Chicken Wings

Fannymcslap

Hi guys, quick question.

Whenever I get chicken/buffalo wings in a restaurant they're the wee small ones that are just deadly. However, whenever I go to buy chicken wings in a super market the only things I can find are the huge ones the like of which you'd get in a snack box from the chipper.

Anyone know where the restaurants are getting their wings from!?

Cheers!

Dow99

They are actually the same. The only thing they do is cut the wing at the joint to make 2 buffalo wings from the one wing. This is really easy to do...
Also, Franks Sauce is the sauce that they use in the likes of Elephant and Castle... amazing wings!!!
Hope this helps!!

Fannymcslap

Dow99 wrote: »

They are actually the same. The only thing they do is cut the wing at the joint to make 2 buffalo wings from the one wing. This is really easy to do...
Also, Franks Sauce is the sauce that they use in the likes of Elephant and Castle... amazing wings!!!
Hope this helps!!

I never even ever considered that, thanks a million! Yeah I was actually looking to get a bottle of Franks and some ghee, apparently ghee is the Elephant and Castle's secret ingredient!

The Hill Billy

The Ballymaloe Cookery Book has a lovely hot wing recipe made from hot sauce & melted butter.

vibe666

Fannymcslap wrote: »

I never even ever considered that, thanks a million! Yeah I was actually looking to get a bottle of Franks and some ghee, apparently ghee is the Elephant and Castle's secret ingredient!

the franks hot sauce has always been the real secret ingredient to buffalo wings, you can use either butter or ghee to add to it.

buffalo wings were invented in buffalo new york in the 60's and i'm pretty sure they didn't have ghee there back then.

i actually prefer butter myself if the truth be told, ghee has a slightly odd flavour to it when used in wings imho (even as someone who is a big fan of indian food in general).

buy your wings whole from the supermarket and cut them yourself easily enough. there's a guide here, but the way i do it makes for an easier cut imho. you just stand it on the joint of the wing (as if it's leaning on it's elbow, so it makes a V shape) and the cut down with a vertical stroke at the joint and it should cut straight through the gristle instead of bone and go through relatively easily if you cut it right.

a large, very sharp knife is a must, obviously.

Martyn1989

where do you get the franks sauce?

vibe666

most superquinn's, supervalu or tesco's do it now.

there's 2 main types, buffalo wing sauce and original. get the original and add a big knob of butter to it as the buffalo wing sauce is just the original plus artificial butter added.

Dont be at yourself

Coca cola chicken wings!

WilcoOut

Lidl do a great bag of frozen chicken wings! already cut and everything. You can get em in spicy or mild and Theyre 3.79 a pack and they taste great!

vibe666

i've tried them and they're okay, but comparing Lidl frozen wings to proper buffalo wings (with franks sauce etc.) is like comparing cheap stewing steak to the best fillet steak you ever had.

WilcoOut

vibe666 wrote: »

i've tried them and they're okay, but comparing Lidl frozen wings to proper buffalo wings (with franks sauce etc.) is like comparing cheap stewing steak to the best fillet steak you ever had.

agreed!

thats why i never eat em without franks hotsauce dude!!!!!!!!

just letting the lads know where to get a decent bag of chicken wings for a decent price

franks is a must ad though

Martyn1989

Ok, me and the girlfriend where thinking on a wing feast tomorrow, definatly trying to get some franks sauce, really want to try it, anyone have any advice on cooking the wings, maybe making a blue cheese dip aswell?
All advice greatly appreciated
Thanks

Swampy

This dip rocks


Blue Cheese Dip

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients; chill for an hour or two. Serve as a dip for the Buffalo wings. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of blue cheese dip.

Dudess

Could someone please transport my mind out of the gutter and advise me as to what ghee is?

Martyn1989

Swampy wrote: »

This dip rocks


Blue Cheese Dip

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients; chill for an hour or two. Serve as a dip for the Buffalo wings. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of blue cheese dip.

Looks great, have everything except the blue cheese and the sour cream, gettin ungry already

MissFlitworth

Dudess wrote: »

Could someone please transport my mind out of the gutter and advise me as to what ghee is?

Clarified butter

Swampy

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Clarified butter

can be bought in tins in Asian/Indian stores.

Martyn1989

Had my franks sauce wings last night, pretty dam good!!!!
Got the original from supervalue on the quays, added it too clarified butter (unsalted) and coated oven baked wings in it!!! amazing!!!
Made swampys dip aswell, also perfect
1 tbl spoon Garlic mayo
1 tbl spoon sour cream
1 tbl spoon vinegar
fresh parsley
finely grated in blue cheese

not the exact same but it worked

Thanks

rubadub

You can make ghee yourself, I have never done it but it is quite expensive in most shops. I expect homemade might taste better as the tinned stuff is probably gone through a fair bit of processing, and you might prefer Irish butter.

SuiteCheex

Never heard of Frank's sauce before, I must invest in a bottle.

A few years back a mate of mine tried to figure out how to make the sauce you get in E&C/Tribecca, and I must admit, he got it pretty much spot on:

1lb melted butter
1btle Tabasco sauce (sounds incredible but it's not that hot)
White wine vinegar (just keep adding it until the flavour seems right)

Makes a shed-load of sauce, but luckily we eat a shed-load of wings!

Martyn1989

Strangely enough the centra at the bottom of the kilbarrick rd, next to Mchughs dont carry brown sugar but do carry franks hotsauce

Fart

Hi-jack!!!

Hey guys, I bought myself some chicken wings and Tobasco sauce. Will I be able to make some tasty hot wings from the Tabasco?

Perhaps melt a bit of butter and throw in lashings of sauce and cover the chicken wings?

Could I mix the Tabasco with tomato ketchup? They're the only sauces I've got.

I'll be oven baking these as I don't have a fryer. I baked them before with Nandos Peri Peri sauce and they were delicious.

Fart

SuiteCheex wrote: »

Never heard of Frank's sauce before, I must invest in a bottle.

A few years back a mate of mine tried to figure out how to make the sauce you get in E&C/Tribecca, and I must admit, he got it pretty much spot on:

1lb melted butter
1btle Tabasco sauce (sounds incredible but it's not that hot)
White wine vinegar (just keep adding it until the flavour seems right)

Makes a shed-load of sauce, but luckily we eat a shed-load of wings!

Is there a substitute to white wine vinegar or is it neccessary?

Mellor

vibe666 wrote: »

buffalo wings were invented in buffalo new york in the 60's and i'm pretty sure they didn't have ghee there back then.

Well i'm pretty sure they had clarified butter, although it may not have been used. Clarified butter is basically a high quality version of butter.

You are right about buffalo, and that they used Franks hot sauce. Interestingly the owner of bar was also named Frank, although it was his first name not surname (as in the sauce). Got this from man verses food.

Fart wrote: »

Is there a substitute to white wine vinegar or is it neccessary?

Just use normal vinegar, if you've no vinegar either buy some or leave it out, not a key ingredient the other two being important.

SuiteCheex wrote:

A few years back a mate of mine tried to figure out how to make the sauce you get in E&C/Tribecca, and I must admit, he got it pretty much spot on:

He got close, not spot on. E&C/Tribecca both use Franks. It's close to tabesco but slightly nicer due to the choive of pepper it uses.
One uses cayenne peppers the other tabasco peppers

Fart

Ok, they're marinading now.

I'll take pics later when they're cooked. Fingers crossed that they'll be nice.

vibe666

Mellor wrote: »

Well i'm pretty sure they had clarified butter, although it may not have been used. Clarified butter is basically a high quality version of butter.

You are right about buffalo, and that they used Franks hot sauce. Interestingly the owner of bar was also named Frank, although it was his first name not surname (as in the sauce). Got this from man verses food.

indeedy you're right, although it does look like there is some taste difference between ghee & the clarified butter used in the west, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarified_butter. man v's food is awesome.

except the slew of re-hash episodes they aired at the end of the last season, didn't like those.

Fart wrote: »

Ok, they're marinading now.

I'll take pics later when they're cooked. Fingers crossed that they'll be nice.

marinating in what?

you might get away with marinating them in franks if you're oven cooking them, but they won't get crispy like that and i doubt they'll be anything like the E&C/Tribeca wings.

cut wings > coat in flour/cornflour > 1h fridge > deep fry till golden brown > melt butter/ghee & franks together in pan > toss in wings > serve.

traditionally, people wouldn't be marinating wings in franks before cooking them, it's normally a post cooking coating.

Swampy

And a tip if oven roasting. Toss the wings in olive oil before throwing them in the oven. Really helps crispy up the skin.

Hot sauce goes on after cooking!!!!!

Martyn1989

I know its a crime to dull out the flavour, but my girlfriend dosnt like food as spicy as I do, (franks is too hot for her), any ideas on making the wings less spicey apart from serving it with sour cream/blue cheese dressing?

rubadub

Martyn1989 wrote: »

I know its a crime to dull out the flavour, but my girlfriend dosnt like food as spicy as I do, (franks is too hot for her), any ideas on making the wings less spicey apart from serving it with sour cream/blue cheese dressing?

Don't mean to sound smart but just use less? or make a separate sauce with a higher ratio of butter, you could make your own hot one, pour most of it on, then add more butter to the saucepan to dilute the remaining sauce.

Martyn1989

rubadub wrote: »

Don't mean to sound smart but just use less? or make a separate sauce with a higher ratio of butter, you could make your own hot one, pour most of it on, then add more butter to the saucepan to dilute the remaining sauce.

Ah its ok, what I was going to do was stir a little sour cream into the sauce, that should take the sting out
I wouldn't use a higher ratio of butter as both of us would find that a little sickening
I should really just tell her to 'man up' lol

vibe666

Martyn1989 wrote: »

I should really just tell her to 'man up' lol

you're right, you really should tell her that! :pac:

tell her that i feed wings at the regular strength to my 7 year old niece and she loves them so much that i'm not allowed to cook anything else when she comes to visit with her family.

my wife and i went out to a chinese restaurant the other night and had Szechuan crispy beef (amongst other things) and my wife asked if they had anything to put on it to spice it up a bit as it was bland (yes, she actually said that to his face, but she's pregnant at the minute and was really craving spicy food).

they bought out some chilli oil with loads of chilli flakes in it and i thought the waiter was going to make us sign a waiver before he'd let us have it, he was warning us so much about how spicy it was and to only have a tiny amount to try it first.

she horsed it all over the food right away and polished off the lot. i only had about a teaspoon of it (and i like my spices) and it was about as much as i could handle but she had at least double what i had and didn't even blink.

after we'd finished, a waitress came over and asked if it was okay and not too spicy and said that she was Malaysian and the chilli oil was too hot even for her and couldn't understand how we were still in one piece.

i should probably mention that when we met 10 years ago, she thought chicken korma was spicy and wouldn't go any higher than that on the spice scale. she's done quite a lot of catching up recently though!