THE BEST Fried Chicken Wings (Plus Vegetarian “Wings”!)

Some tips and tricks on getting the absolute crispiest and most delicious fried chicken you’ll ever have, and how to make it vegetarian too!

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As I mentioned in my last post, for his pulled pork tacos, when my boyfriend Gabe decides to cook, he goes all out. So when he decided that he wanted to make chicken wings for the super bowl a few weeks ago, he wasn’t going to go the easy route and bake or air fry these wings. And he wasn’t going to simply season the wings and throw them in the fryer. No, he decided to make not one but two seasoned batters (a wet and a dry) and dredge then fry dozens of wings. But it was worth it, because these are probably the best, crispiest and tastiest fried chicken wings I’ve ever had. And since my step-mom Nicole, who’s a vegetarian, was over, and I don’t eat all that much meat, I also have a bonus recipe for you: vegetarian “wings,” made using cauliflower and oyster mushrooms.

I know this post is coming a few weeks after America’s national chicken wing holiday, the super bowl, but honestly these fried chicken wings are so good that you’ll look for just about any excuse to make them. And if not, just bookmark them for next super bowl!

THE PERFECT FRIED CHICKEN WINGS

There are a couple of key techniques that Gabe uses in this fried chicken wings recipe to achieve the absolute crispiest wings you’ve ever had. First, you’ll want to make sure that before you bread and fry them, your wings are as dry as they can possibly be. To achieve this, we dried the chicken wings with paper towels before laying them out on a sheet try and throwing them in the fridge. Leave them uncovered in the fridge for about an hour, but the more time the better, to really get the skin nice and dry. And before breading and frying them, dry them again with paper towels, just to ensure that you’ve absorbed every bit of moisture from the outside of the wings.

The second key to the most perfectly crusted and crisped fried chicken wings is a two part batter process. The way we did this was by mixing up a dry batter using flour, corn starch (which will dry the wings out even more and add to the crispiness) and lots of seasonings. Add a little bit of this mixture into some water to make a nice thick wet batter, and then add a little bit of water into this mixture for the dry batter. The bit of milk will help the dry batter clump up, creating that craggy crispy crust. Wet batter, then dry batter your wings, then fry them in batches (not overcrowding the pot as to not bring down the temperature of the oil) for the best fried wings you’ve ever had.

VEGETARIAN “WINGS”

For those who don’t eat chicken, you can use the same technique that Gabe used to fry these chicken wings to fry just about anything (you could fry shoe leather this way and it would taste amazing). So since my step mom is a vegetarian and I don’t eat all that much meat, we decided to fry up a batch of “vegetarian wings.” For these, we simply used vegetables instead of chicken, and used the exact same frying method. The veggies we chose were oyster mushrooms and cauliflower. The shape texture of the oyster mushroom really mimics that of chicken, and cauliflower is primed to absorb all the delicious spices of the batter. But like I said, you can fry any vegetables, or just about anything, using this technique, and you’re guaranteed to make the absolute crispiest fried chicken wings/veggies you’ve ever had.