Game Day Chicken Wings, Cut Your Own

Whole wings are cheaper than the cut packs and take a few minutes to break down. Cutting your own also gets you the tips for stock and pieces that are all the same size, so they all cook at the same pace. After that it is dry skin, a hot oven or a smoker, and sauce at the very end.

The knife for this job

I use the Razorback 6" Hand Forged Meat Cleaver. A small cleaver has the weight to go through a wing joint in one clean push, and the finger hole gives you a secure grip when your hands are slick with chicken. It is small enough to stay controlled on a pile of wings and heavy enough that you are not leaning on it. A flimsy paring knife will get through a wing too. It just takes three times as long and leaves you picking out bone chips.

Buy whole wings

Allow about 1 lb (450 g) of whole wings per person for a game day crowd, more if your crowd takes wings seriously. Each whole wing gives you one drum, one flat and one tip. Fresh is best. Frozen wings work, but thaw them fully in the fridge and dry them well, because they carry more water.

How to cut chicken wings

Lay a wing skin side down on a board with a damp towel under the board so it does not slide around.

1. Find the joint

Bend the wing at each joint and feel where it moves. You are cutting through the joint, not through the bone. Hit the joint and the cut is clean. Hit the bone and you get splinters.

2. Take off the tip

Set the edge of the Razorback on the joint between the tip and the flat. Press down firmly, or give it one short controlled chop if the joint is stiff. Tips go into a freezer bag for stock. They have almost no meat on them, so nobody will notice they are gone.

3. Split the flat and the drum

Find the joint between the flat and the drum, just on the drum side of the fold in the skin. Put the cleaver right on it and push through. If the blade stops on bone, move over a few millimetres and try again rather than forcing it. Once you get a rhythm, a 4 lb (1.8 kg) pack takes a few minutes.

4. Tidy up

Trim off any loose flaps of skin hanging from the pieces. Leave the skin that covers the meat, that is the crispy part you are here for.

Dry them out

Crispy skin is a moisture problem. Pat the wings very dry with paper towel. Toss them with kosher salt and aluminum free baking powder, about 1 tablespoon of baking powder per 2 lb (900 g) of wings. Baking powder, not baking soda, unless you like wings that taste faintly of soap. It raises the pH of the skin so it browns and blisters. Spread them on a rack over a tray and leave them uncovered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Skip this step and you get rubbery skin with sauce sliding straight off it.

Crispy baked wings

Heat the oven to 250°F (120°C). Lay the wings on the rack skin side up with space between them. Bake for 30 minutes on a low shelf to start rendering the fat. Then move them to the upper shelf, turn the oven up to 425°F (220°C) and bake another 40 to 50 minutes until they are deep golden and crackly. On a rack there is no need to flip them.

Smoked wings

Smoke at 250°F (120°C) for about an hour with a mild wood like apple or cherry. Then finish over direct heat on the grill, or turn a pellet grill up to 400 to 425°F (205 to 220°C), until the skin crisps, about 15 to 20 minutes. Smoking alone at low heat gives you smoky wings with skin like a wet swimsuit, so do not skip the hot finish.

How hot is done

The USDA safe minimum for chicken is 165°F (74°C). Wings are full of collagen and connective tissue, though, so many cooks take them to 175 to 185°F (79 to 85°C). The meat comes off the bone more easily and the texture is far better. Check the thickest drum with an instant read thermometer, without touching the bone.

Sauce at the end

For a classic buffalo sauce, melt butter into a cayenne pepper hot sauce, roughly 1 part butter to 2 parts hot sauce, and whisk it smooth. Toss the hot wings in a big bowl right before they go out. Sauce them early and the skin goes soft. If buffalo is not your thing, a dry rub or a garlic butter toss works on the same crispy wing.

Serving

Pile them on a board with celery, carrot sticks and blue cheese or ranch. Keep the next batch in a 200°F (95°C) oven on the rack, unsauced, so the skin stays dry until the second wave of guests arrives. Sauce each batch only as it leaves the oven, and nobody ends up with a soggy wing at halftime.

More on cleavers

If you are new to a cleaver, read how to use a meat cleaver before game day. For a full kitchen kit, the Wolfpack 4 piece chef knife and cleaver set covers it, and the full range sits in cleavers.