Buffalo Chicken Wings with Potato Salad

Cooking time: 2 hours (Includes preparation) 

Hello! Welcome back to my blog.
I am not going to lie and say that I'm going to try and make this a clean eating, green and lean, healthy recipes blog. Unfortunately, I absolutely love American food! It has to be my favourite cuisine after Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Greek.... ahh well. I guess I just love all food! 

With that being said, today's recipe is one that isn't for the faint hearted. This is a good ol' hearty American style dish. I absolutely loved every bite of it. It was my partner's first day working full-time at his job and I figured it called for some celebratory food. 

I've often struggled with frying and cooking chicken. Apparently the easiest meat to cook is often not the easiest! For me at least. But I can safely say I've perfected it and I hope I portray that delicious perfection in the recipe. I never thought about investing in a deep fryer either, so rest assured, you can cook these up on your stove and they will taste just as good. 

Without further ado, let's get into the recipe! 

Ingredients

1kg Chicken wings

3/4 cup plain flour

Salt

Pepper

2 tsp Paprika

2 bacon rashers

3 cups of oil - any type, I ended up using extra virgin olive oil 

half a red onion

8 medium sized white potatoes

3 spring onions

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup of hot sauce or special buffalo wing sauce

1 tablespoon butter

blue cheese sauce + pickles as sides

Method

1. Prepare the wings by spreading them out and laying them on a board. 

You need to seperate each of the halves. Do this by pulling on them until you feel the joint between them break. You should hear the pop! Then wiggle it around until you can feel between the two pieces, cut through this spot. It sounds harder than it is, but can get a little messy. You'll know what I mean once you start. 

2. In a bowl, combine the flour, chicken wings and paprika. Add salt and pepper for taste. 

Make sure the wings are thoroughly covered in the flour mixture. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. I often leave them for up to 3hrs. 

3. Peel and wash the potatoes. 

Chop them into quarters, around 2cm cubes. 

Bring a large pot to the boil on medium heat. 

Add the potatoes and a pinch of salt and cover with a lid. Let boil for 20 minutes until soft enough to push a fork through easily. Drain them and put them in a bowl. 

4. Heat a pan on low and dice the bacon in small cubes. Fry off to how you like it. I like the bits crunchy in my potato salad!

5. While the bacon is cooking, wash and chop up the spring onions. Dice up finely the red onion half as well.

6. Add the red onion, spring onions and bacon to the bowl of potato. 

7. Add the sour cream and mayonnaise. 

Stir together, cover and chill whilst you prepare the chicken. 

8. Fill a deep pan or pot with about 6cm of oil. On a relatively high heat bring it to at least 180 degrees. It should start slightly bubbling. Add the wings in batches so that they're not touching. I did around 4 at a time. The oil doesn't need to be covering the entire wing but make sure you flip them halfway through. Be careful with this and try to use extra long tongs because the oil will spit!

Let them fry for approx. 8 minutes on high heat. The outside should be a golden brown colour and crispy. Once cooked put the chicken on paper towel and cover to keep warm. Keep the oil consistently hot throughout and don't adjust the settings. The oil will get darker as you cook through but just finish off the batches and set aside the oil to let it cool before you dispose of it.

9. Heat up another sauce pan with 1tbsp butter and melt on medium heat. Add the hot sauce and stir to combine. Add the chicken wings and stir so that the wings are fully covered in sauce. Put a lid on and leave for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

10. Serve with the potato salad, blue cheese dressing and pickles. 

Tips and Tricks 

- Remember, don't put oil down the drain, dispose of it in the bin after it has properly cooled down. 

- To separate the wings, use both hands to pop the joint between them, it's easier to feel the gap between the bones with your fingers. Try to cleanly cut through, but if not you might have to wiggle around the knife a little. Use a very sharp blade and make sure you're using a bread board or a board that has high level grip. This is the safest way in my experience. It will get messy but it's fine. If there's any loose bone or gristle just throw it out. 

- I used Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce but you can easily make your own. I will be posting a hot sauce recipe later on !

- If you don't want your buffalo wings too spicy (I know, shock horror), add some cream, extra butter, or sour cream to the mixture when stirring over low heat. 

- I also used this blue cheese dressing, but you can get different variations from most grocery stores. 

If you don't have any of the like in the pantry, feel free to substitute garlic aioli or even mayonnaise again as a dip. 

There you have it, one of the most satisfying, finger-licking good meals. I hope you guys don't struggle too much with the wings and that they fry nicely on the stove. Feel free to use an air-fryer if you have one though! I really think the hardest part of this whole recipe is how messy preparing the wings can be, but once you've achieved that, the rest is easy as. I really hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know if you have any feedback or try it out! 

My partner looked like he was about to lick his plate! Until the next recipe, 

Lynz