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As hard as it is to admit, I have not always loved hot wings. It was the sauce that turned me off. I don’t know if I just never gave it the chance that it deserved, or if I just always ended up tasting inferior sauces the few times that I tried hot wings, but it was not something that I had any interest in for most of my life. That changed when I got a job as a line cook at a restaurant that sold really good buffalo wings. Since I didn’t like them it was a while before I bothered to even taste them. As a line cook at this restaurant I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted. My coworkers frequently had bowls of “boneless buffalo wings” (really just what I am making in this article, white meat nuggets with wing sauce, I never understood why they called them “boneless wings” but I digress) off to the side of their work station and when they would get a free moment would pop one into their mouth. I did the same, but with the barbecue version. I don’t know what it was exactly, the smell, the tempting orange red colour, the blissful reaction everyone else had when eating them, but something made me crave them, even before I gave them a taste. One day I was whipping myself up a little batch of boneless wings, and instead of grabbing the barbecue sauce I figured why not just try buffalo sauce this time? So I coated them with that mysterious orange goo, ate one, and instantly fell in absolute love with the flavour! Ever since then I have needed this flavour in my life. Eventually I wanted to know exactly what that secret flavour was and after a little searching I found out that, while there are many cayenne pepper sauces , the one with that special indescribable and authentic flavour is Frank’s Red Hot. Other sauces can taste good and even very similar, but Frank’s is the real deal. It is the original Buffalo wing sauce and it is the only one that I am satisfied with. I now put it on everything! I think there is a commercial to that effect, but I started before I ever saw those commercials. I love it on eggs, rice, pizza, chicken obviously, and more. It is safe to say that my years of hot wing denial have long since come to an end.

It is customary to serve wings with a dipping sauce. Why? Why double sauce your chicken? Well, I don’t know who thought of it but it is brilliant! With hot wings, the “correct” dipping sauce is blue cheese dressing. Something magical happens when blue cheese and cayenne pepper sauce combines. It is simply THE perfect compliment. Now, when it comes to barbecue wings, the perfect dipping sauce is Ranch dressing. Now, this is important. This was the rule at the restaurant and for good reason. Ranch with barbecue, and blue cheese with Buffalo! I know that tastes vary, I know some, perhaps many people find the thought of eating moldy cheese repulsive, but it is simply WRONG! to dip hot wings in Ranch dressing. I try not to be an absolutist with food, but this is one place where I have to put my foot down. I do not care if you like to dip your hot wings in ranch, blue cheese is better for the job. You are wrong. I, in fact, could never stomach the idea of blue cheese (moldy, ew), and when I started eating the buffalo wings in lieu of barbecue, I continued to dip them in ranch, and I thought that it was pretty good. But something drew me to the blue cheese eventually, another epiphany, like the buffalo sauce I guess, and I eventually worked up the courage to try it. I have never looked back. So if you are going to skip the dipping sauce, that is ok, but if you are going to use one then, with hot wings, use blue cheese!

I am posting another recipe for barbecue chicken bites. You may notice that I use some of the same pictures for them as I use in this article. That is because I made both of these at the same time and therefor some of the pictures will be used for both of these articles. I just mention this so that in case you notice I don’t leave you scratching your head. I will also soon post a recipe for real chicken wings.

You can make as few or as many of these as you want, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I am using the meat of one average sized chicken breast. This is just the right amount for one person.