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Prep Time:

1 hour

Cook Time:

1-2 hours

Serves:

10-12 servings

Nashville Hot Chicken Wings

Ingredients

4 lbs bone-in skin-on chicken wings


For the Rub:

1 tsp salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 tsp Desert Fire Hot Sauce


For the Marinade/Egg Wash:

2 cups buttermillk

3 large eggs


For the Flour Dredge:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt


Vegetable oil for frying, enough to fill your pot so wings fry freely


For the hot-pepper oil sauce:

1/2 cup of oil from frying the wings

2-6 Tbsp cayenne pepper (to your taste! we find 2 Tbsp plenty HOT!)

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic salt (or mixture of garlic powder and salt, to taste)


Preparation

Wash your chicken wings, pat dry, and cut apart. Keep drumettes and wingettes, discard tips (or save for making stock.)


In a small bowl, mix spices for the Rub (salt, fresh ground pepper, and Desert Fire Hot Sauce.) Place chicken wing pieces in a large bowl, shake Rub over the wings, and mix thoroughly to coat. Let sit for at least an hour.  Thoroughly mix buttermilk and eggs, and pour this mixture over the wings. Make sure all wings are submerged in the eggwash mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.


Prepare a shallow pan with Flour Dredge mixture (flour, paprika, cayenne, and salt.) Place a rack over a rimmed cookie sheet to create a place for coated wings to rest, where dripping won't make a mess. Create an assembly line of egg wash, flour mixture, and rack. Take wings from the egg wash, dredge in the flour mixture, return them to the egg wash, and then dredge in flour again. Place on the rack. This "double coats" the wings in a delicious way. Use tongs or a fork to move the chicken from egg wash to flour, or be prepared to have messy hands. 


Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees in a large pot, using enough oil that wings can float freely as they fry. Slide several wings into the oil (don't drop or they will splash you with hot oil!) Don't overcrowd. Cook the wings in batches, until golden brown. Depending on how much your oil loses temp as wings are added, this can take 6-10 minutes per batch.  Remove each batch from the oil and keep warm while frying the next.


After all the wings are fried, turn off the heat to the oil and let it cool a bit. Then use 1/2 cup of that fry oil to create the hot-pepper oil sauce, by adding the listed spices. A note on the cayenne: recipes vary from 2 Tbsp to 6 Tbsp of cayenne powder in the hot oil sauce! We started with 2 Tbsp and found that to be plenty hot for our Pacific Northwest palates. Feel free to add more if you like it hotter! Brush the wings with oil sauce, both sides. 


Traditional Nashville Hot Chicken is served with white bread and pickles. You decide what goes with yours, but definitely supply lots of napkins!




https://www.inlandempirespice.com/product-page/desert-fire-hot-sauce

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