New and Improved Chicken Wing Recipe

These wings can be cooked in the smoker or oven.  Either way, the oven would need to be used at the end to get a little bit of a char on the wings and to finish crisping.

The wings I am using in this recipe came from H-Mart.  They tend to sell the larger party-sized wings which I prefer already split.  Worst-case, you can buy whole wings and split them yourself but buying the drums and flats already split is the easiest.

There were about 11 wings total in the pack (6 flats and 5 drums).  My wife prefers the flat pieces and I prefer the drums.

I am very excited about this recipe.  It's been about a year trial-and-error and I now have wings that I prefer over most restaurants.  These wings are crispy on the exterior, juicy/moist, and take just a little pressure from your teeth to come clean off the bone (don't want them to completely fall off the bone).

The mixture that is used to crisp the wings up is a combination of corn starch, baking powder, and my favorite seasonings (can go without seasonings if want to only sauce them afterwards), and water (water is added to ensure that all parts of the wing coated instead of the dry stuff falling off).  I use a tablespoon or two or each but this depends on how many wings you are coating (it is not a precise measure).  I like dry-rubbed wings most of the time but occasionally like to sauce them up with some Buffalo Sauce.

The mixture is poured/mixed into the chicken.  I refrigerated the wings for a little bit to get the flavors in and to also let the wings sit for awhile in the corn starch/baking powder mixture.

The wings are put on a raised baking tray to cook and sprayed a little to keep the skin from sticking.

My oven was preheated to 250.  Total cook time for wings is 1 and a half hours at this temperature.  Since my oven is not convection (and heats unevenly), I need to rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through the first 45 minutes.  In the middle of the cook-time (45 minute-mark), I also flip the wings over.  For the last 2o minutes or so, the tray is rotated 180 degrees again.

After 1 and a half hours, the wings are removed from the oven and oven is heated to 475.  I use the top rack.  I cook for 3 minutes, rotate the wings 180 degrees, flip, and then rotate 180 degrees for the last 3 minutes or until the wings are golden in color and crispy.

Full Recipe

Ingredients

Baking Powder (1 1/2 tablespoons or so)
Corn Starch (1 1/2 tablespoons or so)
Your favorite BBQ seasonings (to taste but start with a couple tablespoons)
Approximately 2 Pounds of Party Wings
A little water (1/3 cup)

Process

1. Mix corn starch, baking powder, and seasonings together.  I use about a tablespoon and a half of each but this depends on the number of wings you are cooking.  If you want a stronger BBQ flavor, feel free to add more seasonings.

2.  Add a lit bit of water and stir together (1/3 a cup or so).  It should be slightly thinner than a paste but doesn't need to be exact.  Just ensure that the wings are coated evenly with the mixture.  The previous version of the recipe used this mixture dry but I've found that the dry version doesn't coat all of the chicken evenly (some of the dry parts are in the bottom of the bowl).

3.  Add chicken to a bowl and pour the crisper mixture (starch and baking powder stuff) on top.  Incorporate the mixture fully with the chicken.

4.  I covered the bowl and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.  I don't know if this was fully necessary but it didn't hurt anything.  It gave some time for the flavors of the seasoning to work and to allow the crisper mixture to mingle with the chicken a little longer.

5.  Oven is preheated to 250.  The wings are now put onto a wire-raised baking sheet.  The oven shelf is adjusted to the middle.

6.  Total cooking time prior to the last part (higher heat) is an hour and a half.  Since my oven is not convection and unevenly heats, I split this into 4 parts (approximately 22.5 minutes each).  This sequence allows all sides (front/back/top/bottom) to crisp evenly.  Here are some more details on this sequence.

After 22.5 minutes in the oven, I rotate the pan 180 degrees.
After 45 minutes, the wings are turned over and pan is kept in same position
For the last 22.5 minutes, I rotate the pan 180 degrees again

7.  After 1 and 1/2 hours, the chicken is removed from the oven.  The temperature on the oven is increased to 475 degrees.

8.  Once the oven reaches 475 degrees, I move the oven rack to the top position.  The time here is divided into 3 minute increments (12 minutes total) with the same movements that we did previously.  This time is not exact.  You want to monitor to see that the wings are just getting golden and not burnt.

After 3 minutes in the oven, I rotate the pan 180 degrees.
After 6 minutes, the wings are turned over and pan is kept in same position
For the last 3 minutes, I rotate the pan 180 degrees again

Here is the final product

I tried to do a video with sound where you can (hopefully) hear the crisp of the skin and see the juiciness of the meat and how it pulls off the bone slightly.