The Best Buffalo Wings You'll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

I'm Frank Proto,

a professional chef and culinary instructor,

and today I'm gonna show you how to make

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buffalo wings.

We'll be going over techniques the pros use

to make perfect wings.

This is Buffalo Wings 101.

My idea of a perfect wing is crispy on the outside,

not dry on the middle and sauce.

You wanna have enough sauce that you get it on your face

and on your fingers.

This recipe has simple ingredients and simple equals good.

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First thing we wanna do is prepare our wings.

What makes my wing prep different

is that you actually have to think a day ahead

because you want these wings to dry out for at least a day.

Moisture is the enemy of things being crispy and brown.

What I have here is a wing.

It's got three distinct parts, the tip, the flat,

and the drumette.

We're not gonna use the tip.

There's really nothing edible on here

but it could make your stock tasty.

So I save my tips. I don't leave them on.

And then we cut the flat and the drumette separate.

Put them on a rack so that they can dry out.

A lot of times you can get wings like this.

They're fried whole

sometimes you get 'em with just the tip off.

But I like to be in control, so I buy the full wings

and I prepare them the way that I want them to look.

When I cut wings,

basically what I'm looking for is where the joint bends

and that's where I'm gonna cut.

The joint hinges right here,

so I can just follow that down.

If it's not cutting through,

you can always just give it a crack,

find that joint and just kind of cut through.

A lot of times when chickens are processed,

they're processed with a lot of water to keep them cold.

So the first thing we'll do before we put it

in the fridge is get some paper towels and dry them off.

The drier the skin, usually the crisper it gets

when you fry.

Now that the wings are cut and dried,

we can put 'em in the fridge overnight.

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My buffalo wing sauce is just slightly different

than a traditional buffalo wing sauce.

I'm gonna add butter to the pan, a whole stick,

and I'm gonna turn it on low.

Hot sauce goes in.

We're using a crystal today.

Most people would think that as a person named Frank,

I would like Frank's Hot Sauce,

but there's only room for one Frank in this video

and that's me.

I'm gonna take a clove of garlic, just give it a whack.

I just want a little bit of garlic flavor.

We're gonna hit it with some ketchup.

I like that ketchup has a little sweetness to it.

It also gives my sauce a little texture

but it cuts some of that heat.

And then a nice pinch of salt

because we always need to add salt.

I wanna see the butter melting

and getting absorbed into the hot sauce.

I don't want it to boil

'cause it'll separate and it might burn,

and we're good to go.

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Okay, the wings have been in the fridge overnight.

If you hold them up, you can see

that they have a bunch of dry spots on them.

They're not wet to the touch

and that's where we wanna be before we fry.

I prefer frying my wings

because the whole wing gets crispy.

A lot of times when you bake them

or maybe even put them in an air fryer,

you have like a couple of soft spots that aren't crisp.

And with my wings, I like for them to be crispy all around.

The oil is at 375.

I have it a little higher than 350

'cause I wanna kickstart the frying process.

A lot of people will get nervous

and they'll drop their wings from high, right?

When you drop these in,

you want to get close to the oil, drop it away from you

so if it does splash, it splashes away.

One of the great benefits

to drying your wings out first is you get less splatter.

The more water that's on your wings,

the more splatter you get.

Give 'em a quick stir, let 'em fry.

Frying sometimes in your home can be scary.

Couple of things that I like to tell people

is first of all, never fill your pot up with oil.

If you fill it to the top, once you put product in,

it's gonna bubble over and get all over your stove

and make you even more nervous.

So fill it about halfway to 3/4 of the way with oil.

These wings have been in the oil for about 12 minutes.

The way I can tell they're ready

is they're gonna be golden brown and crispy on the outside

and I'll always take one out and give it a little twist.

When the wings are done,

you can pull the meat off the bone pretty easily.

I always like to season things as they come out of the oil

'cause the seasoning sticks a little bit better.

A little black pepper, a little salt.

Now that the wings are fried, it's time to sauce.

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Now, you can eat these wings as they are plain and dry

or you can put 'em in some buffalo sauce.

We get our wings into the bowl.

[wings dropping]

You can hear they're crispy.

Sauce right onto the wings.

You might not eat it all.

Don't put it all in right now and now we toss, right?

Don't go crazy.

Do 'em far away from you so you don't splash.

We want them coated well

but we don't need them to be drowning in the sauce.

If you don't feel comfortable tossing them in the bowl,

you can always use a pair of tongs or a spatula.

What would buffalo wings be without blue cheese,

carrots and celery?

I'm not necessarily just gonna dump them

onto the platter, I'm gonna scoop them out with my tongs.

So if there's any excess sauce, it stays in the bowl.

It doesn't go on my plate.

Nothing like a big stack of wings to make people happy.

I think they look delicious.

It is time to give it a taste.

Let me see, which one do I want.

I'm gonna get myself a nice flat and usually what I do

with my flats is I take this little wing joint off first

and then you can just eat it off of one bone.

[chef grunting]

If you're not eating wings and getting messy,

you're not doing it right.

The wings are nice and crisp.

The sauce is spicy, but because it has the ketchup,

you're not gonna be like burning your face off.

You're gonna wanna go back for more.

Does it take a little more time?

Does it take a little more effort to make these at home?

Yes, but your oil's gonna be fresh,

your wings are gonna be fresh

and your sauce is gonna be right every single time.

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