Imperial Cajun Hot Wings
Originally hailing from a late night bar snack in Buffalo, NY. Hot Wings have been come a mainstay in sports culture, bar culture, and sports bar culture. While we generally like to keep things as traditional as possible, a little spicing up here and there does, our humble opinion, add a nice lagniappe to the palate.
Ingredients:
2lbs chicken wings
2.5 teaspoons cooking oil, we like grapeseed or Avocado
2 ½ teaspoons Imperial Blackened Seasoning
1 Tablespoon Corn Starch
1 sick of butter
3-4oz Louisiana style hot sauce. We Like Crystal or Louisiana “Red Dot”
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
A dash of onion powder
1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
Your favorite dressing for dipping, we like to use blue cheese with extra blue cheese added
Celery and carrot sticks
Method:
Preheat the oven to 375
Clarify the Butter: Place the butter in a microwave safe see through container. We like a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Melt the butter in the microwave, remove and let cool. Be careful, butter can get violent if it’s heated too fast. Once it has cooled it will separate into 3 layers. Fat solids on top, clarified butter in the middle, and whey on the bottom. Skim the solids, and slowly pour the butter into another bowl to separate the clarified butter from the whey. Set aside.
Bake the Wings: The best baked wings take 45-60mins in the oven. For them to get crispy, you must rectify all the fat out. Therefore, we like to bake them on a sheet pan with a wire rack insert so that the wings are not touching the pan. In a bowl place the wings, add the oil, Imperial Blackened seasoning, and corn starch. Toss until well coated and place on the wire rack. Bake for 45-60 min., or until the internal temperature is at least 165 turning them over halfway. If you like your wings extra crispy, finish them under the broiler, but watch closely!
Make the Sauce: Mix the clarified butter, ½ tsp. Imperial blackened seasoning, hot sauce, onion powder, granulated garlic, and honey. Stir well with a whisk and set aside. If your sauce starts to get clumpy, don’t worry it’s just the natural butter cooling off. Microwave for 10-15 seconds and stir.
Toss the Wings: You can place the wings and sauce in a large bowl and toss them like a salad, but we like to use a large deep Tupperware style container with a tight-fitting lid so that we can just shake it like a polaroid picture. Make sure to reserve some of the wing sauce for dipping. Plate them with celery, carrots and ramekins of sauces for dipping (ranch and blue cheese are classics). Enjoy!!