Oven Fried Chicken Wings with Sesame Asian Dipping Sauce
The secret ingredient of Baking Powder and a two-step cooking process make these wings crispy and delicious without frying.
Chicken Wings were something barely tolerable when I was growing up when my dad would fry up a batch of Southern Fried Chicken. He would cut up his whole store-bought chicken, dredge the pieces in seasoned flour and fry them in a cast iron skillet with Crisco until deliciously brown and crispy. The chicken was invariably served with mashed potatoes, pan cream gravy and buttermilk biscuits. But the wings were almost always left last as the least desirable pieces. Breasts, thighs and legs (or drumsticks as we always called them) were the first you would reach for after mom was served first (a table rule at our house).
I remember the first time I heard about Buffalo Chicken Wings, and they had been around for about twenty years at that time.
It was in 1983 while working in the hotel restaurant business in Atlanta and we put them on the menu of one of our restaurants as an appetizer. My boss at the time, who was from Ohio, explained they were a big deal up north and were meant to be served alongside celery and carrot sticks, dipped in Blue Cheese dressing. Being in Atlanta, they didn't sell well at the time. The dish just wasn’t that well known outside of Buffalo, and most people thought as I did as a child, that the wings of a chicken just aren’t very desirable. We ultimately took them off the menu and as it turned out, we were about ten years ahead of our time.
Created by the Anchor Bar is Buffalo, NY in 1964, it really took almost thirty years for Buffalo Chicken Wings to catch on and become the national dish of football tailgate parties that it is today. The restaurant chain, Buffalo Wild Wings didn't start up national operations until 1982 in Columbus, Ohio, and it took them almost 10 years to operate twenty stores. That's about the time Buffalo Wings as a recipe hit the tipping point. In 1991, KFC added chicken wings to their menu, previously never selling them in spite of being an almost exclusively chicken restaurant. Even Dominoes, known only for pizza, started selling chicken wings in 1994. Today, Buffalo Wild Wings operates over 1,200 stores and chicken wings are ubiquitous.
It's really the original sauce that makes Buffalo Chicken Wings, which is 1 part butter to 2 parts Frank's Red Hot Sauce. And while that is still the most popular sauce to this day, scores of other and perhaps more creative sauces have emerged as a flavorful addition to the wings and the principle way restaurant chains try to distinguish their chicken wings from their competitors.
The problem with making this style of chicken wing at home is that you need a deep fryer. That creates an enormous commitment in terms of time and equipment, not to mention clean-up and storage. I was therefore happy that someone with a background in food chemistry came up with this two-step oven cooking method that will deliver crispy chicken wings with one simple, surprising ingredient: baking powder.
The only other important thing you need is the skill to separate each wing into its two edible parts. That takes a little patience and good knife-handling skills, but is explained in the tutorial below, compliments of the Betty Crocker website. However, we have found lately that chicken wings have grown so much in popularity that some grocery stores are selling the wings already separated.
Prepping a Chicken Wing: Step One
Place the wing face down on a cutting board and look for the bone joint between the tip of the wing and the "arm" of the wing. The tip is a largely inedible part and is to be discarded. Cut firmly between the joints to sever the tip.
Prepping a Chicken Wing: Step Two
Find the joint between the two remaining pieces of the wing. This will be a little more difficult because the joint is a little larger, but wiggle your knife until you find the "sweet spot" between the two joints and firmly cut downward to sever the two pieces.
Prepping a Chicken Wing: The Finale
What you're left with are two pieces of the chicken wing to cook. The upper wing is a single bone often referred to as the little drumstick. The lower wing is the double-boned piece.
Oven Fried Chicken Wings with Sesame Asian Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken wings (about seven whole wings)
- 2 tbsp baking powder (like, Clabber Girl)
- 3/4 tbsp Morton Nature's Seasons Seasoning Blend
- non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam)
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (like Kikkoman's Less Sodium)
- 1-2 tbsp dark soy sauce (like, Jade Bridge)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 dashes of hot sauce (like, Tabasco)
- 3-4 tbsp lime juice
- 1-2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1-2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp ginger powder
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the Asian Dipping Sauce in a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside for at least 30 minutes before using.
- Pre-heat the oven to 250°F with the wire rack in the lower middle part of the oven.
- Combine the baking powder and Nature's Season Seasoning Blend and ensure they are well combined.
- Rinse your chicken wings thoroughly. Pat them very dry with paper towels. The drier they are, they crispier they will become in the oven.
- Toss your chicken wings in the baking powder mixture and ensure each piece is well coated.
- Use a sheet pan or cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil for easier clean-up. Place one or two wire racks on top of the sheet pan or cookie sheet, enough to accommodate all of your chicken pieces so that they each have at least a one-inch clearance between pieces. Don't over-crown the wings because circulation of the heated air in the oven is important to this process.
- Treat the sheet pan and wire rack with the non-stick cooking spray, then lay out the chicken wings, skin side up.
- Cook the chicken pieces for 35 minutes in the lower middle part of your oven.
- Move the sheet pan or cookie sheet of chicken wings to the uppermost part of your oven, and turn up the temperature to 425°F. Cook another 50 minutes from the moment you turn up the thermostat. It isn't necessary to wait until the oven comes up to temperature to begin the timer.
- Remove from the oven when the chicken is a golden brown and crispy. Allow them to sit uncovered for five minutes.
- Serve after tossing in the Asian Sauce, or serve on the side for dipping.
