Pro Chef Tries To Make Chicken Wings Faster Than Delivery

Sometimes you just crave chicken wings.

Certain situations, environments, and friends seem to bring out the urge.

But what if rather than hitting up your local chicken joint you could scratch that itch directly from your own kitchen?

We challenged chef Susan Kim to fry up a batch of chicken wings faster than it takes for delivery to arrive.

Was she up to the task?

- Everyone's going swimming.

Okay.Feels daunting in some waysto deep fry chicken wings at home.It's a lot of oil.It's definitely a labor of lovethat I think is really well worth it.Also, your board shouldnever look like this.Don't do what I'm doing.

Okay.Hi, I'm Susan, and today,I'm taking on takeout.[upbeat percussion music]What's my relationship with the wings?I mean, I guess it's liketorrid love affair.

[laughs]I can fry wings at home,but can I do it as fast as a restaurant?I'm ordering Buffalo wings,and I'm ordering someKorean chicken wings.Oh [beep], it's coming to my apartment.Okay.I wasn't doing that on purpose.

[laughs]Okay.

Submitting order.Starting the delivery.

Great.Pink timer's mine.

I'm goingto start the timer now.Here we go.The first thing I'm goingto do is get the oil going.When you're ordering wings,you're looking for these five things.You're the first and foremost,the crispiness, the interior,or the meat to be juicy.In case of the Buffalo wingsand the Korean fried chicken wings,the sauce is very important as well.It's going to be a mix of flats and drums.It is also going to comewith some refreshing sides.We're looking for around300, so until it gets there,I'm going to show you howto make daikon pickles.Okay, here we go.So what we need for thisis just three ingredients.About a third cup of sugar.The same amount for thevinegar and some water.And we're going to kind of just bringthat up to a quick boil.Oh, wait, and salt.

We always need salt.Chicken mu.

Mu is radish.Bright sort of briny picklethat you eat along thesides of the chickento cut down the richnessso that you can continue toeat more chicken.Cut this much off.

This is about a pound.You're going to go ahead andpeel this baby really fast.[fan turns on]The fan just turned onbecause safety first,and we got hot things going on.So my voice carries, butit's going to carry more.Pickles, like it's something that maybewe don't think about doing at home,but it's so easy.You wanted to have likea nice chicken wing nighton a Saturday night, maybeyou do this on Friday,and just give it a day over.The pickle liquid is also up to boil.So we're going to goahead and turn that offand pour the hot liquid over the pickles.That's helping to bring allthe components of the vinegar,sugar and things, into the daikon.It's not necessarily cooking it.It's just going to expedite that process.We're going to let this chill,and let's move on to the chicken.The batter for these wings.We're going to do a halfa cup of all purpose,quarter cup of corn starch,quarter cup of potato starch.I'm carrying a lot of thingsthat maybe I don't need.

Okay.The potato starch; it definitelyadds a crispy chewiness.Something that like Korean pancakesare often made with as well.I'm going to mix it andthen add some cold water.Whole purpose of any of this isto make a really crispy chicken wing.So what we're looking foris kind of a loose batter.Okay.

That feels loose.The drums and flats are whatyou get from a whole wing.People are really into theflats.

I like drums. I know.For me, they're like baby drumsticks.You don't really have to force anything.Your knife will go right through it.You'll feel that joint.It'll show you where to cut, like,and same thing with thewing tip right here.And so there we have it.We have a flat and we have a drum.This, I would say saveit for stock, sauces.I feel like the flats,people are really passionateabout wings being about flats.How some people likeput this in their mouthand suck it dry.And all you get are the bones.That's a skill set.And I don't know if I have that.So we got drums andflats.

We got 20 of them.Season this with salt and pepperand a little bit of thatbaking powder I mentioned.Baking powder also is kind ofwhat we've been talking about.Everything is to help crisp up the skin.Also at the same time, producesomething juicy inside.What's the time and a vibe check?Oh, we got 17 minutes.The vibes?

Wonderful.This particular chicken wing,we're going to double fry.Double frying meansthat we're going to fryat a lower temperature.This is to cook the meat slowerand to ensure that the meatis going to be juicy inside.Then we're going to do a secondfry at a higher temperatureto really crisp those babies up.So let's like throw everyone in the pool.Everyone's going swimming.

Okay.And then we're just kind of coating it.One by one, we're goingto drag it through the mixand then drop it.What this first fry does,is going to cook it gently.We're not looking for coloror we're not reallylooking for crispiness,because that's going to be the second frywhen it's the higher temperature.We want it to consistentlystay around 300.So it's kind of at around 260.Crank that up just a little bit.While we're waiting for this,we're going to build our sauces.All right.

So Buffalo.Very, the purist, is Frank's Hotand good, old-fashion unsalted butter.I'm adding a little bit of vinegarbecause I really like sournessand the brightness thatextra vinegar brings.Like three tablespoons of butter.We're going to get them melted.- [Man] Time check is 25 minutes.- Oh really?[beep] Okay.All right.

It's fine.Everything's fine.While we're waitingfor the butter to melt,we can go ahead and do our other sauce.Okay, the Korean stuff hasa few more ingredients.It is a chili sauce.That's kind of what the base of Gochujangand it's all kind of to taste.But I would say, aquarter cup of Gochujang.I'm so pumped on this product,which is the plum syrup.Some sweetness.And that's going to add alittle bit of tartness as well.This is like soy sauce I use for broth.So it's not going toimpart a lot of flavor.I like fish sauce.Sometimes when you'relike, it needs something.It's usually like a whisper of fish saucethat like make everything sing.Oh yeah.

Let's add a little garlic powder.We're going to garnishKorean chicken wingswith sesame seeds,but we're going to alsomount some in here.There's definitely adistinct sweetness to it too.So I'm adding moresweetness with maple syrup.A little bit of sesame oil.Okay.

I also see the bubblesof the chicken wings.It's getting louder.

It's getting bigger.Yeah, I say let's take it out.Okay.

So here we go.We're going to take itout of the first fry.So they're a bit blonde.Okay.

Butter is meltedtoo.

So let's cut that.Yeah.

I'll just tell youwhen things are done.What I'm going to do is coolthis down in the fridge.It's very minimal cooling.So butter is melted.Just adding some Frank's Hot Sauce.This was the hot sauce that was usedwhen they first came out withthe Buffalo wing recipes.In Buffalo, New York.A splash of this.So boom, that's done.Let's go back to this Korean stuff.Probably needs vinegar.Okay, it's really good,but I'm going to cut it.Yeah.

I'm just addinga little bit of this.A little bit of that.I'm gonna add a tiny bit of water.Something I wasn't planning.Oh, we got a text.Is it the wing people?

It is.Says it's been pickedup and now is en route.Oh, good God.Okay.

What is it?Oh, it's 32 minutes.I mean, I honestly thoughtthis would be all done withinhalf an hour,but time flies when you're having fun.Okay.

So, all right.Yeah, let's go.It's like 350-ish.Let's go second fry.While we do the second part,we're going to go in and makethe blue cheese dressing too.But all right, so let's get the wings.Oh, let's get the celery.All about the economy of the body.What are you carrying in?What are you bringing out?So this time, we're lookingto really seal it in.We're looking for color,for that extra crunch.The bubbles are going.The second fry isliterally the golden color.'Cause the first fry, again,is more like a cold feet,slow, going slow, 300, evenlower if you have the time,and you're not like on agame show or whatever, like.What we need after aFrank's Hot Sauce butter mixis some blue cheese dressingto go along with it.A shout out to anothergreat American product,Hellman's Mayo.Probably doesn't get better than this.So we're going to put some of this in.I'm going to put in some sour cream.Put in what the dressing is named after,some crumbled blue cheese.I would say like equal parts.Oh, I'm adding a littlebit of celery salt.That's fun.I'm going to cut some of this richnesswith some lemon juice.And also, I can tell rightnow, I can hear the chicken.Look at this.We got some nice color.

I thinkI can go a little bit more.Your vegetable intake forthis meal: celery sticks.Also your board shouldnever look like this.Oh yeah.

That's for the pickles too.Okay.

Let's go ahead andput the dressing in here.Get it all ready, right?How about some of this?Just like in here, waiting.Just waiting.

This is now crudite as well.Okay.

Guess what?Chicken's ready.So here we go.

We're taking it out.This is what we think aboutwhen we think about fried chicken wings.Oh, yeah, time check.

39 minutes.We're going to do 10 Buffalo wings,10 Korean style fried chicken wings.So I'm going to keep it diplomatic.Everyone's going to get equalamount of drums and flats.Here we go.

This.We're coating.

We're glazing.Let's now do Korean stuff.Can we hear this?

Can we do...Yeah.

Yeah.Yup.I think there's nothing todo but plate them, right?Are we there?We're going to plate these pickles,because we eat with our eyes,even if they're not quite ready.Maybe hit it with a littlebit more of the sesame.Okay, so we've got this.Two cultures coming together.We really need this right now, okay?And then...I can check my time.43 minutes.I beat the delivery![rap horns]What happened right now?[laughs] Wait, right?- [Man] Just make sure they didn't call.- Oh yeah, he's been here.No, I'm just kidding.He hasn't been.Okay, Esther is approaching.Hi, I'm sorry.

Is this the delivery?- [Esther] Yes.- I'm coming down.47 minutes and 20 seconds.I beat it by four minutes.[kissing noise]But they're friends.Okay.

Yes.[laughs] Right.Thank you so much.

Okay.We got our delivery.

Here we go.We've got some wings.Okay.

Let's see what we got here.All right.

I'm going to plate these up.And we're going totaste them side by side.Or are we doing side by side?Yeah, sure.We're going to taste them side by side.I'm going to taste the Korean fried wingsfrom the takeout place.It's crispy.The sauce has definitely sunk in,but it's not completelysoft yet.There's a lot that happensfrom the moment that thesechicken wings get prepped,to fried, packaged,and then delivered, soit's totally understandablefor me that it's not as crispy.So let's go, let's go in that order.All right.

All right.We're getting a good sound.Mhm.It tastes great.

[laughs]It's guaranteed if we doa double frying method,which we did the first fry,which was like the cold feet,that is to ensure that the meatis going to be juicy inside.I mean, it's kind of comparable, right?We want to be able to taste the sauces.The sauciness, how well coated things are.When it's so crispy, it can get saturated,but that integrity isstill going to be there.They're definitely spicier,which I don't really mind,because I can handle the spice.And so this one, you justreally taste like the tanginess,the spiciness on the Gochujangand all the other thingsthat I put in there.This was totally delicious as well.It's just, I'm not really gettingthat much chili from this.Then I want a good mix of flats and drums.So I'm going to go with flat Buffalo.They're definitely usingFrank's Hot as well.They didn't do any sort of batter.And I think some Buffalowing purists really believethat it should be without any sort ofbatter, breading, coating.We decided to go with a double fry methodfor both types of wings.It's crispy.

You taste thesauce, a little bit more nuance.And again, I don't knowif it's I'm partial to it,but you actually taste thebutter too, in a nice way.Maybe not for the purists,but I don't really,I don't mind the doublefry method for this.I think it's ensuring a crispy wing.We want refreshing sides it's served with.So I like chunks of blue cheeseand that's what we got in our sauce.This is a little bitmore of a puree thing.Again, when you make your own stuff,you can do it however you want.And I'm actually surprised,cause I had a pickle earlier,and I don't know.I don't know if it's becausewe diced them smaller,but these taste pickle-y.These are sweeter.

Therestaurant pickles are sweeter,but in terms of like the vinegary-nessand the crispness,it's there.I absolutely think it'sworth it to do it at home.You're not going to do it every weekend.This is a food that evokes for megatherings of people,eating with our hands,and also a celebration.This could be a reallyfun project that you do.And then this could fillother emotional eating needs.So it's a wonderful world,because we have options.And again, there's room for both.Fried chicken wings.

Totally worth it.We did it!