Roasted Wings with Blue Cheese Tabasco butter

What another wing recipe???   Yup.  I can't have a football party with just one type of wing.  That's just plain wrong.  The technique we're using for the sauce here is a bit more advanced than what you've seen so far; but it's still a basic sauce, and a great technique to have in your arsenal.  We'll be doing a Buerre  Blanc, which literally mean White Butter which is wine with butter melted into it very slowly so it doesn't break.  It sounds complicated, but if you take your time, it comes out perfectly.  For 4 lbs. of wings you'll need:

New twist on classic flavors

1/2 c. white wine1/2 shallot, chopped

1/4 c. Heavy Cream

1 tbsp. hot sauce (Like Frank's Hot, Crystal, or Tabasco Buffalo.  These add a great pepper flavor)

2 tbsp. tabasco (more if you like it hottter)

4 oz. crumbled blue cheese

1/2 lb. butter, cut up into even pieces

1.  In a sauce pot, combine your shallots and wine.  Reduce them over medium high heat until the wine is almost dry like this:

Wine and shallots reduced to "dry" or "au sec"

2.  Add your cream and hot sauce and simmer for just 3-5 minutes.  You want them to reduce by about 1/4 or 1/3.  

3.  When this mixture has been reduced down, lower the heat and start adding your butter piece by piece.  Use a whisk to move the butter around.  Wait about 30 seconds between adding each piece of butter and don't stop whisking until all of the butter is melted.  

4.  When the butter is all melted, cut the flame and add the blue cheese.  Let it melt just a little by beating it up with your whisk, but not too much.  Add your Tabasco.  Put the sauce off the side somewhere warm.

Slowly whisking in your butter

For the wings:

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 450 or 500 hundred.  I say either or because some ovens can only go to 450, while some can hit 500.  Either is fine.  In some ovens a "Broil" may be more effective, so just make sure you know how your oven is calibrated

2.  Toss the wings in oil salt and pepper and spread out evenly on a baking tray like this:

Wings ready for the oven

3.  Place the wings on the lowest rack in the oven.  Let them go for about 20-25 minutes.  You should start to hear them sizzle.

4.  At this point turn them and finish them off on the other side, about another 20-25 minutes.  Drain off and SAVE and juice that may be in the pan. (Emergency chicken stock)

5.  When the wings are ready, grab a bowl and put a few in there.  Toss them in the sauce and get a good coat.  Repeat until all of the wings are coated, then serve.  I like to just sprinkle a bt more blue cheese on them and throw a couple dashes of Tabasco on top just for visual.

The cool part about this recipe is the sauce we're doing.  I’ll be putting up a more basic and traditional version of the recipe in a few weeks, but how nice is it to have your hot sauce and blue cheese in the same sauce?  About the wings, you can fry these or grill them too (grilling is my favorite).  Feel free to play with them as much as you like.

As always, if you have questions, leave them in the comments below.  

Happy Eating

-The Doctor