Buffalo Chicken Wings

Spicy fried chicken with a cool creamy blue cheese dressing. Just yum!

View Instructions

Servings

8 = 6 pieces each

Ready In:

around 30 minutes

Calories:

Be brave!

Good For:

Appetiser

 

About this Recipe

By: Sharyn

Original Buffalo Chicken Wings are not oven baked or grilled, and they don’t have batter on them – they are deep fried until the skin is crunchy and then dipped (while hot) into spicy melted butter. The buffalo wing is an unashamed melding of hot fried chicken, butter and hot sauce. Delicious served with rich creamy blue cheese dressing and accompanied by celery sticks to dip into the left over dressing.

If you like to line up your calories and keep them under control then go straight to the celery sticks, nothing for you here.

 

Ingredients

Chicken Wings

  • 24 chicken wings (tip discarded and then cut into 2 pieces)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup hot sauce, eg. tabasco
  • 1 tbspn white vinegar
  • vegetable oil for frying (eg. rice bran)
  • celery sticks for dipping
  • essential blue cheese dressing.
    See recipe below

Blue Cheese Dressing

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tbspn finely minced onion
  • 1 tspn finely minced garlic
  • ¼ cup finely chopped fresh continental parsley (don’t substitute with dried)
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 tbspn lemon juice
  • 1 tbspn white vinegar
  • 1 cup crumbled blue cheese 

Preparation is key. The wings have to be cut properly so that they are easy to eat and will fry evenly.

When frying use an oil with a high smoke point. My go-to is rice bran oil because it can handle high temps and doesn’t add to the flavour of the food. Avoid oils with a distinctive flavour like olive oil and peanut oil.

The hot sauce in this recipe should be Louisiana style, such as Louisiana Hot Sauce, Cholula, or Tabasco. These sauces are made by fermenting chillies in vinegar. You can’t substitute with tomato based sauces or oily dressings.  The recipe asks for ¼ cup of hot sauce but just keep adding if you like your wings extra hot.

I recommend you make your own blue cheese dressing – you could use store bought dressing but it just doesn’t have the wow factor of the home made stuff.

Which blue cheese to use? I like to use stilton or a stronger flavoured blue cheese for my dressing. It is the star of the show, but you choose the cheese that works for you. I have listed them from mild to strong:

  • Mild: The soft creamy blue cheeses, such as Gorgonzola and Danish Blue have the mildest flavors.
  • Medium: Stilton is a harder cheese with a more pungent flavour.
  • Strong: The creamy, crumbly blue cheeses are going to be the strongest. Roquefort dominates in the strong blue cheese category.

If you aren’t sure go for a stronger flavoured cheese and gradually add it to the other ingredients until you are happy with the flavour.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1

Preparation

  • Make the blue cheese dressing by simply mixing all of the ingredients together and seasoning to taste. It will keep for 5 to 7 days in the refrigerator.
  • Prepare your chicken wings – cut the bony tip off the wing and discard it. Then cut the remaining wing into 2 pieces at the joint.
  • Wash and chop celery into dipping sticks.
Step 2

Heat oil

  • If you have a deep fryer then perfect, use that. Otherwise a heavy saucepan, such as a dutch oven is ideal. Avoid deep frying in a shallow pan or a light weight saucepan.
  • Temperature is very important – too low and the wings will be greasy, too high and they’ll burn. Bring the heat up slowly until the oil is between 175 C (350 F) and 190 C (375  F) — best to use a deep-fry or candy thermometer if you’re not experienced deep frying. 
  • Fry the wings in batches until crisp and golden. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Each batch will take approximately 10 minutes.
  • Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. If you are making a big batch cover or place in a warm oven until ready to drop into butter dip.
Step 3

Make the butter dip

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan (don’t froth or burn).
  • Add the hot sauce and vinegar and stir to blend.
Step 4

Dip fried wings into butter

  • You could dip the wings into the butter in batches as they are cooked and drained,  or just place the lot into the butter and then transfer to a serving plate. Hot wings dipped into hot butter works best – the chicken seems to absorb more of the flavour!
  • Note: you don’t want excess oil to dilute the butter so make sure your wings are well drained. And the hot sauce can settle at the bottom of the pan, so stir the butter between dips.
Step 5

Serve hot!

  • Serve with blue cheese dressing, celery sticks, and carrot sticks (for that extra veg).
Enjoy!