Baked Buffalo Wings With Blue Cheese Dip

Spicy buffalo wings just like the restaurants serve! Here made in the comfort of home without the deep frying hassle and mess! These oven baked buffalo chicken wings are the perfect party food! Who could resist? They’re rich and buttery, lightly sweet with hints of honey and of course extra spicy. Because that’s the best thing about buffalo wings – that bold punch of heat and the taste of hot chilies. And what’s the perfect thing to compliment them every time? Blue cheese dip. It’s just a simple, creamy sauce made up of minimal ingredients but it also packs a lot of flavor. Together this tasty duo is sure to impress! What else can pack this much flavor in one little bite?

Ingredients Needed for Buffalo Wings and Buffalo Wing Sauce

Chicken wings – wondering which to buy? See notes below about chicken wings. Baking powder – use aluminum-free baking powder or you’ll be left with a light metallic taste. Salt and pepper Unsalted butter – this helps mellow the sauce. If you want to make the sauce richer double up on the butter. Hot sauce – I like to use the original Frank’s hot sauce here. Cornstarch – this is optional if you want to thicken the sauce up, keep in mind this does also intensify the heat a little as you’ll end up with a thicker coating on the wings. Honey – this balances the heat just a little and adds a nice faint sweetness. Feel free to up the amount if desired for sweet and spicy buffalo wings.

Ingredients Needed for Blue Cheese Dip

Sour cream – light sour cream could be substituted. Mayonnaise – light mayonnaise can be substituted, it obviously just won’t be as rich. Garlic and onion powder – if you’d like you could use fresh garlic just use 1/2 tsp minced. Fresh parsley – for extra flavor you can add some chives as well (then omit the onion powder). Blue cheese – I like to freshly crumble it up vs. buying pre-crumbled for best flavor.

How to Make Buffalo Wings

Ready oven and baking sheet: Position oven racks to lower middle and upper middle positions. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil then set a large wire rack over baking sheet, spray rack with non-stick cooking spray. Dry chicken, toss with baking powder mixture: Whisk together baking powder with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Dab chicken pieces dry with paper towels then place in a large bowl, sprinkle mixture over chicken. Toss well to evenly coat. Place chicken on prepared wire rack, bake in lower portion of oven: Arrange chicken pieces on wire rack leaving space between each. Bake in preheated oven on lower middle rack 30 minutes. Move wings up in oven, continue to bake: Move wings to upper middle rack, increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Continue to bake until chicken is golden brown and crisp, rotating once halfway through, about 45 – 50 minutes longer. Toss with sauce: Place wings in a large clean bowl and toss with desired amount of buffalo sauce.

How to Make Blue Cheese Dip

About Chicken Wings

So there are three portions of the chicken wing – the wing tip (or the flapper), the wingette, and the drumette. Here we only use the wingette and the drumette because there’s not really any meat on the wing tip. To make buffalo wings you’ll need to 1) buy whole wings and separate each of the 3 portions yourself or 2) buy pre-cut chicken wing sections or party wings which are already ready to go.

How to Cut Chicken Wings into Portions

If you are wondering how to cut and separate each portion of the wing you can watch this video here. Basically you’ll just be cutting wings at the joints separating each into 3 pieces, then discarding the tips or save them for homemade chicken stock.

Tips for the Best Buffalo Wings

Dab wings dry before baking, so they can brown and crisp up better. Toss with baking powder to help dry out the chicken skin, again for a crispier end result. Add butter and honey to lightly tone and balance that heat of the hot sauce. Feel free to add more to taste. Toss wings with a heated sauce. You don’t want to add cold from the fridge hot sauce to warm wings. You don’t need to add all of the sauce. If you don’t want an overload of heat then just start with half of it, freeze the rest. Serve coated wings right away for best results.