Tailgater Hot Wings

Do you tailgate? I mean really tailgate…not like the college drink beer at 9:30 am kind of tailgating. I love football, I love food, so naturally I love to tailgate! Last Friday night was Homecoming for our High School, and my good friend Cath put together a little party to celebrate. There was so much food. I was not sure I was going to be able to make the trek from the parking lot to the stands. There was Cathy’s Famous Chili, Pulled Pork, Meatballs, my Hot Wings and many other delicious morsels.

How to make tailgater hot wings

To start you will need to rinse, dry and trim the wing tips off 30 chicken wings. Place them in a large mixing bowl.

Next you will need to introduce these two clowns to each other. 1/2 cup Franks and a 1 stick of butter, melt butter in sauce pan and whisk in the hot sauce, pour over wings. Let this marinate minimum of 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Toss them around a few times to make sure that all the wings are enjoying the party.

When the wings are finished marinating, it’s time to cook them for the first time. You can do this one of two ways: place the marinaded wings on a grill or fry them. Grilling method: place wings on the grill and grill them for 4 minutes on each side or until they get nice grill marks. Remove to a platter.  Frying method: The wings taste more like wings from a bar when you fry them. Pick your poison. Measure 2 cups flour into a gallon-size zip-loc bag. Season the flour with Lawry’s seasoning salt. Pour 1/4 inch vegetable oil into the bottom of a frying pan, and turn the heat on medium. If the oil sizzles when you put a pinch of flour in, it is time to fry. Have a baking sheet lined with paper towel ready to remove wings to.

Dredge the wings in the flour, make sure they are well coated, the marinade helps the flour take hold.

Zip the bag up and give them a toss in the flour.

Using tongs remove the wings to the hot oil. Do not over crowd the pan, but fit as many in at a time as your pan will allow. See photo below.

Fry to 2-3 minutes and then turn the wings over and fry them for an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove wings to paper towel lined baking sheet. Repeat this until all the wings have been fried.

Combine Hot sauce recipe is below, mix up the ingredients in a sauce pan , bring to a boil and let simmer for 5. If you want to make the original Buffalo Hot Wings then that’s easy, just repeat the 1 stick butter and 1/2 cup Franks Original

Do as I say not as I do! Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Take grilled or fried wings using tongs dip them in the bbq sauce and line them up on the baking sheet. Bake in 400 degree preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place wings on a platter with celery sticks and Blue Cheese Salad Dressing or homemade ranch dressing/ dip and you are ready to head to the party. I baked mine just before we were going to head out and then covered them with tin foil until we were ready to eat

Prep the day before: You can do all the steps except for the last baking step the day before. Let wings cool after frying or grilling. Place them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Finish them off by dipping them in sauce and baking them before guests arrive. You can also place them in a crock pot to keep them warm after baking. 

This smokin’ hot man in the bumble bee vest is Kenny; he does not care for any dips or sauces. I have come to terms with it. You can’t have everything in a man, and he is a great guy, so I have been able to move past it, but he does love football, thus the goofy grin. He ran the chains during the football game on the opposite side of the field from where I was sitting, hence the blurry picture.

Enjoy! Sheila