EAT THESE CRISPY BAKED CHICKEN WINGS NOW!

I have been on a huge duck fat kick recently. Probably because I bought ten pounds of rendered duck fat. Go big or go home, right? Well, one afternoon I was looking at the fat bucket and at a mountain of wings. I thought first I would coat the wings in melted duck fat and then bake them off. Instead, I decided to dry rub the wings and saute them. Oh hello my new favorite way to make wings.

As I have talked about in earlier posts, I love duck fat for a couple reasons. First, it is stable. This simply means that it won't change its flavor profile, even at high temperatures. Next, it has a high smoke point so we can get some really crispy skin or crusts on various proteins. And that's just what we are going to do to get some crispy baked chicken wings.

PREPARING THE WINGS FOR THE OVEN

I took a bunch of pictures to show how to prep up the wings, but I had a bit of an issue happen. My Lowel Ego was on the counter next to the stove and it got knocked off the counter... Immediate FUBAR. Long story short, I took the pics with the regular overhead light, but I was distracted and literally not ONE of them was able to be salvaged.

So, we're going to just take a walk through the old fashioned way. Here goes. All you need to do to get these crispy baked chicken wings ready to roll is to add all your spices for the dry rub to a big bowl. Make sure the wings are dry before you add them to the bowl, otherwise you're going to fight an uphill battle with sogginess.  Make sure all the wings are coated really well with the seasoning.

We're going to saute the wings first in duck fat, then add them to a hot oven. Make sure that you have a foil lined, rimmed baking sheet ready to go. As the wings are finishing in the pan, grab them with tongs and lay them in a single layer on the sheet pan. I put three rows of 10 wings on each sheet pan, which is why the recipe calls for 30 wings. You can do 24 or even 12. If you do 12, just cut the dry rub ingredients in half. I would keep it the same for 24 wings though.

COOKING WINGS IN THE OVEN

Wings release a lot of moisture. Let's just start there. If you have a lot of wings on the baking sheet (Like I said, I put 30 wings on mine at any given time), you are going to end up with a lake in the baking sheet. This is normal, but a problem if you are trying to crisp up wings. Moisture + Wings = Soggy Wings.  We're trying to get crispy baked chicken wings. Let's eliminate the soggy.

We are going to combat this problem by draining the wings off after being in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. All we are going to do is carefully grab the sheet pan from the oven, tilt it gently (and carefully) over the sink and in about 20 seconds the sheet will be empty. If you want, you could drain the juices into a bowl and reduce it down. It is incredibly tasty and makes a wonderful base to a sauce.

After the wings are drained, we're going to let them dry out for 5 more minutes at 400, then reduce the heat down to 300 for another 30 or so minutes. This is when the wings will crisp up nicely.

QUICK COOKING TIP: To saute 30 wings, you are going to need to work in batches unless you have the worlds biggest saute pan. You are going to need to add more fat into the pan between batches and be careful not to scorch the spices. Toasting the spices and getting some crunch is different than burning them to a crisp. Just be careful and if your pan starts to smoke, add in an extra step and deglaze your pan. Better to add a couple minutes to the process than eat burned food!