Superbowl Wings

Sweet Thai Chili Wings

I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really care about football.  That's not to say I dislike it though.  I'm a fan of anything that brings people together to eat and drink.  If that means I have to watch a football game to make it happen, I'm cool with that.  Superbowl could happen every month and I'd be happy.

As much as I love to eat deep fried wings, I don't like making them at home.  It's messy and the smell lingers for the next 3 days.  Not to mention the ever present possibility of burning the house down when I forget to turn off the oil or something like that.  To save you from that fate, I've adapted Bon Appetit's recipe for fried chicken into an oven baked chicken wing recipe.

And while I usually groan at the thought of people taking perfectly good foods and ruining them by making them "more healthy", I promise you, this isn't like that.  The chicken wings come out of the oven with enough crispiness that you'd be hard pressed to say they weren't deep friend.  Besides, with the amount of butter in the sauce, there's no need to worry abou these being healthy :)

Superbowl Wings (Adapted from Bon Appetit)

2 tablespoons kosher salt, divided

2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2lbs chicken wings

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Whisk 1 Tbsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder in a small bowl. Season chicken with spices. Place chicken in a medium bowl, cover, and chill overnight.

Let chicken stand covered at room temperature for 1 hour. Whisk buttermilk, egg, and 1/2 cup water in a medium bowl. Whisk flour, cornstarch, remaining 1 Tbsp. salt, and remaining 1 Tbsp. pepper in a 9x13x2" baking dish.

Preheat oven to 425F.
Set a wire rack inside a large rimmed baking sheet.

Working with 1 piece at a time (use 1 hand for wet ingredients and the other for dry ingredients), dip chicken in buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip back into bowl. Dredge in flour mixture; tap against bowl to shake off excess.

Place chicken on wire rack and bake for approx. 45min, depending on how crisp you want them and the size of the wings.

Sauce- I never measure this but the sauce is a mixture of butter, sweet thai chili sauce and Frank’s RedHot sauce.  I just heat it up in a little pot and pour it over the wings when they come out of the oven.  Feel free to use any sauce you want. 

They'll be gone before you know it...