Like others who enjoy the Sunday NFL ritual, we have been in pursuit of the perfect chicken wing for a while now. We’ve had great results with Kenji Lopez’s recipe for The Ultimate Extra-Crispy Double-Fried Chicken Wings (first confit, then crisp ’em up). But for an alternative to frying, we’ve discovered a recipe that yields wings as crispy as fried without the fuss of a pot of hot oil.

Alton Brown’s recipe for Buffalo Wings are steamed, chilled, then baked to a crisp. We were somewhat skeptical with the process since we’d never had baked wings that were actually crispy, but the steaming of the wings renders the fat & prepares the wings for a good crisping in the oven.

Instead of the traditional Frank’s hot and butter mixture for buffalo wings, we used a mixture of our favorite Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning and butter. These were crispy, spicy, salty, delicious jerk wings. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken wings
• 2 tbsp walkerswood jerk paste
• 2 tbsp butter
• blue cheese sauce for dipping (we prefer Marie’s Super Blue Cheese Dressing + Dip)
• optional: cut celery and carrots for garnish and dipping

Directions

• Use Alton Brown’s recipe for oven fried buffalo wings
  • Set a drying rack on a baking sheet lined with paper towels or parchment. Make room in your fridge for the baking sheet (you will need to keep in the fridge after steaming).
  • Prepare a pot with a steamer basket and heat the water until steaming. Arrange half the wings in a single layer, cover, and steam for 12-15 minutes, until the chicken is starting to pull away from the bone. Remove the wings from the pot and place on the drying rack. Thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Repeat with the second half of the wings.
  • Refrigerate the wings on the baking sheet for at least 1 hour.
  • Preheat oven to 425F. Replace the lining in the baking sheet with fresh parchment paper.
  • Roast wings for 20 minutes.
  • Remove the baking sheet from the oven, turn each wing, and then roast for another 30 minutes.
  • The wings are done when the skin has a nice caramel brown color.
• While wings are in the oven, melt butter and add jerk sauce. Stir to combine.
• Once the wings are cooked, combine with the marinade in a large bowl and gently stir to distribute the sauce. Enjoy immediately!