Saintly wings

Well the superbowl was a rousing success. GO SAINTS! Anyone see that incredible interception? So awesome. We had Garrett and John over and we all watched the game together. And I made a FEAST of snack food. Seriously, it was like our one meal of the day. And I will be putting all those recipes up during the week. Today I want to tell you about the main event of the feast: wings. I have never made homemade wings before, and so this was awesome, and I was really proud of them. I found the recipe on Pioneer Woman Cooks, but I changed it up a little bit. (Click at the bottom to see the rest!)

Here's what you need:

1 bag of chicken wings, uncooked

1 6 oz bottle of louisiana hot sauce (not wing sauce!)

2 sticks of butter

oil for frying

Look at what this bag says: "first and second wing selections." sounds ominous to me. But, it was the last bag they had at safeway, so I grabbed it.

Apparently, this kind doesn't need to be defrosted, but I was wary of that so I put it in the fridge for a few hours. Read the instructions on the bag if you don't get the safeway kind.

Fill up a deep pan with oil and let it get really hot. If you have a thermometer, then you want it to get up to about 350-360F. If you don't, the trick I use is, throw a drop of water in the oil and when it bounces around, it's ready. When it's hot enough, put the chicken in CAREFULLY. Trust me, you do not want hot oil splashing all over you and your kitchen. Just use some tongs and put them in one or two at a time. If you're not using a non-stick pan, move 'em around a bit so they don't stick.

They're gonna cook for about 25 minutes so while you're waiting, we can make the sauce! Put two sticks of butter in a saucepan and let them melt.

Come on, did you honestly expect to come here and not see a butter picture? I didn't think so.

Then turn off the heat and pour in the louisiana hot sauce. The original recipe called for 12 oz of hot sauce, but the sauce was prettttttty spicy, so I just went with 6 and then put the rest on the table. That way everyone gets a little spicyness, but some people can have it boiling lava hot if they want. I added some of this stuff too. Just for good measure.

When the wings are nice and crispy (you might need to flip them over once or twice) put them on some paper towels to drain the oil off. See how crispy and delicious those look?

Then put them in the sauce in small batches. Use a spoon to pour the sauce all over the wings and then put them in a serving dish.

Serve 'em up with ranch or blue cheese dressing and lots and lots of napkins!

Hope you enjoy!

XOXO

Natalie