Buffalo wings バッファローウイング

This is a classic American bar food. The dish is named after the city in New York state not the animal--buffaloes don't have wings.  These wings come from chicken. This was said to be first served at Anchor Bar in Buffalo, hence the name Buffalo wings. This is my tamed down version.

Although the classic recipe calls for the wings (and drumetts) to be deep fried, I baked these to make them somewhat less deadly. I also used only a small amount of melted butter and Tabasco.

For two servings, I first washed and pat dried the wings and drumetts (6 each).  I then made slits between the two bones of the wings. I lightly salted them and baked in a 400F pre-heated convection oven for about 20 minutes. In retrospect, I should have broiled or baked it in higher temperature to make the skin more crispy.

I melted 2 tbs of sweet butter in a metal bowl over a very low flame and added Tabasco. I added Tabasco in stages so that the butter had a Tabasco taste but was not too hot. The amount of Tabasco and butter is up to you; some people make the wings "red" but we are not that kind of people. Just toss and coat the cooked wings and serve.

Traditionally, this is served with celery sticks with blue cheese dressing (I suppose to cool down the palate). I added carrot sticks as well. The blue cheese dressing is from the bottle (I just chose it based on the shape and appearance of the bottle and avoided big names like "Kraft") This happened to be a really good one with chunks of real blue cheese. It was creamy, sweet, and tangy in flavor. If you so prefer, you could make it from scratch with quality blue cheese, butter milk and sour cream but, I am sure, for the original Buffalo wings at Anchor bar, they must have used commercial blue cheese dressing from a gallon bottle. The sauce has just enough Tabasco to taste some heat, vinegary and buttery flavors but it is not too hot or overwhelming. If you want more heat, it is easy to add more Tabasco on your wings.

This will go well with cold beer but we stuck to red wine (for our cardiovascular health).