Yesterday I thought that it would be a great day for some buffalo wings, given the frigid temperatures and snow outside. Our family typically enjoys buffalo wings on Sunday evenings for football, unfortunately all of the games were earlier in the day. But what’s to say that we couldn’t enjoy them anyway! I thought I would share this since Superbowl is around the corner, and those of you that are trying to watch what you eat may prefer a healthier version. It’s real life right? Of course everyone enjoys something like wings every once in a while!
If you have been following my posts I’m sure that you are asking yourself “If she just started a diet how can she be eating wings?!” Well, it’s all in how you plan your day and the choices you make throughout the day. I knew in the morning that I was going to be consuming a considerable amount of calories that evening. So, I made sure to get enough exercise in so that I could increase my calorie intake for the day. I also made good, healthy, low calorie choices throughout the day that would fill me up but not ruin my calorie intake, like fruits and vegetables. In addition, you would be surprised at the calories that are in skin on chicken when you bake it and don’t fry it in oil. This recipe makes wings much better than the normal fat full fried versions, and the use of Frank’s Red Hot Wings sauce has butter flavoring in it so that you don’t have to add all of the calories from butter.
I use the ingredients shown above. My family eats A LOT of wings, so we use three packages that contain 20 wings/drum sticks. Frank’s Red Hot Wings sauce has a great flavor, and reduces the fat and calories because you don’t need to add butter to a homemade recipe. Cornstarch is a key ingredient as it helps the skin to crisp up without the addition of oil or butter.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. High temperature is key to the wings coming out crispy without oil. Place about 15 wings in a container with a lid, or a sealable storage bag. Sprinkle about a Tbsp. cornstarch over the wings. Add another 15 wings and sprinkle more cornstarch on them. Cover the container with a lid or seal the bag and shake until all wings are covered.
Line baking trays with foil. Given that I bake 60 wings at a time, I use two trays. Place the cornstarch coated wings skin-side down on the lined baking trays. The skin will get crisper when directly on the foil than facing up. I have found that my oven doesn’t seem to heat evenly when using more than one rack, the bottom gets hotter than the top causing the bottom set to burn. Therefore I rotate my trays every 10 minutes from top rack to bottom rack. You may not need to do this if your oven heats evenly. Put the trays in the oven for a total of 20 minutes.
The kitchen tools shown above are a great help when making this recipe. I found the nylon covered tongs at Wal-Mart. Tongs are much easier to remove the wings from the tray with, especially once they start sticking some. These particular tongs allow you to scrape and scoop them off the tray. When using a nylon basting brush like this one, I don’t get freaked out like I do when using a hair based brush on raw chicken!
Remove half a tray of wings and place them in a container with a lid. Drizzle Frank’s Red Hot Wings sauce over them. Place the other half a tray in the container and drizzle with more sauce. Place the lid on the container and shake until all wings are evenly covered. My 9-year-old daughter loves to help with this part! The baking tray will likely contain quite a bit of drippings. Drain all of the drippings off so that the wings will get crispy. Spray the tray with Canola Oil spray. Place the sauce covered wings on the tray. Place the wings back in the oven for another 20 minutes.
My husband prefers his wings spicier than the kids and I do, so after the second 20 minutes of baking I remove his and cover with a second round of sauce. Make sure to place the wings skin side down again on the tray. Bake the wings for another 10-20 minutes until the skin is nice and crispy.
This is what the finished wings look like! Yum! Yes, this is the amount that I bake for two adults and two children to eat. There are 60 wings here. My husband can take down an entire tray on his own, that’s 30 wings! When we have wings, we don’t add a lot of side dishes with it. We just serve them with carrot and celery sticks. I ate several carrot and celery sticks to avoid eating more wings.
My husband prefers to dip his wings in Ranch dressing. He likes the Bolthouse Farms Classic Ranch Yogurt dressing as it has fewer calories than regular Ranch dressing. I have never been one to add a lot of condiments to my food, and I don’t care for Ranch dressing at all, so I eat mine plain.
This recipe is certainly a labor of love, as it takes over an hour to prepare, and for me, rotating trays every 10 minutes means that I don’t get to really leave the kitchen. However, I promise you that you won’t be disappointed. You can’t even tell that these are baked and not fried if you get them crispy enough. It took me awhile to achieve adequate crispness, so don’t forget cornstarch and to have your oven at a high temperature.
I hope that your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine does. Happy eating!
Peace, Love, and... Real Life 