of fat. That’s doable with some low/no-fat meals the rest of the day.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
You could use a broiler pan with the holes instead. I think there’s one in your kitchen.
The butter also might add crispiness. Could you try olive oil next time? Healthier and maybe crispier?
June 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
The butter doesn’t get added until after they’re done baking. Besides, I think there’s enough fat in the wings to do all the crisping.
The broiler pan is an option, but I think the less surface area the wings touch, the better.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Wow! A real discussion on Schneible.net! I guess chicken wings are something gets all of our attention!
We’ve broiled bacon on a cooling rack successfully. Most the fat comes cleanly off you and you’re left with nice crispy bacon. Also from AB, I think. Maybe Jody remembers where that rather sturdy cooling rack came from?
Since I write this not long before dinner, those wings call to me too, Joe. The call to me….