In preparation for an upcoming Feature on the Defcon wing sauces, we decided to try and make a trial run of chicken wings to see if we could make them…and make them edible.

Every batch of buffalo wings needs good sauces, and we chose three. Shown in the above picture, we opted for these for our experimentation:

Iron Chef General Tso’s Sauce & Glaze
Lord of the Wings Gourmet Buffalo Hot Wing Sauce
Nate Dog’s Killer Wing Sauce – Hurtin’

General Tso’s was really a choice for the grandma, since we figured that she wouldn’t be able to eat the hotter stuff. The other two were fair game for us chileheads. The Nate Dog’s sauce says its Level 8, and previous experience with this sauce has given us a healthy respect for that heat level…and made us wonder what masochisic gastronome would really need as much in heat Level 10.

Next task was cutting the whole chicken wings into those bite-sized wings that we all know so well from our favorite wing joint. After consulting the HSB article on making buffalo wings, it looked to be an easy enough task. Now, either we have the crappiest cutting knives in the world (a possibility) or it just isn’t as easy as pictured, but we had to break out the electric knife to make quicker work of cutting those wings apart. As you can see, the end result was a bowl of wings just waiting to be made into heavenly goodness.

Thanks to some additional tutelage from John at Defcon sauces, we started the batches of wings going in our improvised deep-fryer. Since we don’t yet own a real deep-fryer, with or without a basket, we had to use a stock pot loaded with vegetable oil. Necessity is often the mother of invention, and cooking our batches at 8-10 minutes yielded wings that were slightly golden-brown.

Once the wings were done, the next task is the coating. We set up our three bowls of sauces and anxiously awaited the batches to finish cooking. Now, no one ever mentioned exactly how to coat the wings…whether it was the cover & shake method, use a pair of tongs to coat individually, or other kitchen magic.

So, we decided that the cover & shake method was best. We were amazed that once we removed the cover, that our wings actually resembled ones we’d eaten from our own fave wing establishments. Our reviews of the sauces go like this:

Iron Chef General Tso’s Sauce & Glaze: Didn’t try this one. Alright, I’ll submit we shouldn’t include this as part of the review unless we actually tried it. But hey, we’ve had General Tso’s chicken before and we know what it tastes like. For what it’s worth, Grandma seemed to like it. Never argue with Grandma.

Lord of the Wings Gourmet Buffalo Hot Wing Sauce: Our first comment after taking a bite was, “Wow, now that’s good.” A little on the mild side, it has just enough heat to make the chileheads smile, and enough taste to keep EVERYBODY ELSE wanting a little more. We can’t be sure, but we’re fairly certain that our bellies did actually cheer.

Nate Dog’s Killer Wing Sauce – Hurtin’: This was mostly Joe’s plate o’ wings. After one wing, he thought it had a little heat. After two wings, he commented on how the heat builds a little. After three wings, his forehead was completely wet with sweat. After six wings, he was calmly getting up to pour a glass of milk to put out the fire. OUCH! The taste is good, but you should really consider eating these as fast as you can, while your tastebuds are still unharmed, before the heat catches up with you. HEAT LEVEL 8?? Wow!