Winging it next weekend...

Gretl

I bought enough wings to do an Eggsperiment yesterday. I ended up doing Chef RD's crispy wings and a batch of non-coated wings (from Spin's coaching) and used my dad, Jim and Dan as guinea pigs. I had two sauces, a sweetish barbecue sauce (with bourbon, of course!) and the standard Louisiana hot sauce and butter. Half and half, coated and not. The winner of the vote will be used for next Sunday's get-together. The result? I need to do both versions, both sauces. Those wings were all FANTASTIC. The only problem is, I know they'll go so fast! I'll need to do a whole bunch. Do you think I could do a batch earlier and heat them before serving, or not? I am Egging the Dijon-bourbon salmon and a bunch of other stuff, too.[p]
Oh, and we discovered that Dan (13) is a wing-nut! He was absolutely a bottomless pit, and he preferred the non-coated hot sauce version. He gave me an appreciative hug after dinner and said, "Hey, Mom...you smell great. Just like chicken wings!" Eat your heart out, Chanel Number 5![p]Cheers,
Gretl

Zip

Gretl,[p]The non coated will reheat just fine. If you are using a fresh wing, you may consider a simple brine to keep the warmed over flavor down. If you are using a wing from Tyson or others that have the solution injected, I would skip the brine. Just cook them until they are just done, but don't render all the fat out of them on the first cook. The skin should still be like rubber. When you reheat them, just finish cooking them. Just keep 'em cold until you are ready to finish 'em up. The wings we sell in the shop are fully cooked and frozen. We just put them through the pizza oven to finish cooking, so it shouldn't be a problem.[p]Zip[p]

Char-Woody

Gretl, post's like that makes a old duffer like me wanna do flip flops...heeeeyaaaa. And reading that and watching Great Chefs on Discovery..and my tummy is hunger panging.
C~W[p]

Gretl

Zip,
Great minds. I had pretty well figured out that I'd only do the noncoated for the do-aheads. And I will be brining the wings; for the batch I just did, early yesterday, I trimmed them and clipped the tips; rather than refrigerating them dry, I put them in a simple brine, but I went very easy on the salt as I know how salty those dudes can get with the Louisiana Hot Sauce. I'll definitely brine them for next weekend. Thanks for the reheating recommendations.
Cheers,
Gretl

Cornfed

Gretl,[p]ST and I are cooking loads of wings for the 4th of July. I'm going to make one or two buffalo wing sauces on Tuesday or Wed morning with the usual butter/flour roux, Franks Red Hot, garlic and some herbs, and then some ultra hot ingredient like Dave's Insanity or perhaps even some real habaneros. This sauce is so easy to make and it's similar to the traditional butter/hot sauce mix. However, I like it much better since you can enhance the flavor with things like garlic, herbs, and I like to add some champagne vinegar. Also, the texture comes out thicker and in my opinion better as a buffalo wing sauce. Finally, you can spice it up with the uber hot elements.[p]Anyway, good luck with the wings!
Cornfed

Gretl

Cornfed,
I think your ideas are great, and I'll incorporate them into my sauce. I nearly killed off a few co-workers awhile back when I brought an enchilada casserole to a pot-luck; it was barely warm to my taste, but they were all gasping, fanning, and making these little "I'm really in pain here" squeaks. Go figure. IMHO, you just can't overdo the amount of garlic and hot pepper!
Cheers,
Gretl

BluesnBBQ

Gretl,[p]Another one you should try some time is tandoori wings. Just get some Patak's tandoori paste and plain yogurt. Mix according to the directions on the jar, marinate the wings overnight and grill. They look and taste great.

Gretl

BluesnBBQ,
That sounds great. I love tandoori chicken. And you can't rule out teriyaki wings, either. Gosh...I guess you could keep a large BGE chugging full-time on just wings!
Cheers,
G.

Wise One

Gretl, you need more eggs! Get yourself a couple of those mini fellows and just do different kinds of wings on each. I can get about 20 wings on my mini. Not enough? Then get a couple of smalls. NO, get yourself three more larges and then just cook up a storm. That should suffice.

Gretl

Wise One,
You didn't get your nickname for nothin'. Hey, I agree! That's my fantasy.'Scuse me while I quit my job and rob a bank. Oh, wait...is that Ed McMahon at my door with a big check from Publisher's Clearinghouse??? [p]Cheers,
Gretl

Wise One

Gretl, don't be silly. Haven't you ever heard about the lottery? :- ))