Fresh or Quick-Frozen Wings

mollyshark

Do most of you use fresh or those flash-frozen wings for your buffalo wings? I realize you can't really marinade frozen wings, but what about for the mop on some sauce and go type? It would seem pretty handy to keep a sack of those in the freezer. I use other flash frozen chicken parts a lot for quick lunches for EliShark and they are pretty nice.[p]mShark

RRP

MollyShark, I for one like the flash frozen ones in the 5# bags - Tyson I believe - they are sprayed with water during the freezing process. They work for me.

Cornfed

MollyShark,[p]I always use fresh. Nothing against the frozen ones. In fact, I don't think I've ever tried them. I just started on the fresh ones and have continued down that path.[p]Over the past few years, I've gone simpler and simpler with buffalo wings. The way I currently do them is to simply sprinkle on a rub of your choice right before grilling direct. I've used Dizzy Dust, Essence, Cajun Essence, etc. Probably my favorite for wings is Ken Stone's Easy Life, which has a little kick to it.[p]Anyway, just sprinkle on the rub and toss on the grill direct at around 300*. I like to play with the wings a lot lately to manage any potential hot spots so I like to check frequently to turn and rotate to avoid any charred wings.[p]I save all saucing to the end when I like to put the finished wings in a tupperware container, add sauce of choice, cover, then shake/turn to coat the wings.[p]A favorite simple homemade sauce is simply Frank's Red hot mixed with a butter/flour roux. Also, lately I've been just buying Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce (which, I believe, is mainly Frank's mixed with added butter and thickened...). If you want to get more fancy, the Anchor Bar sauces are excellent as are the Wing Time sauces (I know you can get these at many places on the web, including http://www.thehotshoppe.com, which is this cool store based in Syracuse, NY).[p]As always, serve with bleu cheese, celery, and ample supplies of cold beer.[p]Let us know how the frozen ones are and if there are advantages to them. I also like the idea of always having a big ol' bag o' wings in the freezer "just in case."[p]Later,
Cornfed

Boccie

MollyShark,[p]I use the frozen wings. I just place the bag in a sink of warm water for a while and thaw them out. Usually buy these at Aldi's Grocery for about $4 for a 4 lb bag. Since the tips are already cut off that is even less I need to prep with them.