Why You Should Sous Vide Your Next Batch Of Chicken Wings

Game days are incomplete without them, Frank's Red Hot wouldn't be flying off store shelves, and places like Wingstop would be out of business if it were not for the oh-so-delicious chicken wing. Frying up chicken wings has been a practice in the Southern U.S. for years, but according to the National Chicken Council, it was in Buffalo, New York in 1964 when bar owner Teressa Bellissimo poured some hot sauce over the bony little snacks that buffalo wings were born.

Since that day, chicken wings have become a staple food throughout the U.S. and are now coated in everything from garlic and lemon glaze to blue cheese dip. There is a satisfaction to pulling the meat from the chicken bone and dipping the pieces in a variety of sauces, but for those who love breadcrumbs more than bone, the boneless chicken wing has also risen to great popularity. But when it comes to the classic style, the question becomes, what is the best way to cook them? Is it to bake the buffalo wings? Grill them up? Or perhaps the best way to make the most succulent batch of chicken wings is to cook them sous vide or "under vacuum."

It's safe to assume that if you're a regular chicken wing eater, you've stumbled upon a handful of chicken wing batches that were painfully dry. Oh sure, the skin was crispy, but the meat inside was dry as chalk, and all the buffalo sauce in the world couldn't mask how chewy the texture was. It is a sad occurrence, made even more so when you overbaked those suckers yourself! The best way to avoid this particular travesty in the kitchen and the method A Duck's Oven hangs its hat on is using sous vide to cook its buffalo wings. 

Sous vide might sound fancy and complicated, and while it may take a lot more time than frying or baking your wings, the process is dead simple, and it produces results so amazing you may never want to go back. Sous vide cooking ensures a tender, melt-in-your-mouth kind of meat, which thoroughly cooks it without drying it out. Anova Culinary says sous vide (which uses temperature-controlled water circulation) never overcooks your food and saves you the pain of cleaning a fryer or baking sheet. It's also completely oil-free. You can simply throw your wings and seasoning into a single bag and pull it out cooked to perfection.