Don’t deep-fry your wings

Eric Kim's Atlanta-style oven-fried hot wings are sharp and fiery, crispy and salty.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 25, 2024 Eric Kim's oven-fried hot wings. Mark Weinberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Wing it this weekend By Sam Sifton Good morning. You'll sometimes hear that you can't make proper chicken wings in the oven, that the only true wing is deep-fried. This is nonsense. Deep-fried chicken wings are awesome, and a good reason to go to a bar that serves them to watch football while you eat. But you can make superior chicken wings at home, in the oven, and ought to. Each time you do, you'll make them slightly better than you did the time before. You'll develop a chicken-wing style. That's the Saturday night forecast, then: wings. You can start with the Buffalo classic if you like, but I'm turning south for Eric Kim's Atlanta hot wings (above), sharp and fiery, salty and crisp. He uses a dusting of baking powder and salt to enhance the crustiness of the skin, and a combination of cayenne pepper, onion and garlic powders in the sauce to deliver heat against the acidity of lemon juice. For those raised on butter and Frank's, it's a revelation. Serve with batons of carrots and celery, and plenty of blue cheese or ranch dressing. Featured Recipe Oven Fried Hot Wings View Recipe → Other wingish possibilities, delicious for lunch as they are for dinner: Buffalo cauliflower; Chinese mustard wings; Buffalo salmon; spicy, lacquered chicken wings; chicken wings with gochujang, ginger and garlic. Don't neglect breakfast, though! This weekend is prime for buttermilk pancakes, for biscuit sandwiches, for steel-cut oatmeal with fruit. (I don't know if I'll make one, but I ran into a Dagwood at the 7-Eleven that amazed: a French toast sandwich of sausage, egg and cheese, with chipotle-bacon mayonnaise. What?!) Maybe some Bircher muesli. Or a classic avocado toast. And then, for Sunday night, how about a mushroom lasagna with a very green salad? Or, staying in the Italian vein, a sausage ragù with a lemon-garlic kale salad? I like all four of those recipes, but may yet pivot toward something that keeps me wing-adjacent: pan pizza, buttery and rich, to serve with leftover ranch. There are many thousands more recipes to consider waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Yes, you need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven't already, would you consider subscribing today? Thank you. Write to us at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you need assistance with your account. Someone will get back to you. Or, if you'd like to send me a worm or deliver an apple, you can write to me: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I cannot respond to every letter. But I do read each one I get. Now, it's some considerable distance from anything to do with lobster or cannoli, but Hua Hsu has a good piece in The New Yorker this week about the decline of the working musicians who used to be at the heart of the gig economy. No longer. You know what holds up? Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," from 2006. Next for me is "Internal Affairs," the 2002 Hong Kong thriller on which the film was based. Here's a lovely essay by Alexandra Jacobs on two new books about Hollywood writers, in The New York Times Book Review. Finally, it's the birthday of the artist Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 (he died in 1973). Here are the Modern Lovers with "Pablo Picasso," music for chicken wings. I'll see you on Sunday. IN THIS NEWSLETTER David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Buffalo Cauliflower By Ali Slagle 25 minutes Makes 4 Servings Rikki Snyder for The New York Times Sausage Ragù Recipe from Sara Jenkins and Nancy Harmon Jenkins Adapted by Julia Moskin about 2 hours Makes About 3 cups Craig Lee for The New York Times Lemon-Garlic Kale Salad By Julia Moskin About 25 minutes Makes 8 to 12 servings Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Frances Boswell. Prop stylist: Amy Wilson. Pan Pizza By Sam Sifton 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 15-20 hours' resting time for the dough Makes 6 to 8 servings Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Carrie Purcell. Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches By Genevieve Ko 45 minutes Makes 4 sandwiches Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling) Muesli By Yossy Arefi 10 minutes, plus at least 1 hour's chilling Makes 4 servings Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Classic Ranch Dressing Recipe from Eleanore Park Adapted by Julia Moskin 15 minutes Makes 4 to 5 cups dressing Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox Sign up for The Veggie newsletter Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Cooking from The New York Times. To stop receiving Cooking, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. 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