4 Levels of Boneless Wings: Amateur to Food Scientist

[sauce sizzling]

[upbeat music]

I'm Desi and I'm a level one chef.

I'm Emily and I'm a level two chef.

I'm Ayesha and I've been a professional chef for 16 years.

Of all the wing types you can eat,

boneless are my favorite.

They're moist, they're like a wing,

but they don't have the bone so they're easier to eat.

The best part about it is it's

like a meaty piece of gum, extended chewing.

If I have to have a boneless wing,

then it better be stuffed.

They have to be marinated, crispy,

and have a delicious dipping sauce.

[dramatic music]

Today I'm making honey barbecue boneless wings.

I'm gonna have some of our ranch mix in a little carrots.

I'm gonna have a sweet, quick meal.

The boneless wings I'm gonna be making today

are sort of a Korean style fried chicken

called Dakgangjeong.

I got this recipe from a Korean chef.

It's slightly adjusted

from their version to be boneless wings.

So my boneless chicken wings aren't easy

but they are definitely a labor of love.

You have to get the bones out.

Then we're gonna marinate it, stuff it with sausage,

roast it in the oven and serve it with a delicious sauce.

I'm using Perdue popcorn chicken.

It's cheap and you get more bang for your buck.

It's easier than summer school.

I wouldn't call it a boneless wing, but I like it.

I have here boneless skinless chicken thighs,

a more forgiving moist meat

than, like, just a chicken breast,

so it's gonna make a a more sort of wing-like experience.

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are cool

but without the skin,

where are we gonna get the crunch?

[Emily] So I'm just going to cut my thighs down

into smaller sort of wing sized, bite sized pieces.

Let's get to it.

As a chef, when people come over to my house,

they're looking for me to step it up.

So I'm gonna start with the flat,

which is the flat part of the wing.

We're gonna insert our boning knife around the two bones,

so we can loosen up the ligaments

and then we're gonna follow the knife all the way down

until we loosen up basically the joint

and pop those bones out.

And then what you do is invert it

and we have our chicken wing ready to be stuffed.

So now we have a drumette, and this is a little bit easier.

What you do with this one

is you take the tip of your boning knife

and you just go around the main bone in the middle

and you just wanna rotate the wing

so that you can cut the ligaments off the side of this.

So once it's cut, what you want to do is pull the meat back

and the bone pops right out.

And then you would just flip this inside out.

And that's a boneless drumette ready to be stuffed.

Was that hard?

And now it's time to make the stuffing for my wings.

Today we're gonna be making chicken sausage.

Any good recipe starts with onions and garlic.

We're gonna microplane the garlic directly in the bowl

that we're gonna be mixing everything in.

Onion brings beautiful moisture,

which is gonna allow the stuffing

to stay nice and moist as we roast it.

What I love about red onions

is they bring a sweetness and texture to a dish.

Our next ingredient is spinach

and we're gonna chiffonade it.

The term chiffonade are kind of like ribbons

of anything that you're cutting.

Here we have halloumi.

Halloumi is a pasteurized cheese,

so as mozzarella is the king of Italian cuisine,

halloumi is the queen of Mediterranean cuisine.

We're gonna put in our chicken.

I love to use harissa.

It's full of different types of spices.

It's not only spicy, but really flavorful.

And my favorite condiment, always, olive oil.

And we're gonna season this with some salt,

so our stuffing is ready and we're ready to stuff.

That's too much work.

What I'm going to do is take the stuffing

and put it in a pastry bag.

So I'm gonna take this wing

and I'm gonna insert the toothpick here.

Have it come around and push it out of the other side.

And then we're gonna continue with the process

and make sure that the wing is closed on one side

so that the filling doesn't pop out.

So I'm gonna take this drumette,

stick my thumb inside so that I can form a pocket.

I'm gonna take my pastry bag

and kind of press firmly and pull outward.

We're gonna continue doing that

and then I'll seal them up.

I don't know how to do that yet

but maybe with another 50 of these videos

I'll get there. [laughs]

Now I'm going to take another toothpick

and just seal off the other side.

We're gonna bake these in the oven

and the filling should really stay in there at that point.

All right, it's time to add some flavor.

First I'm gonna do the dry rub

then I'm gonna add some sauce.

I'm at a tablespoon of garlic powder, some black pepper.

The sauce that we're making

is kinda like a sticky sweet and spicy sauce.

So flavoring my wings is gonna be a two-part process.

First, we're gonna make a marinade,

and secondly we're gonna be making a glaze.

So the first part is gonna be

making the sweet and salty marinade,

which with all of these flavors is gonna be delicious.

And we're gonna do dark brown sugar, ground cumin,

some dried chili, some delicious smoked paprika.

Paprika.

This is dash of cayenne.

This is very spicy.

Dash at your own risk.

I'm gonna start with my oil and garlic, then my chilies.

I'm just gonna let these sizzle together

for about 30 seconds and then move on to the next thing.

Now that I'm a level two,

do I get to go into the special lounge

or do I have to continue sitting in the level one cave?

This is gochujang, which is like a Korean chili paste.

This is white vinegar.

Sumac is used in a lot of Middle Eastern cooking.

It's basically the inside of a flower

that has really high citrus notes.

We need about a quarter of a teaspoon of black pepper.

We're gonna introduce 'em to each other

before I add it to the bowl of chicken.

[chicken clinking]

Sound like jingle bells, huh?

[Ayesha] Olive oil, Dijon mustard.

We can use the same amounts of soy sauce.

Soy sauce, stir that up a little.

Then I'll add my corn syrup, bring it almost to a boil,

then add my brown sugar.

Adds like a little bit of depth of flavor.

So I'm going to take it off the heat

so it doesn't become too thick.

My sauce is looking good.

For some heat you could use a tablespoon

of any hot sauce of your liking.

Two cloves of finely minced garlic.

It already smells so good in here.

It's time to get this marinade on those wings.

And we're gonna gently brush these

with an ample amount of marinade.

So I'm gonna take these wings,

marinate them for the minimum of four hours,

but hopefully overnight if you have time,

and leave them uncovered.

For the next part of my flavor, honey barbecue sauce.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of barbecue

but I'm not gonna yuck your yum.

Honey barbecue's the best

'cause it's half sweet, half tangy.

It just give you that oomph

as soon as it touch your tongue,

you just close your eyes and, mm.

I'm gonna add a cup of barbecue sauce.

Ooh, even it smell good.

Let's make barbecue sauce cologne.

Add a little honey and another dash of cayenne pepper.

You will make sure it's a smooth stir

'cause you want the stickiness to go away

'cause there's some honey involved.

Woo, look at that.

I think we're ready to throw this on our wings.

It looks delicious.

So now I'm gonna make a sauce

that the wings are gonna get tossed in

when they come out of the oven.

So I'm gonna take these ingredients.

We're gonna mince the garlic.

I'll add a little bit of salt here

'cause it helps with the friction

to make a little bit of a garlic paste.

We're gonna probably use half of the serrano

so it's not overly spicy.

We're gonna slice up some scallions,

add some sumac, some salt, olive oil.

We're gonna take the juice of the lemon.

I'm looking to finish the wings

with something really bright, herby and acidic.

And in the end, these two flavor combinations

are going to compliment each other very nicely.

And we're ready to go.

Now it's time for our dipping sauce.

This might be the hardest part of the meal.

Watch carefully and go slow.

That's a masterpiece right there.

Yeah.

No one's making blue cheese?

I mean, come on.

You don't go blue cheese with honey barbecue sauce.

Ranch.

I'm team blue cheese if it's a buffalo wing,

but that's not the point.

I like ranch. [laughs]

Ranch is great, go for it.

For my dipping sauce, I'm just making mayo

with a little extra flavoring in it.

Basically I've got sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

I'm gonna be making a white harissa sauce

so that we can cool down the spicy flavors

we put on the wings.

Chili flake, garlic powder and onion powder,

a little bit of salt.

We've got the same amount of black pepper.

And after that is when I'll add the wet ingredients.

We have one garlic clove here, lemon juice, the mayonnaise.

[Emily] Kewpie mayo,

which everyone knows is the best mayo,

sesame oil, soy sauce, and some white vinegar.

Creme fraiche, good yogurt.

Sherry vinegar.

I developed the recipe for this sauce

because I wanted to mimic the white sauce

that you get off of the halal trucks in the street.

[Emily] All right,

my dipping sauce is ready for our wings.

I'm gonna put this in the refrigerator.

It's ready to go.

This is gonna go great with our wings.

I ain't too crazy about this sides stuff,

but it makes you appreciate the wings more.

You want your plate to look healthy,

open up the baby carrots,

put in a little dish and cut up your celery

so your plate can look wonderful for decorations.

It's like a Christmas tree.

All right here are my sides.

The carrots that Bugs Bunny never ate.

And these celery sticks

I can't wait to throw in the garbage.

On the side of my wings,

I'm going to make some quick pickled radishes.

Radishes?

Who gonna put radishes on chicken?

They go well together because it adds a nice counterpoint

to the sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy chicken.

This gives you a little fresh, crispy and sour.

The next thing I'm gonna do

is make a little brining liquid kind of thing.

And then I'm gonna pour that on top of here.

So for my side

I'm gonna be pickling turnips, kohlrabi, and green beans.

And I'm gonna throw a serrano chili in that.

And I'm just gonna slice it in half.

I'm gonna leave the seeds in.

Turnip and kohlrabi

are really good vegetables to impart flavor on.

Their texture is there,

which means that they're really crunchy at all times

but they really have mild flavor.

So whatever flavorings that you're gonna put in your pickle

is what it's gonna take on.

And next up, the pickling liquid.

Pickling liquid is a balance

between sweet and savory with salt and sugar,

and a bunch of herbs and spices as you choose.

And I'm just dry toasting the coriander,

cinnamon stick, bay leaf and a star anise

to get the oils released and the spices.

So the minute, mm,

that they get a little fragrant, I'll add in my water.

[Emily] Water.

Apple cider vinegar. White vinegar.

[Ayesha] And lemon juice.

We have some sugar. Just white sugar.

A heavy pinch of salt. Salt.

And a little bit of black pepper.

The purpose of these pickles is that crunch and the texture

that it's gonna bring to this dish.

So our pickling liquid has come to a boil

and we're gonna pour it right over top of the pickles.

So we're gonna take these pickles,

throw them in the refrigerator for a few hours,

but overnight is best.

All right.

So if you gonna cook my wings

you ain't gotta worry about it being too high or too low.

That's why I love the air fryer.

I'm just gonna gonna open this and dump my chicken in there.

[laughs] Leave it for 10, 15 minutes

and go play some basketball, come back.

The other chefs out there just doing too much.

I'll be back.

I'm going to be frying my boneless wings

but before I do that,

I'm gonna give them a little cornstarch coating.

Put my ginger in here, salt and pepper, cornstarch.

A chill runs down my spine when I touch cornstarch.

Okay, my wings are prepped and ready to fry.

All right.

Oh, look at that.

They done.

Now I'm gonna dump 'em.

Now it's time to add the sauce

add a little drippy drop, toss it.

Ooh, that smell good.

So they're done marinating.

I'm gonna put them on a little rack

and get them in the oven.

So I'm putting these wings

on a raised rack to ensure that they cook evenly.

These wings are gonna go into a preheated oven

at 450 for about 15 to 20 minutes.

I've got my vegetable oil heated up

and ready for my chicken.

So I'm gonna deep fry these

for like eight to 10 minutes roughly,

or until they hit 165 on the inside because safety.

All right, my chicken is done and ready to be pulled out.

Oh yeah, look at that.

All right, I'm very excited to eat this chicken.

All right, so the next thing I need to do is reheat my sauce

and then I'm going to toss in

some peanuts that I have here and my chicken.

And then just mix it all together

and we're on our way to chicken town.

Okay, so our wings are out of the oven.

How gorgeous do they look?

Can you see these crispy bites

and how that skin really crisped up?

So in this bowl we have our flavor bomb too

and we're gonna take these toothpicks

out of the chicken wings and toss them in that sauce,

making sure that each of the wings is coated with the sauce.

All right, chicken is sauced and I'm ready to plate.

It's time to plate.

I'm gonna start with this exciting celery.

I'm gonna have the baby carrots.

I'm not gonna lie, I don't like 'em.

I just, I tolerate 'em.

It's like that cousin

that stay at your house for the weekend.

You don't get along with him,

but he the one with the PS5.

[Emily] I'm gonna put the sauce on here.

[Ayesha] Our boneless wings piled sky high.

No man left behind. White harissa.

And then a good mound of the delicious pickles that we made.

The chicken is the star, the radish is its best friend.

Its entourage, if you will, and scallions.

A little fresh cilantro, my favorite herb of all time.

It looks extravagant.

I might need to frame this.

Put this on a T-shirt and here are my boneless wings.

And these are my Korean style boneless wings

with quick pickled radish and sesame mayo.

And these are my stuffed boneless chicken wings

with white harissa and pickled vegetables.

[bright playful music]

It looks good, right?

I mean, I've got my eye on this crispy guy right here.

I can't wait to drag it through the sauce

and then get a crispy bite of those pickles.

Two dips.

Uh-huh.

Ooh!

Sorry, that was French, bro.

When it sound like this, that mean the food is good.

It's hitting on all cylinders.

It's like a symphony of tastiness.

And the best part?

There are no bones.

My favorite part of the dish is

that lingering flavor that you get in your mouth.

You can taste all of the herbs and the spices

and what it makes you do is want to go back for more.

You need a beer too, that that would really help.

[dramatic music]

Boneless chicken wings are a fabulous snack.

They come in many forms

and don't even have to be a chicken wing.

Let's see how each of our chefs made theirs.

[dramatic music]

Desi used frozen popcorn chicken.

This is processed white meat that is seasoned, fried,

and then flash frozen or quick chilled.

This means that the food is brought

to below freezing temperatures very quickly

so that large ice crystals don't form

and the texture of the food remains intact.

Our level two chef, Emily, congratulations, Emily,

used chicken thighs.

These are considered dark meat,

which means they're higher in fat,

and the pigment myoglobin

because the thigh muscles are well used by the chicken,

they need more myoglobin to deliver oxygen and iron

to the muscles for locomotion,

which gives the meat a darker color.

Ayesha stuffed her de-boned wings

with ground chicken and halloumi cheese.

Halloumi is a brined semi-hard cheese

that's made from sheep's milk

or a combination of sheep and goat's milk.

It's aged for at least 40 days, holds its shape well,

and crumbles instead of melts.

This is because its protein structure

is compact and tightly bonded into round clusters.

For cheese to melt,

proteins must be more linear

and parallel than crumbling cheeses.

[dramatic music]

Desi, he added his own seasoning blend

before cooking his popcorn chicken in an air fryer.

Air fryers use high velocity convection currents

in a small enclosed area

that both cooks and dehydrates the outer layer,

imparting a crispiness that's similar to frying in oil.

Emily dried, seasoned, and coated her chicken in cornstarch,

which gave a crispy outer layer

when she fried her chicken in hot vegetable oil.

When the chicken comes in contact with the hot oil,

small bubbles of water rapidly appear

as they escape from the meat.

The ester links of the fatty acids in the oil

are broken with heat and produce smaller fatty acids,

which impart flavors associated with fried foods.

[dramatic music]

Desi used traditional ranch dressing,

a thick, salted heavily herbed dressing

with a buttermilk base.

Ranch dressing was first made

and sold by Gail and Steve Henson

on their Hidden Valley Ranch near Santa Barbara, California.

It was so popular with their crew and guests

that they started to produce, bottle,

and sell it commercially.

Emily kept it simple with Kewpie mayonnaise on the side.

Kewpie is a Japanese mayo that's super smooth

and made with just the egg yolks, not the whole egg,

as you would find in mayonnaise in the United States.

Egg yolks contain fatty acids, lecithin, phospholipids,

and phosphatidylcholine that have emulsification properties

which is why Kewpie is so smooth.

When you include the egg whites, you add water

and lots of proteins that aren't quite as smooth

as using just the yolks.

Boneless wings are so versatile

that you can use any part of the chicken.

Next time you're making them for a big party

or just as a solo snack,

we hope you'll take some of these fabulous tips

from our three incredible chefs.

[bright music]

Oh! [laughs]

Thanks, guys. [laughs]

I'm just glad to be a part of this whole situation.

Oh! [laughs]

Diploma of graduation.

Level two. [laughs]

[production crew clapping]