Oven Baked Chicken Wings, Need Advice on Improvement

[bezwong]

Hi everyone, it's winter here in Toronto and cooking outdoors is a no go. So I'm camped inside trying to make the glorious BBQ.

Any meat that my family buys, i'm the guy in charge now. But sometimes people just want to do their own thing.

My mother thought it was a good idea to brine the chicken wings. Because brining a large chicken seemed to work just fine.

That was a bad idea since it just became really salty. Also the wings were not separated which lead to uneven heat distribution.

You can see that the wings have dark spots of burn from being closer to the broil than other parts.

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My idea to cook the wings was like this:

Broil 550F for 2-3 minutes each side for a nice brown.

And then i cooked it low and slow at 225F with a thermometer stuck inside the drum until it reached 160F before i took it out.

The texture was fine, taste was a no go.

I'd like for next time to make the wings have a texture that is almost like i deep fried them. But in the oven.

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Next time:
1. Don't let mother brine or season the chicken
2. Separate all the pieces into wingette, drumette, tips

Aside from that i don't know how else to make some bombing oven cooked chicken wings. I'm leaning towards honey garlic flavor or something sweet.

I'll be doing some research, I'd love some advice or any foolproof chicken wing recipes that even a monkey could cook

[texastweeter]

Boil the raw wings for 10minutes. remove and pat dry let cool and tack up. Put in ziplock bag with your marinade of choice (i like cilantro, siracha, teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds) thicken the marinade first if need be by heating on the stove with a bit of corn starch while chicken is cooling. let marinade about 15 minutes. lay wings out on nonstick cookie sheet and broil 2-3 minutes a side.

[HouseHomey]

Cut up your wings. Save the tips for stock.

lets start backward. Ii vary my heat depending on flavor profile/ingredients. The same rules apply.

I cook my wings anywhere between 325°and 400° convection. Higher heat preferred for crispy skin.

you may dry brine as normal.

You may brine as normal ( your issue was salinity or time, saltiness is salinity+time) a correct brine with the correct time and you are ok.

if wet brine, dry on rack as long as possible.

add rub and cook.

if you have a lot of sugar be careful with the heat and time cooked. It's just like the grill. I cook a 3/4 sheet pan of wings in 45minutes to an Hour (depending on size) on 375° convection, seasoning right before. Crispy skin, no issue.

You may then toss in sauce as you choose.

there are a million variables depending on brine/type, heat type, marinade or not, dry rub with or without sugar, are you tossing in sauce etc...

i would suggest you place pieces on a rack with just season crank the oven to 400° and put them in. Pull at 40 minutes and check them out. Go from there.

cook in the top half of you oven.

i will follow this post please keep us updated.

[Iron Bulldog]

Damn Homey wings are frozen. I read this post and wanted wings, may be a late night!

[HouseHomey]

Iron Bulldog. Im feeling you. I'm at work now and I've been craving them since yesterday. I had to drop some in the fryer about an hour ago.

[Spinaker]

Dude....Homey is the man for this. Trust me, this dude can crank out some wings, brother.

[bezwong]

Oh buddy, i trust you man. That food porn is really convincing.

[HouseHomey]

Dang I want wings now!

[bezwong]

texastweeter Interesting, i'm getting a lot of good ideas, it almost sounds like a reverse sear...except i'm hesitant to boil since it'll be like pulling flavor out of wings and making chicken stock.

Would it still work if i put my chicken wings in a sous vide bag with my marinade of choice (yours sound great by the way) and then put it in the water bath? I'm not exactly sure what temperature to sous vide but something like 10-15F below my desired temp?

So i'm assuming that i would sous vide it to 145-155F for my wings and then put them all in the oven to broil for 2-3 minutes each side so it would reach a temperature of 160.

[bezwong]

HouseHomey Dam that looks so good.

Higher heat for crisp skin, got it.

I had a feeling the chicken was wet brined for too long, and there was also mention that some of the salt wasn't dissolved either. So she probably overdid it on both of them.

What's the rough measurement for how much salt and how long to brine for?

I have me self some memphis dust rub, i haven't used it on anything else other than pork.

Care to share some rub recommendations?

For now i will do what you recommend, salt - rub - 40 minutes at 400F

[jfmorris]

If you want crispy skin at all, I would not be boiling the wings. I think that or wet brining will swell the skin up with liquid that keeps it from crisping up. Boiling and baking/broiling second also seems like more work too. Dry season or dry brine, like Homey says, and follow his oven directions. I don’t have a convection oven, but plan to try it. The time and temp are right there with what I do When grilling Wings.

[jfmorris]

I would sauce the wings only after they have cooked long enough to crisp up the skin, or toss after they come out of the oven.

[Potkettleblack]

That's how the wing places do it when they fry em.

[HouseHomey]

jfmorris speaks truth. There are a bazilliIon methods. Always akyourself, how will it be used? If crispy skin is your goal stay on the dry side of things as stated above👆👆

i personally like my breaded and fried in cast iron with at least 50% lard with a crispy panko crust.

secnd I like no coating and oven/grill baked and tossed is a sauce

[Bukowski's Burnt Ends]

This recipe by Kenji is a cracker. Give it a shot, very similar texture to fried-

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/the-best-buffalo-wings-oven-fried-wings-recipe.html

[bezwong]

Man that was a solid read with a lot of bird nerding out- it covered his broiling experiment that failed just like i tried. That guys is crazy, like brah 28 variations? Thank you for that post i was very entertained and enlightened

[Bukowski's Burnt Ends]

No worries, glad you found it useful. His book ‘the food lab’ is really good, very methodical approach to everything. You can get it on special online - it’s a proper tome of knowledge. 8 billion pages or whatever🙄

[shify]

Don't boil or marinade wings. I would dry-brine and leave on a baking sheet uncovered overnight to dry the skin and then cook at 450 for 35-40 minutes flipping once. Should give you a nice crispy skin but can always broil for a minute or two to further crisp it. Only then would I toss with a sauce.

If you do sous-vide it, cook it to your final desired temp, not 10-15 deg less, and then make sure you dry thoroughly otherwise the skin won't crisp up as well. I would leave them on paper towels for 5-10 minutes to make sure they are very dry

[EdF]

Maybe even longer on the towels.

[bezwong]

Hey shify. I agree with dry brine uncovered overnight, sounds good to me.

So i would cook it in water bath sous vide until desired temp.

But if i want it to crisp it in the oven wouldn't that go over temp? Or rather if i broil, or pan fry it - that would go over. What is it that you recommend?

[Baltassar]

I do wings pretty frequently. They are small, so do them hot and fast, not low and slow: broil or a hot bake, both good. No brine, just some salt as usual. If you can let them sit out the dry the skin, so much the better, since the skin is a feature. And the baking powder trick does work ...

[bezwong]

That baking powder trick i'm so going to use

[shify]

bezwong the amount of time needed to crisp up the wings won't do much to the overall temp of the wings. They are fully cooked, you would just be broiling or frying (or grilling) for crispness which shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Plus if you let them dry for 10-15 min, the overall temp will decrease anyway.

[Potkettleblack]

With SV processing, I would shock in ice water after cooking SV for ten minutes before taking wing segments to final prep. That will prevent overcooking of the meat while you are crisping the skin. I’ve done them with a run in I think a 400-450 oven and they came out great for buffalo wings. Baking soda and air drying also work as does deep frying.

[GadjetGriller]

I'm really good at spending other peoples money, I have found that Chicken wings done in my Air Fryer (with little to no oil) are Amazing!! Crispy and great tasting even with out sauce! Of Course adding your favorite sauce makes them even better!! Plus they cook faster than in the oven.

[bezwong]

An Air Fryer eh? First time i had to search that up on google. It looks like a coffee machine for fried foods

[GadjetGriller]

Lol I hadn't thought about that but your right they do! Great for heating up frozen foods, like French frys what truly sets them apart it grilled Cheese sandwiches!! but as stated fresh or frozen wings are dang tasty as well!! worth a look me thinks!