One of my little pleasures in life is tucking into one of these little bundles of tastiness fresh out of the oven or finished off on the BBQ. The combination of hot spice and creamy blue cheese always puts a smile on my face
This recipe has been adapted so you won’t need a deep fat fryer but if you want to go with that way of cooking then make sure your oil is at 160C for the first fry and then 190C for the finishing fry. After that, mix all your wings in the hot sauce and serve
First you’ve got to prep the chicken so that the skin will begin to crisp when it goes into the oven and to do that you need to put the chicken wings on a cake rack with the cake rack on a roasting tray
Sprinkle the wings with sea salt. Give them a decent covering and then cover with cling film and pop in the fridge for a few hours. This will eventually draw some water out of the skin
Heat the oven to 170C when ready and remove the wings from the fridge. Pat them dry and given them a brush with olive oil before placing in the oven for 15 minutes.
The hot sauce is simple and can be made in advance if you prefer but simply crush the garlic and put in a pan with the butter and gently cook for a few minutes. Add in the hot sauce, vinegar and sugar and bring to the boil while stirring and then take off the heat.
After the chicken has been in the oven for 15 minutes, remove and give each wing a good baste of the hot sauce and pop back in. You’ll be doing this every 5 minutes now to give them a good glaze and flavour. You’re going to baste them another 4 times
Once the first hot sauce baste is done you can make the blue cheese dip which could also have been made in advance but is still quick and simple. Add the butter into a sauce pan and melt. Add the shallots and gently cook for a few minutes before adding the garlic and cooking for a further minute. Remove from the heat
When the shallots and garlic are cool, pop into a bowl and add the crumbled blue cheese, creme fraiche and sour cream and give it a quick mix.
Serve the cool blue cheese dip with the hot chicken fresh out of the oven