chicken wings
The chicken's wing, often separated into the flat and drumette sections, with a small amount of meat relative to skin and bone; a popular fried or baked appetizer, usually tossed in a sauce after cooking. The high skin-to-meat ratio is what makes wings so well suited to crisping -- proportionally more surface area renders and browns than on almost any other cut.
Buying guidance
Whole wings, or the flat and drumette sold pre-separated, cook the same way -- pre-cut saves prep time at a slightly higher price per pound. Look for skin that's dry rather than slick or sticky, since a drier surface crisps better in the oven or fryer; patting wings dry before cooking makes a bigger difference to crispness than almost anything else.
Substitutions
- Chicken drumsticks -- similar handheld format and skin-to-meat crisping, needs longer cooking since they're larger.
- Boneless chicken thigh, cut into chunks -- easier to eat, loses the bone-in flavor and classic wing presentation.
- Cauliflower florets, battered and fried or roasted -- a meat-free stand-in for the same crispy, sauce-tossed format, though the texture is softer and less chewy.
Tips & common mistakes
Because wings have so much skin relative to meat, patting them completely dry before cooking matters more for this cut than almost any other -- any surface moisture turns to steam in the oven before the skin can render and crisp, leaving them soft instead. Sauce added before the skin has had a chance to set and crisp tends to slide right off rather than cling.
Storage
Their small, irregular shape means a bag of wings easily freezes into one solid clump -- spreading them in a single layer on a tray to freeze first, then bagging them once solid, keeps them easy to portion out later.