Buffalo Wings: Blistered Skin, Red Butter Sauce and a Cold Dip
Protect four things: the toasty flavor of the skin, the chile heat and vinegar tang of the sauce, the roundness of the butter, and the cool crunch of celery and dip.
The wings leave the oven browned and blistered, and only then, just before anyone eats, do they go into a bowl with a red sauce of butter and cayenne hot sauce. They land on a shared platter beside celery sticks and a small bowl of blue cheese dressing. Everyone eats with their fingers, going back and forth between the hot, tangy wings and the cold dip.
The name causes some confusion, so let's clear it up first. Buffalo is a city in New York State, and the dish has nothing to do with buffalo meat. Buffalo-style wings are chicken wings split into two sections, fried or baked, and tossed in cayenne hot sauce and butter. Boneless chicken products and the sweet-and-spicy wings found elsewhere are made differently and belong to different occasions.
The classic form is deep-fried, as in the Anchor Bar recipe published by the James Beard Foundation. This article uses the oven method and proportions from J. Kenji López-Alt's recipe at Serious Eats, which needs no pot of oil. It does need planning, because the wings dry in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours before baking. Sekai Gohan has not kitchen-tested this recipe as a whole, so treat the times as a guide and rely on the thermometer check in step 5. According to that recipe, uncovered drying and baking powder help the surface crisp, and dry skin holds sauce better.
Ingredients: About 4 Snack Servings
Think of this as about 4 servings for snacking, not a main course. Use only the flats and drumettes. Wing tips are not part of this dish, but you can save them for stock.
Equipment
- Oven
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Wire rack that fits inside the baking sheet
- Knife and cutting board for raw chicken (if your wings are not already split)
- Paper towels
- Large bowl for the raw wings, and a separate clean one for the cooked wings
- Tongs
- Small saucepan
- Food thermometer
Choosing and Substituting
Wings. Pre-split flats and drumettes save time. If you buy whole wings, cut them at the joints. Boneless thigh meat is not an equal substitute, because both the texture and the way you eat it change.
Baking powder. Do not replace it with baking soda, which can leave a metallic bitterness. Cornstarch and similar starches are not replacements either, whatever their use in other crisp coatings.
Butter. Salted butter makes the finished wings saltier. Vegetable oil changes the flavor and richness of the sauce.
Hot sauce. The sauce shapes the whole dish. Tabasco-style sauces differ in acidity, heat and thickness, so using the same amount will change the flavor. If you cannot find a cayenne sauce like Frank's RedHot, try another a little at a time, and expect a different result from the Buffalo taste.
Blue cheese dressing. Store-bought is fine. Cayenne sauce and blue cheese dressing may be easier to find at import food shops or online, though availability varies. Ranch is another popular choice in the United States, but blue cheese is the one to start with for a Buffalo-style plate.
The butter and blue cheese dressing contain milk. Some products may also contain wheat or other allergens, so check the ingredient labels on your sauce and dressing.
Method: Dry the Skin, Bake, Check, Then Sauce
The wings need 8–24 hours uncovered in the refrigerator before baking. Sauce them only when you are ready to eat.
Fixing Common Problems
| Problem | What to check | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Soft skin | Surface moisture, drying time, whether you used a rack, crowding, time since saucing | Dry thoroughly, give the wings space on the rack, and sauce just before eating |
| Weak browning | Preheating, crowding, too little drying | Fully preheat, spread the wings out, and dry for at least 8 hours. Do not reach for baking soda |
| Bitter or metallic taste | Baking soda used in place of baking powder | Use baking powder next time |
| Browned but not cooked through | Internal temperature, shelf position, wing size | Check with a thermometer instead of chasing color. Keep cooking any wing under 74°C, and rethink the shelf position next time |
| Separated sauce | Butter heated too hard | Do not boil it. Mix quickly while warm and add it to the wings a little at a time. The flavor still works even if it does not fully combine |
| Too hot or too mild | Ratio of butter to hot sauce | For less heat and tang, add more butter. For more heat, raise the share of hot sauce. These are adjustments for your own taste |
Leftovers and Reheating
Do not leave cooked wings out for long, and never leave them on the table for 2 hours or more. Cool leftovers, give them quick refrigeration, and eat them soon. This article does not set a fixed number of storage days.
When reheating, heat the wings until hot all the way through and check with a thermometer. The skin tends to lose its crispness and may not fully recover. For better texture, warm the wings on a rack in an oven or toaster oven, and add any sauce just before eating.
Variations That Stay Within the Tradition
Heat level. Buffalo orders commonly distinguish mild, medium and hot, so changing the balance of butter and hot sauce is well within the spirit of the dish.
The dip. Blue cheese is the Buffalo-style choice, while ranch is a popular alternative across the United States. A plate with ranch is still a matter of preference, but start with blue cheese if you want the classic pairing.
A different Buffalo wing. Uncut breaded wings with tomato-based Mambo Sauce come from a separate Buffalo line, described in the history below. It is a distinct style, not an adjustment to this recipe.
Oven or Fryer: What Changes
The Anchor Bar recipe published by the James Beard Foundation deep-fries the wings at 350°F (about 177°C) for 12–15 minutes. The Serious Eats oven method replaces the pot of oil with refrigerator drying and a long, hot bake. That means less cleanup but more lead time, and the skin gets its crispness in a different way. The oven version is a practical home alternative, so it should not be mistaken for the traditional fried form. Whichever you choose, the safety check is the same: use a thermometer to confirm the temperature.
The Disputed Beginnings of Buffalo Wings
The best-known story places the first Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar in 1964, but the details do not settle neatly. Calvin Trillin's 1980 report in The New Yorker recorded differing accounts from Frank and Dom Bellissimo. In one, the bar made use of a mistaken delivery of wings. In the other, the wings were a late-night snack for regulars. Both link Teressa Bellissimo to the core of the dish: wings split, deep-fried, sauced, and served with celery and blue cheese dressing. The James Beard Foundation's page itself treats the Anchor Bar origin as a legend and acknowledges that priority is debatable. The National Chicken Council's summary presents the Anchor Bar and 1964 as the source of the hot-sauce wing, but that is an industry association's account of one narrative.
Anchor Bar is also not the city's only wing story. The Buffalo History Museum writes that John M. Young promoted uncut breaded wings with a tomato-based Mambo Sauce at Wings & Things in 1966. This is better understood as a separate line of Buffalo wing culture than as a rival version of the same dish.
The museum's menu collection also shows "Chicken Wings, fried" at Buffalo's Clarendon Hotel in 1857. That is evidence that fried wings were served in Buffalo long before the 1960s. It does not show that the modern sauce-coated dish existed then.
Trillin's report also noted that in Buffalo they were often simply called "wings." Today they belong to home gatherings, game days and shared plates at bars. The National Chicken Council connects their later spread to sports bars and football viewing, since wings are easy to share and comparatively inexpensive, though that too is an industry reading. To explore more of the country's cooking, see our United States dishes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Buffalo wings contain buffalo meat?
No. They are chicken wings, and the name comes from the city of Buffalo, New York.
Which parts of the wing are used?
Mainly the flat (wingette) and the drumette. The James Beard Foundation's Anchor Bar recipe and the Serious Eats oven recipe both use split wings, and the tips are removed.
Can I leave out the baking powder or use baking soda?
If you leave it out, you lose its help in drying and blistering the skin. Do not use baking soda instead, as Serious Eats reports a metallic bitterness from it.
What temperature makes the wings safe to eat?
USDA FSIS gives 165°F (73.9°C) as the safe minimum for all poultry parts. Here, that means checking that the thickest part of every wing reaches at least 74°C, measured with a food thermometer away from the bone. Appearance and juices alone do not establish that the chicken is safely cooked.
Why are they served with celery and blue cheese?
The pairing is recorded as a standard part of how Buffalo wings are served, both in the 1980 New Yorker report and in the James Beard Foundation's recipe. The materials on the dish do not establish one exact reason it began.
How many people does this serve?
Treat it as about 4 snack servings. That is our own editorial estimate, because the serving information on the Serious Eats page is inconsistent, showing 2 people in one place and a yield of 4–8 in another.
Sources
- James Beard Foundation, "Buffalo Wings Recipe." Anchor Bar recipe framing, deep-frying method, split wings with tips removed, hot sauce and butter, and the classic celery and blue cheese service. The page treats the origin as a legend. https://archive.jamesbeard.org/index.php/recipes/buffalo-wings
- J. Kenji López-Alt, "The Best Oven-Fried Chicken Wings," Serious Eats. Amounts, uncovered refrigerator drying, baking powder versus baking soda, oven temperature and times, the butter and hot sauce toss, and celery and blue cheese. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-buffalo-wings-oven-fried-wings-recipe
- The Buffalo History Museum, Research Library, "Who Served Buffalo's First Wings?" John M. Young, Wings & Things and Mambo Sauce in 1966, and the 1857 Clarendon Hotel menu record of fried chicken wings. https://buffalohistory.org/who-served-buffalos-first-wings/
- Calvin Trillin, "An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing," The New Yorker, 1980. Differing Bellissimo family accounts, Teressa Bellissimo's link to the dish, and mild, medium and hot orders. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/08/25/an-attempt-to-compile-a-short-history-of-the-buffalo-chicken-wing
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, "Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart." The 165°F (73.9°C) minimum for all poultry parts, measured with a food thermometer. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/safe-temperature-chart
- National Chicken Council, "Chicken Wing History." An industry account of the 1964 Anchor Bar origin and of wings' later link with sports bars and football viewing. https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/chicken-wing-history/
