the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Cast Iron Skillet Wings

I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit that I’ve been a life-long fan of chicken wings, and before becoming a Primally-aligned eater roughly four years ago, had never met a wing prep that I didn’t like.

Chicken wings are an absolutely perfect hand food, just the right size for easy maneuvering to pick all that delicious protein off the bones, with a great ratio of skin to meat (if prepared well) to satisfy the pickiest grilled protein fan.

We have a house favorite grilled chicken wing recipe (dust them with garlic powder and paprika before grilling) that involves basting the flock of wings with our family secret butter and Worcestershire-based sauce, but sometimes the weather just won’t cooperate when you have the itch for wings.

We’ve just come through the rainiest first three months of the year on record here in the DFW area, and recently on day 8 or 9 of what was to be an 11 day straight run of rain, my lovely wife said it was time for wings. Figuring who the hell am I to argue when Momma says it’s time for wings, this recipe came back out of mothballs from a particularly long winter during our Montana days.

With a tip of the hat the original Buffalo Wings recipe which called for a sauce made simply of butter and Frank’s Hot Sauce, we prefer to make this recipe using either a traditional Louisiana-style hot sauce (hello Crystal, my old friend) or with a Tex-Mex bent using something like Valentina.

Oven roasting the wings in a hot oven on a base of cast iron allows the wings to cook slowly enough to absorb the flavors and fat used, yet in a hot enough setting to get nice and crispy and build layers of flavor as you add the hot sauce just a bit at a time over 20 to 30 minutes. Yep, you’ll use an entire bottle of sauce; be patient, you’re building layers of flavor that beat anything you’ll ever see at that wing eatery down the road.

These are great party food by the way, and we like to pour a batch onto a big platter, set it in the middle of the table and let everybody go to it, with your favorite dressing for dipping on the side (we’re torn between blue cheese and a creole honey mustard, with a good ranch a close third).

Roughly two pounds, wings, separated (see note)
7-8 ounces of your favorite hot sauce (see above)
2 tbsp grass fed butter
1 tbsp avocado oil
Good salt and fresh ground pepper
1/4 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper (or Cajun/Creole seasoning)

Fire the oven and preheat to 475.

Prep the wings by cutting off the tips, and then separating the drumettes from the wingettes; save those discarded tips for your next chicken stock batch.

When the wings are prepped and the oven’s almost there, set your largest cast iron skillet on the stover over medium-high heat; when it’s warmed for several minutes melt the butter and oil together in the skillet.

When it’s hot, add the wings and stir to coat, then sprinkle liberally with the salt, pepper, and cayenne, and then spritz just enough of the hot sauce over the wings to give them a coat. Stir the wings and throw in the oven.

Now for the next 2o to 30 minutes, until the wings are fully cooked, browned and crispy, you’re going to pull the skillet from the oven every three minutes, turn the wings over, and coat with more hot sauce (again, just enough to coat the wings).

Serve hot from the oven with your favorite dipping sauce alongside as per above.

Hot damn, these are good. And easy.

Enjoy.