Roasted Chicken Wings

 30 April 2022

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2022

While fried chicken wings have been very popular for some time, we have never jumped onto that particular culinary bandwagon. I've been tempted to eat at one of the chain restaurants that specialize in wings but have yet to give in to the temptation. I've had homemade Buffalo wings but I found them to be too spicy for my taste. When Cook's Illustrated published an recipe for wings that didn't require frying, promising wings with all of the good characteristics of wings from a roast chicken, I knew it was time to give them a try.

I purchased four pounds of party wings from Whole Foods. I didn't know what "party wings" meant, but soon surmised that the wings had been cut into drumettes and flats and the wing tips had been omitted, saving some work cutting up whole wings. The chicken was patted dry with paper towels then tossed with vegetable oil, salt, and pepper. The drumettes and flats were arranged on a parchment-lined baking sheet as described in the recipe. A sheet of parchment paper and a second baking sheet were pressed on top of the chicken. They were roasted in a 400° oven for 45 minutes. Juices were poured off the of the chicken, defatted, and heated to reduce the volume to ⅓ of a cup; very little reduction was needed. The top baking sheet and parchment were removed from the chicken which was then placed under the broiler until golden brown and then glazed with the reduced juices. Total time was 85 minutes.

We enjoyed the chicken wings, they came out juicy and tender though we thought the skin could have been crisper. We enjoyed them more with sauce than plain, barbecue and Ranch being our choices. They were easy to make with very few ingredients and the "party wings" eliminated most of the prep work. We had them for several dinners. I suspect we won't make them again as there are chicken dishes that we enjoyed more than the wings, but maybe we'll try takeout from a wing joint.