Baked Buffalo Wings

My husband is a huge wing guy, actually so are most men I believe.  The one thing he's very particular about is the crispiness factor.  Soggy wings are a big no no in this house but crispy wings are hard to achieve without a deep fryer and I dislike frying.  I'll do it, don't get me wrong but I'd rather not.  It's not even the health concern that gets me, it's the yucky smell in my house for two days after that I don't like.

I think I went on a tangent there.  Sorry.

Anyway, my husbands love for wings.  So one day I was at the grocery store and it was just about lunch time so I was looking around for something to make.  I suddenly got a hankering for wings.  I hadn't had them in a long time and it was time to whip some up.

When I got home I did my usual perusal of the Internet and stumbled upon this recipe.  I specifically typed in "baked" so that I would not need to fry.  Anyway, this one had good ratings so I figured I'd give it a try.  I'm so glad I did.  My husband proclaimed these as some of the best he's had and here's the kicker, they aren't even super crispy.  I mean they are and they aren't.  They are super flaky but not crispy like you would get with a fryer.  But the underlying flavor of the hot sauce and the combination of that with the flaky skin puts these over the top for us.  Definitely a keeper.

I wasn't sure if dipping these in the hot sauce mixture after they had been coated in flour was going to work but it was a winner.


Baked Buffalo Wings
Recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (I used Franks)
• 20 chicken wings

Cooking Directions

1. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with tin foil.
2. Put the flour, cayenne, garlic powder and salt into a large zip closure bag.
3. Drop the wings into the bag with the flour mixture and shake to coat.
4. Put the coated wings on the prepared pan and refrigerate for 1 hour. (I didn't do this).
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
6. Mix the melted butter and hot sauce together in a bowl, dip the flour coated wings in the sauce and then place the wings back on the cookie sheet. 
7. Bake the wings for about 45 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking until they are no longer pink inside.