Chicken Wings a la Alton Brown

For those who are or were attempting to follow this blog, I apologize for my long hiatus. Things have been pretty crazy around here, and a lot of my writing energy has been spent dealing with the crazy things, or working on a novel in November for NaNoWriMo. (No, I did not write 50,000 words. But at least I have a start!) Also, cooking has been a bit on the back burner, so to speak. We have been on a very tight budget, and a lot of things that I have been cooking, I admit, really haven't been low carb at all. But it was food, and it did nourish our bodies, however non-optimal the nourishment may have been.

But I have several recipes that you might enjoy tucked away now, and I'm looking forward to trying even more. The size of my recipes-to-try folder (a virtual one in MS Word...any physical pieces of paper may as well be kissed goodbye in my house) is enormous. 7.97 MB and counting...

Anyway, last night I made Alton Brown's chicken wings. They were absolutely delicious. I am not a big wing person (mostly because 90% of them are covered in sauces that are painful for me to eat) but these were pretty amazing. They were amazing enough to consider making again even though my sauce needs a lot of work.

You will need:

12 chicken wings (or 1 5-lb bag frozen seperated wings). Remember, those are whole chicken wings, so you'll need 24 pieces from the frozen bag if that's the way you're going.

If your chicken wings are fresh and still one piece, hack them apart with a knife or kitchen shears. Save the wingtips for soup or stock. If they are frozen, defrost in your microwave or in the fridge. Normally, I dislike defrosting in the microwave (especially in a low-quality microwave like mine) because half the time your product gets steamed in places. However, you are going to steam your chicken first anyway. According to food guru Alton, this gets rid of a lot of the fat that otherwise goes up in smoke in your oven when you roast at high temperatures. Steaming allows later crispy skin without filling the room with a noxious black cloud.

Once your chicken has been prepared, you will steam it. Alton uses a nifty setup with a 6-quart saucepan and an ingenious threaded-rod-and-collapsible-steamer-basket assembly to steam your chicken all at once. Myself, I do not own a suitable saucepan, nor do I have the time or money at the moment to make a cool tiered steamer basket. I used the steamer insert on my ricemaker, which now functions almost exclusively as a steamer. It fits about 6 chicken wing pieces without stacking or touching, so I did mine in four shifts, defrosting one batch as the prior batch was steaming. The wings need to be steamed for 10 minutes.

Once your chicken has steamed, remove it carefully with tongs. Pat it dry, and place it onto a rack above a paper-towel covered baking sheet. I skipped the rack, and it still worked out ok. Cool your wings for at least an hour in your fridge.

After cooling, replace the paper towel with parchment paper. Argh, I know, parchment paper, but once you have it, you'll be able to make all those other annoying recipes with parchment paper. :) The directions are unclear whether or not you are supposed to leave the chicken on the rack to cook or cook it directly on the parchment paper. I recommend greasing your parchment paper if you do the latter, as I did.

Preheat your oven to 425 F. Once it's hot, insert your half-cooked chicken wings. Cook for 20 minutes; turn, and cook for another 20.

While your wings are cooking, you will want to make some sauce for them. My sauce of last night was tasty, but had absolutely no sticking power. Feel free to use Alton's sauce (see recipe link), or make your own. The best part is that you can customize the flavor, in my opinion!

When the wings are done, take them off the baking sheet with your tongs and into a large bowl. While they are still hot, toss them with your sauce. Eat them while they're still warm. Mmm, crispy.