Make Hot Wings Hooters Style

When buying wings, hooters style or not, there are many different choices. You can buy frozen wing sections or fresh wings.

If you buy the frozen wings, they are "ice glazed for guaranteed freshness." What that really means is that because they are priced by weight, you are paying for the ice that they are covered in along with paying for the wings, themselves. (You're getting less bang for your buck!)

Another reason not to buy frozen wings is that you should never put frozen wings into a deep fryer. Water and oil don't mix. You will end up ruining your frying oil in a hurry and making a giant mess. You might also splatter hot grease on your hands. Take it from me, that hurts.

Save yourself all those headaches and wallet-aches and buy fresh wings. You can either buy them already split into sections (which costs more), or you can split them yourself. Splitting wings into sections is quick and easy once you know what you are doing. The first time I tried to split a 4 pound package of wings, it took me an hour and three band-aids.

To Split a wing Hooters style, you simply make one cut between the part that looks like a little drumstick and the part that looks like a little wing. As you make the cut, use your other hand to spread the wing apart, keeping a little bit of pressure on the joint you are cutting. This will make it a lot easier. You can also cut off the tip if you want, because most people don't eat it and it takes up room in your deep fryer.

For this task, I like to use the biggest knife I have with a serrated edge. The bigger the knife, the less elbow grease you have to put into it. The serrated edge seems to really cut through the skin and tendons easily.

Part of the Hooters wing recipe involves breading the wings. At Hooters, you can have your wings breaded or naked. If you like your wings breaded, here is how to do it.

The easiest way to bread wings Hooters style is to mix your breading in a gallon sized ziploc bag. Keep your measuring cup handy. You're going to need it. Here's the breading recipe. In your bag, mix:

-Two cups of flour
-1 tbsp of salt
-1 tbsp of course ground pepper
-2 tbsp of garlic powder
-1 tbsp of paprika

Next, seal your ziploc bag and shake the mixture until it is mixed thoroughly.

Now get a bowl, crack two or three eggs into it, and mix them up with a fork.

Put your wing sections into the bowl and make sure they are completely coated with egg.

Drop your coated wings into the Ziploc bag with your breading mixture. Close the bag, but leave some air in it. Now just shake the bag until the wings are completely coated with breading.

Your wings are now breaded like Hooters does it! They are ready for the fryer!

If you want your homemade Hooters wings to be crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, you need to deep fry them. If you have a deep fryer, you're set. If you don't, you can just fill a pot with about 3 inches of oil. Peanut oil works the best, but it's a little on the expensive side. Canola oil is almost as good, and it is a cheaper alternative.

Using a pot or deep skillet works, but it can get pretty messy with grease splattering out all over the stove. If you make wings often, I suggest getting a deep fryer. Personally, I use the George Foreman Deep Fryer. After your wings are done frying, you can spin them, and spin off half of the fat from the oil. Hey, every little bit helps. Here are some other good deep fat fryers.

You need to preheat your oil to 350-375 degrees. Most deep fryers have a little light that comes on when the oil reaches the set temp. If yours does not, or if you are using a pot or deep skillet, you can use a candy thermometer to make sure the oil is ready.

By now, visions of wings and hooters are probably dancing in your head. Drop your breaded (or naked) wings into the oil. You should only cook about a dozen at a time. The reason for this is simple. When you drop your wings into the oil, the temperature of that oil is going to decrease. Therefore, the more wings you put in at once, the longer they will take to cook and get that delicious crispiness like a wing from Hooters.

Fry them for 12-15 minutes to get them nice and crispy. When they are done, raise the basket out of the oil and let the wings sit for 2 minutes before you lift them out with a good pair of tongs. By letting the wings sit, it allows the oil to either drip off or absorb back into the wings. If you skip this step, your wings will be greasy and the sauce will not stick to them as well.

Let's face it, a hot wing is nothing without the wing sauce! Making sauce for buffalo wings like Hooters makes is not hard at all. You need Louisiana Hot Sauce and butter as the main ingredients. Add garlic powder and black pepper to suit your taste buds. You can even add a little sugar if you like that sort of thing.

Start with 1 cup of Louisiana Hot Sauce and 1 stick of butter. You can use the butter to control the heat of the sauce. If you like a mild sauce, use more butter. For a hotter sauce, use less butter. You can melt the butter into the hot sauce on the stove or in the microwave. I think the microwave is the easier way. Put it on for 3 minutes in a microwave safe bowl, take it out, stir it, and you have a perfect sauce. If you use the stove to make your sauce, use low heat and melt the butter gradually. If your heat is too high, the sauce will not mix uniformly.

After your wings have sat for what probably seemed like the longest two minutes in the world, they are ready for the sauce.

Put the wings in a large bowl. They put the wings at hooters in a large stainless steel bowl, but any bowl will work.

Now pour some sauce in with them. A good rule of thumb is to use about half a cup of sauce per dozen wings or one big ladle scoop full. Next, toss the wings in the bowl gently, using a circular motion.

If you like your wings extra saucy, put extra sauce on once they are on your plate. If you put too much sauce in your bowl, then try to toss the wings, the wings will remain in the bottom of the bowl and the sauce will end up on your shirt and possible your face.

Slide the wings out of the bowl and onto a plate. You can use a cake spatula to scrape the remaining sauce out of the bowl and onto your wings. Wings go great with celery and ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing.

Enjoy!