Buffalo Chicken Wings

Buffalo Chicken Wings

All the flavor of the classic Buffalo tradition in this oven baked version.

I can’t tell you enough how much my family and I love love love Buffalo Chicken Wings. They’re crisp, juicy, tasty delights that show up frequently for dinner at our house, especially on weekends, the big game or for special gatherings.

My girls lean toward the sweet or mild sauced versions, my wife likes them more on the medium side and I love ’em anyway I can get them but prefer them hot. It also seems like everywhere we travel we have to order some to see if they’re as good as what you get in Buffalo or Western New York.

The funny thing is, chicken wings are pretty simple to make, you don’t need any special gadget or magic trick to make them. All you need is the wings, an oven, sauce and a bowl…….well, a few other things, but those were the basics. For this recipe we are going to bake the wings. Why? Isn’t that sacrilege? No, not really. Now, while I wouldn’t buy a baked wing in a restaurant, they’re perfectly fine at home and still come out nice and crisp. Besides, not everybody has a fryer at home, you can cook more wings at the same time in the oven and do you really want your house smelling like a greasy pub?

So let’s start.

I like buying fresh chicken wings. You can buy frozen, but often times the frozen kind are injected with brine or water. While this may allow them to hold up under frozen conditions, this will definitely affect your finished product. That added water content isn’t going to allow for a crisp wing, especially if you’re going to bake them like we are going to do here. Sometimes you can find the wings already separated, but more often than not you’re going to find them attached. You can cut them like I do, or you can leave them whole.

Full Wing

To cut, just find the softest spot in the joint and press the knife down. If it seems too hard, you’re hitting bone, move the knife a bit.

First Cut

You’re only going to need to cut twice. Once to remove the drumstick and once to remove the wing.

Second Cut

Please discard the wing tip (there really isn’t much meat on them anyway)

Once you’ve got all your wings cut, Turn the oven on to 400 degrees fahrenheit and line them up on an untreated sheet tray/cookie sheet.

Trayed Wings

Once the wings are all lined up, pop in oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or when they’ve become crisp enough to your liking.

Baked Wings

Flavors

Traditionally the only way you could get Buffalo Chicken Wings was plain, mild, medium, hot and suicide. Then a few people started getting crazy and tossing the wings in BBQ sauce or even crazier, hot AND BBQ sauce, TOGETHER!!! I know, crazy, right! Well, if it doesn’t seem crazy to you it’s because the versatility of the chicken wing has brought forth an explosion of wing flavor options that seem to span the entire globe (or, you’re just young).

For this post, and for my girls, I’ve decided to make Mild and Honey BBQ sauces for the wings. Making the sauces and cutting the celery sticks can be done while the wings are baking. I mean, what else are you going to do while the wings are cooking?

Sauce Stage

Now for the sauces. Again, what I made for this post was Mild and Honey BBQ. If you’re looking for anything different, hit me up with a comment or shoot me an email.

Mild: combine one cup of Franks Red Hot and a 1/4 cup of melted butter in your wing tossing bowl.

Honey BBQ: combine a cup of BBQ sauce with a 1/4 cup of Honey in your wing tossing bowl.

Mixed Mild Sauce

Now, you have the sauces made and that hour of cooking has flown by, it time to toss the wings. Now, they may be a bit difficult to scrape off the pan, but that nothing a metal spatula won’t fix.

Now for the fun part, scoop the wings up and into your bowl and toss.

Mixed Honey BBQ and Mild

Don’t stir, don’t shake, toss the wings. It’s fun, the kids will love it and you might just make a mess. Even if you make a mess, don’t forget to serve these magnificent Buffalo Chicken Wings with some celery, ranch, or better yet some blue cheese dressing. Enjoy!

 

Buffalo Chicken Wings
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
 
A baked version of the iconic original.
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: American
Servings: 5 8 wings each
Author: Nate
Ingredients
Chicken Wings
  • 2 pounds Chicken Wings Fresh, disjointed
Mild Sauce
  • 1 cup Frank's Red Hot
  • 1/4 cup Salted Butter Melted
HOney BBQ Sauce
  • 1 cup BBQ Sauce Your Favorite
  • 1/4 cup Honey
Medium Wing Sauce
  • 1 cup Frank's Red Hot
  • 1 Tbsp Salted Butter Melted
Instructions
Buffalo Chicken Wings
  1. Bake wings for 45 minutes to an hour at 400 degrees fahrenheit or until desired crispness is achieved. Toss in your choice of wing sauce flavor.
Mild Sauce
  1. Combine one cup of Franks Red Hot and a 1/4 cup of melted butter in your wing tossing bowl.
Honey BBQ
  1. Combine a cup of BBQ sauce with a 1/4 cup of Honey in your wing tossing bowl.