The most classic Super Bowl or party food is a big ole pile of original buffalo chicken wings drenched in a pool of hot sauce, surrounded by crunchy celery sticks and a blue cheese dressing to dip them in. The story goes that Teressa Bellissimo of Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York is the creator of the original buffalo chicken wings recipe. Her son and friends were hanging around the bar with grumbling stomachs. Teressa tossed some wings in the fryer, then with hot sauce and served them with the classic sides of celery and blue cheese dressing. A star was born.
Let’s start out by saying this recipe is for kicking back and enjoying a good time with friends, it by no means carries a healthy halo. So for those people looking for calorie and fat counts, please stop reading and instead check out our Homemade Olive Garden Italian Salad or Oven Baked Cod Recipe or our many other healthy meal choices.
What’s in the Original Buffalo Chicken Wings Sauce Recipe?
There are as many recipes for hot wings sauce as for chocolate chip cookies. But why reinvent the wheel if we have access to the original recipe. I found the hot wings recipe on Parade’s website and for the most part I follow it. They state that’s it’s truly Teressa’s original buffalo chicken wings recipe so I’m going to believe them. Teressa uses hot sauce, butter, cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, & garlic powder.
As far as brands or types of hot sauce, my suggestion is to use a milder version so that you can control the heat better. In the south a common choice is Crystal and in general Frank’s Hot Sauce is popular. Something like Tabasco is one of the hotter brands.
How Do You Make Buffalo Hot Wings?
In Teressa’s original Buffalo chicken wings recipe she tosses the wings with oil, salt and some flour. I don’t think the oil or the salt is necessary at this stage, the flour however is necessary.
How do you get sauce to stick to chicken wings you ask? Toss the chicken wings in flour, shake off excess. The flour adds texture and will absorb the sauce. So now you know your favorite pub’s secret to keeping the sauce on the hot wings, instead of dripping off and leaving you with a thinly sauced wing.
You can fry, grill, broil or bake the wings. I have tried all of these ways and I by far prefer baking the wings. Frying gives the wings a really nice crisp texture and are delicious, but sooooooo not worth the effort or the added calories and fat of frying. Very incremental difference to baking. I stay away from broiling if I can because I’m notorious for burning things under the broiler, too much on my mind I guess. Grilling is a good alternative, but you should be turning the wings often so it takes more babysitting. Thus, baking is On The Go Bites preference for making hot wings.
Once the wings are cooked toss with the hot sauce. It’s best to place a few wings at a time into the sauce so that the wings get a nice, even coating.
What To Serve With Buffalo Wings
Go with the classics for hot wing sides. Some nice crunchy celery and blue cheese or ranch dressing cool the heat of the wings. Of course an ice cold lemonade or beer helps cool your tongue as well.
Cooking 101 For Original Buffalo Chicken Wings Recipe
To simplify the recipe even more there are a few steps that are optional. I’ve explained above why I keep some of the optional steps in, but you can still end up with hot savory wings with less effort and ingredients.
Tossing the uncooked wings with flour is great to make the sauce stick to the wings better, but is an optional step that you can skip if you are really pressed for time.
The original Buffalo chicken wings recipe for the sauce can be pared back to just butter and hot sauce. The addition of cayenne pepper, cider vinegar and garlic powder adds a nice touch. But really, if you are eating these hot wings at a party or in front of the TV, I don’t think many people will notice the missing ingredients.
The simplified version of Buffalo chicken wings is to bake the wings in a single layer in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, flip and cook for an additional 15 minutes. In the meantime melt a stick of butter and ½-3/4 cup of hot sauce, depending how scorching you want the wings. Toss cooked wings with hot sauce and enjoy!
Want to make hot wings even easier? Buy a prepared hot wing sauce like Frank’s Redhot Wings sauce that is already to go, no additional butter or ingredients needed. I’m not talking about just hot sauce but WING sauce. It comes in a bigger bottle than the hot sauces do and is in the condiment section. Now you are down to just chicken wings and bottled ready-to-go sauce. How much easier can it get?
Original Buffalo Chicken Wings Recipe
Buffalo chicken wings are so easy to make. You can use this reinterpreted recipe from the original Anchor Bar or you can simplify it all the way to only 2 ingredients!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 Pounds Chicken Wings about 30-40 wings
- 3/4 Cup All-purpose flour
- 8 Tablespoons Butter
- 4 teaspoons Cider vinegar optional
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper or to taste, optional
- 1/8 teaspoon Garlic powder optional
- 1/2 Cup Hot sauce or to taste, use a mild brand
Sides
- 3/4 Cup Blue cheese dressing or ranch dressing
- 6 Stalks Celery cut in 4" pieces
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cover baking pan in foil.
Prepare the chicken wings
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Toss the wings with flour, shaking off any excess. Place wings on prepared baking sheet in a single layer, leaving a little room between pieces so that it heats evenly.
You can skip this step, but the flour helps the sauce cling to the wings.
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Bake wings in oven for 30 minutes. Then flip and cook an additional 10-15 minutes. Until chicken is cooked through.
Make hot sauce
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While the wings cook, melt butter in saucepan, add cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and hot sauce. If you are short on some ingredients you can skip the cider vinegar, pepper or garlic powder, but they add a nice nuance if you have them handy.
For the finale
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Toss cooked chicken wings with the hot sauce. Add a few wings at a time to sauce so that they cover evenly.
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Serves about 5-6 wings per person. Serve with celery sticks and blue cheese or ranch dressing.
Recipe Notes
Cooking 101: See post above for simplified version. You can get all the way down to just two ingredients if you want. The chicken wings and a pre bottled prepared hot sauce like Franks Redhot Wing Sauce.
Nothing an beat the original!
Hot wings are great and seem to always go back to Anchor Bar. Glad you enjoyed them.