Oven Fried Sticky Garlic Henny Wings
Son of a Southern Chef
This recipe is from yet another new book to us! Wings are a family favorite (the kids like them too), so this was an easy win. Chicken wings are notoriously difficult to get crispy in the oven, but baking powder helps these be super crispy without ever touching oil. You don't have to dry them out on a rack in the fridge, either, which another method I've seen that also uses baking powder suggests. I've tried that one, it works too, but it's always hard for me to find space in my fridge for a sheet pan.
You could toss these wings in any sauce you like after they come out of the oven, but the sauce recipe included is both sweet and very, very slightly spicy (at least, the kids thought so) and I thought it was delicious. My kid said it tasted like grapes, which isn't too far off since cognac is made from distilled white wine. If you don't have delicate palates, you could of course add more red pepper flakes to suite your taste.
Captions
[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: this week we're going to start with
[00:08]: another new to us book and actually i
[00:11]: think this was
[00:12]: a new book last year called son of a
[00:15]: southern chef
[00:17]: cook with soul so this is lazarus
[00:20]: lynch's book
[00:21]: he has a i think they said it was the
[00:23]: first snapchat
[00:25]: snapchat cooking show um
[00:28]: he started cooking himself well when he
[00:30]: was a
[00:31]: a child i think his father was a
[00:34]: had a restaurant and was from alabama
[00:36]: and he was sort of the cook in the
[00:37]: family
[00:38]: his mother was from um guyana
[00:41]: and so he has those both of those
[00:43]: influences
[00:44]: in his in his food and uh he started i
[00:48]: think he started his snapchat
[00:50]: cooking show when he was in college like
[00:52]: cooking in the dorm
[00:54]: he's been on um chopped and won a couple
[00:57]: of of
[00:58]: different chopped episodes so i'm really
[01:02]: looking forward to getting into this
[01:03]: book it's you know soul food
[01:05]: a little african influence and uh
[01:10]: let's get cooking uh so we decided today
[01:13]: we are going to be making his oven fried
[01:16]: sticky garlic henny wings i knew we had
[01:20]: some hennessy
[01:21]: my family loves wings so this was
[01:24]: a great recipe for us i know i know
[01:26]: we're gonna like this
[01:28]: i'm we'll have to taste the sauce and if
[01:30]: it's at all spicy i might
[01:32]: put a different sauce on some of them
[01:33]: for the kids but i know my husband and i
[01:35]: are gonna like this
[01:36]: but we just need to get started right
[01:38]: now uh because our chicken wings have to
[01:41]: sit
[01:41]: for at least two hours up to overnight
[01:45]: but all we're going to put on them right
[01:46]: now is some salt
[01:48]: i've got them in a ziploc bag as you can
[01:53]: see
[01:54]: uh you can also just put them in a bowl
[01:57]: and cover them with plastic wrap
[01:58]: or um
[02:02]: in a in a you know plastic container
[02:04]: with a lid
[02:06]: this is what i decided to go with and
[02:08]: then we're going to add some
[02:09]: baking powder
[02:13]: one of the things i like about this book
[02:15]: is in the beginning he tells you
[02:17]: what salt he generally uses and what
[02:19]: salt
[02:20]: level these recipes are calibrated for
[02:22]: so he said he uses morton's
[02:24]: kosher salt i tend to use diamond
[02:27]: crystal
[02:28]: i'm out right now i need to remember to
[02:29]: order some more uh because my regular
[02:31]: grocery store doesn't carry it
[02:33]: anyway um which is a little bit saltier
[02:38]: by volume than the salt that i use so i
[02:40]: might need to add a little bit more salt
[02:43]: we'll see um and then i add
[02:47]: some of the grated garlic in the recipe
[02:50]: he did
[02:51]: ask for this to be grated so i just used
[02:54]: my microplane and grated it the rest is
[02:57]: going to go in the sauce
[02:58]: i don't know how that's going to work
[03:00]: with it being
[03:02]: like it's going to be in the
[03:03]: refrigerator for a few hours anyway
[03:06]: so we're just going to massage this
[03:08]: around
[03:11]: to get all of those things covering all
[03:13]: of this
[03:14]: chicken so that they all get a little
[03:17]: bit of it
[03:18]: so if you if you're using a bowl just
[03:21]: toss it around with your tongs
[03:23]: whatever mix it around get it all on
[03:25]: everything and then this goes in the
[03:26]: refrigerator for at least
[03:28]: two hours you can leave it up tonight up
[03:31]: to overnight
[03:32]: since we were gonna have ours this
[03:33]: evening i didn't want it in there for
[03:34]: like a full
[03:36]: uh almost 24 hours so i went ahead and
[03:39]: did it
[03:41]: it's about noon so you know we'll be
[03:42]: eating about probably a little after
[03:44]: five or so
[03:45]: um that's all we need to do right now so
[03:47]: we're going to go
[03:49]: put this in the refrigerator and we'll
[03:50]: be back in a few hours
[03:52]: my chicken wings have been in the
[03:54]: refrigerator
[03:56]: in the bag for
[03:59]: about four hours now maybe a little bit
[04:00]: more plenty of time
[04:03]: and so what i'm gonna do is put them on
[04:05]: this pan i have
[04:08]: a baking sheet covered with foil
[04:11]: and then uh rack on top of it
[04:14]: so i'm going to spread those out on this
[04:16]: rack
[04:18]: i'm going to put them sort of pretty
[04:21]: side
[04:22]: down currently just because i know that
[04:26]: we are going to
[04:28]: be turning them over after a little
[04:30]: while
[04:31]: and i always like to end with the pretty
[04:35]: side up
[04:36]: just in case it sticks hopefully it
[04:38]: won't stick in the first
[04:41]: 20 minutes or so um
[04:45]: and i like to make them
[04:49]: the drumettes go different ways because
[04:51]: i'm just like that i don't know
[04:55]: so uh my oven is
[04:58]: heated preheated to
[05:03]: 450 degrees non-convection
[05:06]: um you could use convection if you like
[05:10]: they would end up taking a little bit
[05:12]: less time
[05:13]: probably but
[05:16]: yes but um there's some there's some
[05:20]: really big wings and some much smaller
[05:22]: wings that's an
[05:23]: interesting interesting take here
[05:26]: um but i'm just gonna do it like he says
[05:30]: i do have a convection
[05:32]: uh oven but i'm gonna do it
[05:35]: non-convection
[05:36]: 450 20 minutes and then we're gonna turn
[05:39]: them over
[05:40]: so i'll let you let you see what they
[05:41]: look like when that happens
[05:43]: and then we're gonna move over to the
[05:45]: stove and make the sauce
[05:48]: so i'm starting my sauce and i have my i
[05:50]: have a
[05:51]: saucepan so he changes from saucepan to
[05:54]: skillet
[05:55]: in this recipe in the instructions so i
[05:58]: chose a sort of a thinner whiter
[06:01]: saucepan
[06:02]: just because i know we're going to have
[06:04]: to um
[06:06]: thicken this sauce and that will help it
[06:09]: thicken a little bit more rapidly
[06:10]: but i've got some butter melting over
[06:13]: medium-high heat
[06:14]: and that is almost melted
[06:19]: and now that it is melted i'm going to
[06:21]: add the rest of the garlic
[06:24]: that was grated earlier
[06:30]: and we're going to just saute this
[06:35]: cook it until it's kind of lightly
[06:38]: golden you don't want to burn it
[06:40]: that's it would be really easy to burn
[06:43]: this garlic
[06:44]: especially because it is grated so it's
[06:47]: got really small pieces
[06:50]: kind of hard to tell but i think it's
[06:52]: slightly golden it says take it off the
[06:54]: heat
[06:54]: so i'm just going to turn my heat off
[06:56]: because my heat goes down pretty quickly
[06:58]: in this and i just want to make sure
[06:60]: that it is kind of
[07:03]: yeah i think we're good yep definitely
[07:04]: golden and now
[07:07]: we're going to add some honey that's
[07:09]: going to be the sweetness in this recipe
[07:14]: and again i really love these plunger
[07:17]: style
[07:18]: measuring cups for thick things like
[07:20]: honey
[07:22]: and i have some hennessy the
[07:25]: cognac that he calls for in the recipe
[07:27]: if you can't find it i don't
[07:29]: can't find it i'm sure any cognac will
[07:30]: work just fine
[07:32]: but we happen to have it and then
[07:37]: the rest of the salt in the recipe i
[07:39]: actually added a little bit more just
[07:41]: because i know that my salt is
[07:43]: less salty than the stuff that he uses
[07:47]: and some um
[07:50]: crushed red pepper flakes yes that's
[07:52]: what he calls the
[07:53]: chili flakes crushed pepper flakes
[07:55]: pretty much same thing here
[07:57]: and that's going to go in to the sauce
[08:00]: and that's it for the sauce but we're
[08:02]: going to turn it back on to
[08:04]: medium heat and we're going to
[08:09]: cook it and whisk it occasionally until
[08:12]: it is thickened i assume what we're
[08:14]: going for here
[08:15]: is a sort of a warm barbecue sauce
[08:20]: sort of texture we don't want it
[08:23]: super thin because we want it to stick
[08:25]: to our wings
[08:27]: and we want to cook out some of the
[08:28]: alcohol in the hennessey so
[08:31]: he says it should take about five
[08:34]: minutes
[08:36]: we'll see
[08:39]: my sauce has been boiling for
[08:45]: about nine minutes now i don't know that
[08:48]: it is
[08:48]: thick enough it is certainly bubbly um
[08:55]: i don't know hard to say uh it's
[08:58]: definitely longer than he says
[08:60]: and you can see that when i drag my
[09:03]: spatula through it i get a little bit of
[09:05]: a
[09:07]: of a trail where you can see the bottom
[09:09]: of the pot i'm gonna let it go for a
[09:11]: little bit longer
[09:12]: but it's time to turn over our wings now
[09:20]: now he said to uh set up your oven with
[09:24]: a middle rack and then and the upper
[09:27]: third rack for me i think that's my
[09:29]: my highest track and uh at this point
[09:32]: you're supposed to
[09:33]: turn over your wing pieces
[09:37]: and um
[09:41]: rotate the baking sheet
[09:45]: rotate the pan and i'm not sure if he
[09:47]: really means to
[09:48]: just turn it um
[09:54]: around or to put it on the top
[09:57]: rack and turn it around maybe both i
[09:59]: don't know
[10:00]: um i'm gonna put mine on the top rack
[10:05]: i don't know if that's right or not but
[10:06]: that's what i am going to do
[10:09]: because i think we'll get a little bit
[10:11]: better browning maybe if it's closer to
[10:13]: the element on top i don't know
[10:15]: we'll see but i have turned everything
[10:17]: over
[10:19]: and now i'm gonna put it in on the top
[10:20]: rack for 40 to 45 minutes
[10:23]: until they're nicely brown very crisp
[10:26]: and golden brown so
[10:28]: a little more time here now this is
[10:31]: really really bubbly
[10:33]: and i think it's probably thickened
[10:36]: probably enough usually this means it's
[10:38]: getting
[10:39]: sugar gets to sort of caramelizing you
[10:41]: know that's what happens
[10:43]: when it's just sugar um i'm going to
[10:46]: call this good and i'm going to turn it
[10:48]: down to just
[10:49]: low on my stove which will keep it
[10:53]: warm so it will toss
[10:57]: with the wings very well but it won't uh
[11:00]: it probably won't
[11:02]: um thicken anymore or really cook
[11:05]: anymore
[11:06]: so i think this part is done and now all
[11:08]: we have to do is wait for our wings
[11:11]: so our uh chicken wings were done
[11:14]: almost exactly at 40 minutes um they
[11:17]: look
[11:18]: super brown and delicious and they're
[11:20]: not
[11:21]: too sticky so what i'm gonna do is toss
[11:24]: about half of them with my sauce
[11:26]: basically just in case my children end
[11:29]: up not
[11:30]: liking the sauce it's got a taste of it
[11:32]: it's got a little bit of heat
[11:34]: on the back side i'm sort of in the back
[11:37]: your throat
[11:38]: um so i think that's about half
[11:43]: um so it's just a little bit of heat but
[11:46]: not too much
[11:47]: but i think we're gonna test it uh with
[11:50]: test it first before we toss them all
[11:52]: um so i've got my wings in a bowl i'm
[11:54]: gonna add
[11:56]: some of our sauce here now this is
[11:59]: a very thin sauce
[12:03]: but that's that's not unusual
[12:07]: for a wing sauce if you've never made
[12:10]: wings before they often are often have
[12:12]: sort of a thin
[12:13]: sauce and you don't cook it afterwards
[12:16]: you just
[12:17]: cook the uh the wings and then toss them
[12:19]: in sauce and then they're done
[12:22]: so there we go we have our wings and our
[12:24]: sauce
[12:26]: and it's done and ready to eat and these
[12:29]: are going to be super hot right now
[12:31]: because they just came out of the oven
[12:33]: but i am so looking forward to tasting
[12:35]: them and i will let you know what
[12:37]: everybody thinks
[12:38]: [Music]
[12:46]: on this episode of cooking the books
[12:48]: with heather you watched me make
[12:50]: lazarus lynch's oven fried sticky garlic
[12:53]: henny wings
[12:54]: from his book son of a southern chef
[12:59]: cook with soul
[13:02]: back say i love this method i have tried
[13:05]: a similar method before
[13:07]: mostly where you have put the um
[13:11]: baking powder baking powder on
[13:14]: the chicken wings and then let them dry
[13:17]: out overnight
[13:18]: in the refrigerator that's kind of a
[13:21]: pain it's always hard to find a place to
[13:23]: put a flat
[13:24]: baking rack baking sheet in my
[13:27]: refrigerator
[13:28]: um just because we always keep our
[13:30]: refrigerator full of stuff anyway
[13:32]: so this one where you didn't have to
[13:35]: sort of dry it out that worked really
[13:38]: well
[13:40]: even without the sauce you could taste
[13:41]: the garlic so that's great you could do
[13:43]: the method without the garlic
[13:45]: obviously if that's not a flavor that
[13:47]: you want on your chicken
[13:49]: could use this with any sauce but i
[13:51]: really like the fact that
[13:54]: they were done at the time when he said
[13:56]: they should be
[13:57]: and they were very crispy the skin was
[13:59]: crispy the skin was brown
[14:01]: it's beautiful love that i've tried it
[14:04]: before
[14:05]: and it's i've always had a hard time
[14:07]: getting the chicken
[14:09]: done to a point where i thought it was
[14:12]: crispy
[14:13]: and beautiful and brown at the same time
[14:16]: that the
[14:17]: chef told me that it should be
[14:21]: and so this worked great um
[14:24]: the sauce i really liked my husband
[14:27]: didn't there was some flavor about it
[14:30]: that he didn't love
[14:31]: probably the hennessy the reduced
[14:33]: tennessee flavor
[14:34]: who knows he likes it fine and drinks um
[14:37]: and the kids thought it was a little bit
[14:39]: spicy so
[14:41]: i really like the method i will
[14:42]: definitely use it again
[14:45]: i will be using the sauce but i'll
[14:47]: probably
[14:48]: trade out other sauces and honestly
[14:52]: for dinner instead of just an appetizer
[14:55]: the amount of chicken that this calls
[14:58]: for is probably
[14:59]: just enough to feed our family for
[15:01]: dinner um
[15:02]: and we have relatively small
[15:05]: appetites so i will if i'm gonna have
[15:09]: guests or if i want you know to have
[15:10]: leftovers i'll probably double
[15:12]: the recipe but make two trays right
[15:16]: so um anyway if you enjoyed watching me
[15:19]: make this please give me a thumbs up
[15:21]: hit the subscribe button come back and
[15:23]: watch me make something else next week
[15:25]: thanks for watching
[15:27]: [Music]