Boneless Buffalo Wings

One of my favorite snacks when I got out with friends or a fun treat when any types of sports game is on is buffalo wings. I prefer boneless over the bone in kind because I'm not the biggest fan on making a mess, I am definitely more of a fork and knife kind of girl. However with the rise in the number of restaurants posting calories on their menus I probably won't be ordering them out anymore. I have bought the frozen kind from the supermarket but they just weren't up to snuff and of course I have tried making them in the past but again they just weren't quite right.

Luckily for me (and all of you) I don't give up so easily, so when my husband and I both happened to be craving wings one night I decided to give it another go. This time I did my homework first and researched a bunch of recipes on homemade wings before attempting to make them again. I probably checked out about ten or so recipes before even entering my kitchen, picking and choosing which advice I would use from each recipe until I came up with what I thought was a fool proof technique.


The recipe is pretty simple, but there are multiple steps involved that needed to be done even though they may seem pointless. Given by my many attempts and failures at perfecting the homemade buffalo wing I can attest to the fact that this is a fool proof, no fail recipe. And it's far more healthy than their restaurant counterpart and much more fresh and tasty than the frozen kind.

So without further adieu here is the recipe...

Boneless Buffalo Wings
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 1 hour     I     Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of your favorite wing sauce, hot sauce or bbq sauce
• Oil

Start off by dicing the chicken the chicken into approximately 1 inch pieces.

When the chicken is all cut up put it aside and put the flour and all the spices into a bowl and blend them with a fork or whisk. Then in another bowl whisk the egg into the milk until well blended. Dredge the chicken in the milk/egg mixture and then coat in flour mixture.

Place the coated chicken on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and place in the fridge for 20 minutes and then repeat the coating process again putting the chicken in the fridge a second time for a total of 40 minutes.

While you're waiting for the chicken to cool for a second time start heating up oil in a small sauce pot. You can use a deep fryer if you have one but I was being lazy and didn't feel like dragging it out of a closet, a small pot worked just fine. When the oil is bubbling slightly, you're ready to start cooking the chicken. You can test the oil by flicking a small amount of water into the pot, just make sure you use very little water and stand back so you dont get burned.

Place the chicken in the oil using a slotted spoon or an Asian bamboo strainer. I recommend the bamboo strainer, it works great and there's no chance of any part of it melting. I got mine from William Sonoma or you can get it here. 

The chicken will need to cook about 6 minutes, actual cook time will vary on your stove. Once the oil is bubbling leave it on medium heat to maintain temperature. Make sure not to overfill the pot either otherwise the chicken wont cook fully or evenly.

If you want to guage how long you'll have to cook the chicken you can cut one piece open to make sure it's completely white inside, you'll want it to look something like this...

I placed the chicken on a papertowel as it came out of the fryer and blotted it to remove any excess oil. Then transferred it to a bowl with the hot sauce inside of it and used a rubber spatula to coat the chicken.

If you use wing sauce like I did you before you coat the chicken you can whisk some corn startch into the sauce to thicken it a little bit. I also added a little honey, brown sugar and bleu cheese dressing to ease the heat a bit.

Serve with bleu cheese dressing and enjoy!