Thursday, February 07, 2008

sauceless hotwings



On Superbowl Sunday, Jack had a hankering for hot-wings. So did I. So we set about trying a new way to make them. Inspired by my oven fried chicken strips, Jack made a buttermilk-based marinade for the drummettes. The marinade was spicy...


Seriously hot...3 canned chipotles plus a couple tablespoons of the adobo sauce they came in, along with about 2 tablespoons of Habanero Tabasco sauce were pureed together and added to about 2 cups of buttermilk. We filled a dish with 2 dozen chicken drummettes and the marinade, and let them sit for about half an hour.


The wings were then taken out of the marinade, sprinkled with garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt, then dredged in flour and deep fried in vegetable oil.

They were good. Perfectly fried, crispy on the outside, tender meat, good flavor. The thing that stumps us, though, is that they weren't at all spicy hot. You could taste the flavor of the habanero, but the heat was not there. We are not complaining...the outcome made us happy, and they will be made again for those occasions when guests aren't equipped with the tongues of steel we both have.

We do like the spicy, though, and are wondering why these lost that. The buttermilk seems the obvious culprit...as dairy does tone down the burn. However, we both tasted the marinade, buttermilk and all before adding the wings, and agreed that it was smokin'. Any ideas?

9 comments:

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Traci said...

Hi Steph, I really enjoy your blog. I think if you increase the marinating time from 3 hours to a maximum of 24 hours, you will get a much spicier chicken. I'd love to hear if it works!

Anonymous said...

capsaicin (the stuff that gives chili peppers their burn) is oil-soluble - my guess is that it leached out of the wings and into your frying oil

Anonymous said...

you are right the buttermilk cut your spicy down. i would do a vinegar bases marinade with tabasco and a lot of red pepper, crushed or powdered. then use the 3 step battering. first coat the chicken in a shake, which is seasoned flour. then dip in an beaten egg then dip flour. and fry. this is what i do an my chicken is always pretty spicy.

Anonymous said...

Make the wings first, with no sauce. sauce should be added on top of already cooked wings.

make a sauce of cholula hot sauce (it has a round wood top) and butter. pour on sauce after wings have been prepped and then dip in ranch for eating.

from New mexico.....

Sandy said...

The Buffalo version: roll the wings in Franks Hot Sauce, don't bother to marinate them. Then deep fry and serve with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. Forget the coating, for this recipe, save it for another kind of wings. Oh, I don't deep fry either, I just set them on a sheet pan and bake. They will be hot as you can stand.

Because I'm fat. And from Buffalo. Sandy

Anonymous said...

You should try letting it marinate longer. You could also try seasoning your flour dredge with some hot pepper powder.

Anonymous said...

One thing I have done in the past with wings was to coat them, cook them so they are well done. Then after you pull them out give them another toss around the bowl in the sauce and back in for a quick flash fry or searing. The old double dip.

www.jasonValalik.com

Anonymous said...

I was just about to make sauceless hot wings today and came across your post. I plan to finely crush cornflakes to a powder and add hot paprika. So, hot paprika on patted dry chicken. Put in fridge covered with buttermilk for 2 hours. Then before you fry in veg oil, dredge in spicy four, back in buttermilk, then in spicy cornflakes. Lots of spice and super crunchy!