One of the great joys in life for me is Buffalo chicken wings (also known as hot wings). I know it shouldn’t even be in that class of happiness, but I love them.
And then… when I started making Buffalo wings at home and developed my recipe, I discovered that no one else could make them to be as tasty and flavorful as I could with this incredibly easy recipe.
That’s my disclaimer for this recipe. Once you taste just how good these hot wings are, your favorite restaurant’s wings will never taste as good.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me from trying them at other restaurants when we go out to eat; after all I do love Buffalo Chicken Wings!
If you’re not a fan of bleu cheese dressing, you can always use ranch dressing to dip your hot wings. I always serve celery sticks or carrot sticks with my buffalo wings; they’re great to cut the heat and dip in the dressing!
Ingredients to make Buffalo Chicken Wings
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Buffalo Chicken Wings. In Chef Speak, this is called the Mise en Place, which translates into Everything in its Place.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
What other flavors can I incorporate int traditional hot wings?
You can use a dry rub, or you can add any number of ingredients to the sauce to customize it. Try garlic powder, cayenne pepper, or your favorite seasonings to make your own special sauce — you can even add a little brown sugar for some sweetness
What Kind of Wings Should I Use?
The first and most important ingredient for this dish is Chicken Wings. And if you have a choice, always choose fresh, not frozen, wings.
Did you ever notice that sometimes the bones get black inside? That’s a sign that the wings have been frozen. In chef speak we call that “Black Bone”.
What Part of the Wing Should I use for Hot Wings?
When you look at the wing, you’ll notice that there are three parts to the chicken wing.
The wingtip (also known as the flapper), the middle part is the wingette (aka the flap), and then the meatiest part is called the drumette (because it looks like a small version of the chicken leg).
I use the first two sections, saving the wingtip for soup. They are easily frozen (or re-frozen) and can help you make a very flavorful chicken soup. Just place them in a resealable bag and save them for the next time you make soup.
You can also leave the wingtip attached to the wingette to make it look more appetizing.
Place the wings on a cutting board, and with a sharp knife, carefully find the joints. Place the knife blade (closer to the handle than the tip) on the joint, then with the tip of the knife on the cutting board, chop down.
The section is a little thicker to cut through, but it’s pretty easy to do — just be careful.
The wingtip comes off pretty easily. You can leave this on if you like — it will enhance the overall look of the wing, but that’s about it.
Prepping the wings will take no time at all, and sometimes, you’ll find pre-cut chicken wings at the market you shop at without the wingtip.
Once the wings are prepped you can move on to making the buffalo sauce.
What is the Secret to Good Buffalo Chicken Wings?
The secret to the Best Buffalo Chicken Wings You’ll Ever Have is the sauce.
You can adjust the amounts in my recipe for your heat comfort level and feel free to add your own secret ingredients to make the buffalo sauce your very own.
Just follow my steps in the recipe to ensure your sauce doesn’t break and comes out rich and clingy.
- Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat
- Add the hot sauce and honey to the pan over medium heat (if you don’t like the sweetness, leave the honey out)
- Turn off the burner and mix the sauce together. It should be thick.
The Secret to the best buffalo sauce
The secret to getting the sauce just right is taking the melted butter and honey mixture off the stove before adding the hot sauce. When Buffalo Sauce gets too hot, it breaks and becomes oily.
Did you ever get an order of wings and the sauce in the bottom of the dish looks disgustingly greasy? That’s because the sauce got too hot.
Do I have to use butter in the sauce?
I prefer using butter, but you can use margarine or any variety of butter substitutes you like. I have even used coconut oil in my Buffalo sauce without any problems; it just doesn’t get quite as thick.
Just a word of warning, once you start making your own Buffalo chicken wings at home, most of the others you try when you dine out will pale in comparison. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing!
Once the sauce is made it’s time to get the wings ready to fry. These are Jersey-Style Buffalo chicken wings, which means I flour my wings before frying them.
This would be sacrilege in Buffalo, but I prefer the crunchy surface and feel that it holds the sauce better. Naked or floured, the choice is yours.
After frying the wings in hot oil for a minimum of 6 minutes (or longer if needed), make sure to let them drain before saucing the wings. If not, the wings will be greasy.
**Oil should be 350-360 degrees F. to fry wings
The last step is tossing the wings in the buffalo sauce. I always use a large bowl so I can toss the wings, making sure they are completely coated. And I love getting that hit of hot sauce as it drifts up to my nose..sigh.
How do I Make Bleu Cheese Dressing?
If you’ve never made homemade blue cheese dressing before, you don’t know what you’re missing. And it’s the perfect accompaniment to these crispy baked wings.
While there are a lot of great brands in the market, homemade is so much better and pretty easy to make.
For my recipe, I use sour cream, mayonnaise and whole milk. You can easily substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream, which adds a little tang to the dressing. Feel free to use low-fat mayonnaise and low-fat milk or buttermilk in the recipe. Just mix it up in a small bowl, and you’ll have the perfect creamy dressing to balance the wings’ classic spicy sauce.
How to make Baked Buffalo Wings
To make crispy, crunchy Buffalo chicken wings, the secret is baking powder. I know what you’re thinking, but trust me on this one.
- Toss the wings with one tablespoon of baking powder (not baking soda), sea salt, and black pepper to taste.
- Place the wings in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 400-degree preheated oven. Bake for 25 minutes, then turn the wings over and continue cooking for an additional 20-25 minutes until the wings are golden brown.
- Toss the baked buffalo chicken wings with the buttery hot sauce and serve with a creamy bleu cheese dip or ranch dressing.
Can I make Buffalo chicken wings in an Air Fryer?
You sure can. Omit the flour from the recipe for this method and add a little oil to the wings, season liberally with sea salt and black pepper and toss to coat the wings with the oil and wing seasonings. *You can use pan spray instead of oil if you like.
- Place the seasoned wings in a single layer into the air fryer basket (don’t stack them them – this is the key to crispy wings).
- Turn the air fryer to 380 degrees Fahrenheit and let them cook for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, turn the wings over and continue cooking for an additional 10 minutes.
- To get that crispy, crunchy exterior to the wings, increase the temperature to 400°F and cook the wings for five more minutes.
- Toss the wings in the spicy Buffalo sauce and enjoy!
**If you’re making these in batches, keep each batch of wings warm on a sheet pan or rimmed baking sheet in an oven set to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
What can I serve with Buffalo chicken wings?
You can serve these crispy Buffalo chicken wings in so many ways. They can be the main dish for game day during football season or movie night, or you can serve them alongside other appetizers like homemade french fries, mozzarella sticks, or your other favorite starters.
Recipe FAQ’s
The name comes from the location of the creator of this American classic. Credit goes to a small family-owned restaurant called Anchor Bar located in Buffalo, New York where they first created this dish in 1964.
Basically, they are the same. Preparation may differ and anyone from Buffalo will dispute the fact that anyone from any other location is actually making Buffalo wings. Hence the term “Hot Wings”
Toss those wings in the sauce after they’ve been baked, fried or air fried. It preserves the flavor of the sauce and ensures they have all of the saucy goodness when you dive into a plate of them.
The butter adds creaminess and provides just the right consistency for the sauce to stick to the wings.
More Chicken Wing Recipes You’ll Love!
Buffalo Chicken Wings
Ingredients
Buffalo Wings
- 2 lbs chicken wings
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups vegetable oil or your favorite oil
- ½ teaspoon salt to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper to taste
Buffalo Wing Sauce
- 12 oz Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce or hot sauce of your choice
- 6 oz unsalted butter 1 and ½ sticks
- 3 oz honey
Bleu Cheese Dressing
- 4 oz Bleu Cheese
- ½ cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ¼ cup milk or buttermilk
- ¼ teaspoon granulated onion
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Buffalo Wing Sauce
- In a sauce pan melt the butter then add the honey and turn off the heat
- Add in hot sauce and using a wire whip blend until fully incorporated into the butter/honey mixture.
- You can heat this sauce if you want it hotter, but at this temperature the sauce will cling really well to the chicken wings. If you let the sauce get to hot it will break and separate into an oily mess!
- Set aside sauce until ready to coat wings
Bleu Cheese Dressing
- In a food processor, add the sour cream or Greek yogurt, the milk and half of your bleu cheese.
- Pulse the mixture until all of the bleu cheese has been blended in.
- Add this mixture to the mayonnaise with the remaining bleu cheese crumbles and seasonings. (The seasonings are just a guide, season it to your taste)
- You should make this dressing at least one day ahead of time, to let the flavors build, it will taste the best after 48 hours.
Buffalo Chicken Wings
- Place the wings on a cutting board; cut the wings into 3 pieces, either discarding the end wing section or freezing and saving for soup stock.
- Pat dry all wing pieces dry, with paper towels.
- Season your flour with salt and pepper (about ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper) and dredge chicken wings in the seasoned flour
- Preheat oil in a large skillet to fry your wings
- Place wings in hot oil and fry for about 4-5 minutes, then turn them over and cook the other side for about the same time. (You want the wings to get crispy and have a good color).
- Remove the cooked wings to a wire rack or paper towels to drain.
- Place the cooked wings in a large bowl with your buffalo sauce and toss them to get a good even coating of buffalo sauce on the wings.
- Serve and enjoy!
Bill
Hi chef Dennis my name is Bill and i tried making the hot wings and the sauce still came out runny not stickey i melted the butter than added the honey as i took it off the heat than i put the hot sauce in and whisk it. Poured it over the legs i used drumettes because they where 79 cents a pound compared to 298 a pound for wings but the sauce was not stickey and nat as hot as i would like them and if i where to use more hot sauce it would get even runnier can you help me glad i tried making them now before the big game.
Chef Dennis Littley
Bill, I’m not sure why it didn’t thicken up. I’ve been making that recipe for 15 years and the only time I have problems is when I get the mixture too hot and it separates. I’ve added more hot sauce than the recipe calls for and haven’t had any issues either. I’m not sure what to tell you
Richard Hall
Just made them they were amazing I can’t cook but my boy they were like sea world dad
Jo
OMG! It was so delicious. Hubby said “it’s now his favourite dish”. I can’t wait to share it with rest of my family.
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for the great review Jo! I do love my chicken wings and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed them! I hope you find more recipes to try on my website!
Tammy
Can you cook them in a deep fryer and get the same results?
Chef Dennis Littley
you certainly can. They should actually be better deep fried
Steven
Could you recommend your instructions for this? I seen another recipe calling for near 10 minutes at 190 degrees celsius – about 375f, surely they would burn?
I am from Ireland and hoping to make these soon 🙂
Chef Dennis Littley
you want the oil to be around 180 Celsius and if you’re cooking them on each side, give them 5-6 minutes per side. If you cook them in enough oil to completely cover them, 7-8 minutes total should be good
Steven
Thank you so much for getting back to me Chef Dennis, followed your advice twice now and both times turned out perfect in my deep fryer.
First time I made far too much sauce, 2nd time I did less butter and sauce and it had a good heat to it, I also used the normal Franks Hot Sauce instead of the wing sauce.
Thanks again!
Lilcarls
Oh my goodness, thank you Chef Denis, these are amazing!!! And the bleu cheese sauce is to die for, just finished with the family and they couldn’t rave more, even the little one who hates wings and bleu cheese!!
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed my wing recipe and bleu cheese! Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
LIlcarls
Making these again tonight, it’s all the family has asked for since the last time!
Chelise
In making the dressing, is there an alternative to using the food processor? I can’t wait to try it!
Chef Dennis Littley
The food processor incorporates the blue cheese more fully adding more flavor. But you can make it without, just mash some of the blue cheese up as well as possible adding some milk to make more of a paste.
Darnell
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Now I don’t need to order outside to satisfy my cravings 😃
Gail Loving
Can your recipe be used with an air fryer? I don’t want to sacrifice any quality or appearance.. . .i don’t see where anyone has tried an air fryer with great results.
Chef Dennis Littley
I have never used an air fryer so I’m not sure. If they can be cooked somewhat crispy, I would say yes. It’s all about the sauce and my sauce works on grilled of oven roasted too.
Gail Loving
Thanks! Looking forward to making these for a holiday party👩🍳
Eds
Hi chef can I use a margarine instead to replace the butter?
Chef Dennis Littley
absolutely, I have even made it with coconut oil. It just doesn’t thicken quite the same.
Patrick
Hi Chef, this is awesome. I’m literally obsessed and made it for a party twice (and just for myself once) to rave reviews. I’m starting to find the butter taste very apparent – Any thoughts on reducing the amount of butter, or does that affect too much the overall taste?
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Patrick
you can reduce the amounts of butter, but it will make the sauce hotter. The butter is an integral part making the sauce thicker and richer so is somewhat necessary to the recipe but if you don’t mind the heat just add more hot sauce.
Diane
I made these tonight and my son and I loved them! The recipe is perfect! Thanks for sharing. 🤗
Dhemz
Indeed, the sauce is the secret. And I am totally copying this for sure…lol! Thanks for sharing!
Vyjay Rao
This definitely sounds like an amazing recipe. Though we are vegetarians, we have a group of friends who are just crazy about anything chicken. This is something to discuss with them over the weekend.
Kathy
These do sound amazing! I haven’t had wings in such a long time. Looks like I may need to get what I need for this recipe. I bet it tastes great.
Jeanine
Oh my goodness. YES PLEASE. These look incredible. We will have to give them a try, i am a HUGE wing fan!
Heather
My husband is a HUGE lover of all things chicken wings. I’m going to have to make these for him and let you know what he says.
Estelle
I love buffalo chicken wings as well and try to order them when we go out. I didn’t know that they can look black inside if they were frozen do thanks for the to.