My conscience is more important than my wallet. I don't mind paying a little extra for humanely raised chickens.

I usually just use Frank's Red Hot or a different sauce and avoid the butter.

I have a friend who makes crazy good and crispy wings in the oven. What's stopping you from trying it?

I intentionally ate ahead of time and ordered food for my babies:

grilled cheese without figs / truffle oil
salt & pepper fries

this place had sliders for fried chicken, pulled pork, brisket… omg so gorgeous. Plus the taqueria truck. All I got was a ginger lemonade. Didn’t even get wasted. Sigh.





you are a very good person!!

Unfortunately this is the standard in industrial farming, which produces most of the meat we eat. It’s probably the main reason I say I’m trying to limit how much meat I eat. But of course it’s this industrialized efficiency that provides meat at a price most people can afford, so it’s a double edged sword. Of course, there is the argument that we in the industrialized world eat too much meat as it is, and should cut down so if it were more expensive it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

The other thing I do is buy organic or free range meat when possible. Or from a farmers market where I can talk to the farmer about how the animals are raised.

I think some of it is also the move away from hunting and a loss of huntable land. If more people hunted, there would be less need for industrial farming.

Friends who temporarily relocated during the pandemic are staying with us this weekend, so we're having a BBQ with three other families.

Cheese and crackers
Hummus and veggies
Chips

Pulled pork sandwiches
Coleslaw
Tahini-parmesan-tomato pasta salad

Assorted flavors of popsicles from the paleteria

California voters overwhelmingly passed an initiative three years ago that established minimum space requirements for calves, pigs and egg-laying hens and bans the sale of meat and eggs from animals which were confined to spaces below the minimum. That ban also applies to meat and eggs produced outside California.

Tons of recipes online.

And then there’s smoked wings. Mmmmmm. Not as crisp as fried, but oh, the flavor.

Broiled Lamb Shoulder Blades with Pan Fried Shitake Mushrooms

A roommate and friend of mine in my 20's showed me how to make real fried chicken in a cast iron pan. I've never been able to duplicate it. But I still remember him throwing the chicken parts in the big paper grocery bag full of flour, salt, and pepper and shaking it around .

I use the Frank's Buffalo sauce or sometimes the Frank's Hot Buffalo. I think I'd probably need to add a little something to Frank's Red Hot. The Buffalo sauces have "natural butter type flavor" but technically no butter. I'm not too worried about healthy ingredients when I'm eating skin-on chicken wings dipped in chunky blue cheese dressing!

But do any of those recipes actually turn out as good as just buying them from your local wing place? I've not found one yet, even those that claim to be just as crispy as frying. Share it please if you've found it!

chgoeditor, does your friend use a convection oven? I have another recipe that claims crispy convection oven wings, but I haven't tested it out yet. It will be a winter project for me, since I enjoy them grilled when it's nice out.

I've had success getting crispy but not burned wings both from the kamado grill and in the oven. The trick seems to be starting at a lower temp to render the fat, then increasing heat to crisp them up. Also, for the oven wings, I dry them in the fridge for several hours and toss them in salt, pepper, and some baking powder, which seems to help with the browning.

My favorite sauce is just Frank's red hot, butter, and enough cayenne powder to get the heat right

I also try to remove most of the skin. I know skin on is traditional, but...

I don't think so. If I had to guess, he's doing a salt and baking powder dry brine in the fridge.