Failed experiment that went over well. Lesson learned.

I wanted to try out a few things. I do chicken tenders quite often, with a pickle juice/seasoned buttermilk brine. Typically over night.

I didn’t know if that was the best approach for wings, so I did 6 hours in pickle juice and over night in seasoned buttermilk. I omitted salt, because I wasn’t sure if that would be too much with the pickle juice. Mistake number 1.

From the buttermilk, I coated them in some seasoned flour. That was a first(and probably last) for me. I typically do a dry brine with salt/baking powder/cornstarch. I get consistent and delicious results every time. I just wanted to try something different. I’ve had plenty of breaded wings out at bars/restaurants. I don’t hate them. I can also see now that I don’t prefer them.

I wanted to try out Melinda’s sauces. I’ve seen them mentioned here quite a bit. I grabbed habanero and ghost pepper from the store, to go along with the Frank’s we typically have on hand. I was going for Hot/hotter/hottest. I didn’t sauce them nearly enough. The flavor was there. There just wasn’t enough of it.

Our kids were my testers tonight. They devoured everything in sight.

My oldest thought everything needed more sauce. Tried all of the sauces on his finger before eating the wings. He thought they were plenty hot by themselves, but all felt like the same heat level on the wings. Easy fix for next time.

I’ll stick to doing wings the way I was in the past. These were a little disappointing for me.

Now I know.

For reference, if anyone has kids that enjoy Red Robin’s campfire sauce on their fries or tots, this recipe is damn close https://www.restlesschipotle.com/campfire-sauce/ I keep a copy stuck to the side of the fridge, so the kids can make it when they want. We go through quite a bit of it.