Today is New Year’s Eve and we are having a few family and friends over for the evening.  Our usual tradition is to serve Steamed Cranberry Pudding with hard sauce but this year I just felt like making a few appetizers, one of them being traditional buffalo wings.  I did a Google search and chose one of the most popular recipes with the highest number of ratings. There were certainly some “not so glowing” reviews so I ended up taking the recipe, modifying it according to what some of the reviewers said and then added my own cooking expertise to come up with my version of Spicy Buffalo Wings.  I was THRILLED with the end result of the wings.  The coating was very light but super crunchy. I will definitely be making this recipe again! Enjoy!

*Here is the link to the original recipe that I modified.

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Spicy Buffalo Wings With Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 cayenne pepper (I used ground red pepper)
1/4 tsp salt
2.5-3lbs chicken wings (I used Tyson frozen)
1/4 cup Frank’s Red Hot sauce
3 Tbsp butter

In a glass bowl, mix together flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt.  Add chicken wings and toss to coat.  My wings were frozen with a coating of frozen chicken juice over them.  I just ran them under water until the juice was removed but the wings were still frozen.  Cover the wings and refrigerate for 60-90 minutes. I was busy so I ended up letting them set for almost 3 hours.  When ready to bake them, place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and cook in a 400 pre-heated oven for 45-60 minutes.  I found that the long I cooked them, the more tender they became.  I had two trays of wings cooking so I was rotating the pans between the bottom and middle shelves in the oven.  I did NOT turn the chicken at all during the cooking time.  I pretty much stuck them in the oven and forgot about them.  Around the end of the cooking time, the coating was pretty crunchy. Just before the end of the cooking time, add the butter and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to a small sauce pan.  Cook over low heat until the mixture is well incorporated. Remove from heat and set aside. For the last ten minutes of cooking time, remove the wings from the oven and lightly brush on the hot sauce mixture.  You do not want have the wings soaking in the sauce, just enough to coat the top of the wings.  Put the wings back in the oven for another 10 minutes. This makes the wing sauce get absorbed yet not let it be a big greasy mess.  Serve immediately or wrap in foil and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.  Just before serving, coat wings one more time with hot sauce.