spicy chicken wings

How to Make The Ultimate Super Bowl Chicken Wings

Potato starch is your game day game changer

The number of ways to make your Super Bowl chicken wings is lengthy — from Buffalo, barbecue or sweet chili sauces to baked, smoked or fried cooking methods. Culinary Arts Chef-Instructor, Chris Arturo, has a special trick up his sleeve for his super crispy five-alarm chicken wings: potato starch.

Abbe Lewis
By Abbe Lewis

Abbe Lewis is a writer, editor, Emmy nominee and extreme nacho enthusiast with over a decade of experience in food and beverage media. Always on the move, Abbe can be found running long distances on the weekends to new restaurants or her favorite hangouts.

Potato starch is exactly what it sounds like, starch that has been extracted from tubers with high starch content, washed and then turned into powder.

“The wonders of a modified starch, such as potato starch, corn, starch, rice flour, arrowroot and the like, is that they immediately bind to any moisture on the wing,” Chef Chris says. “Once the starch hits the hot oil, it begins to bind immediately, forming a crust around the entire wing. This encapsulation leads to steaming the wing in its own little cocoon.”

Ergo, there’s no batter. “Frying is a dry cooking method, even though it’s submerged,” he adds. “When you just fry a wing as is, you’re basically dehydrating it in oil.” 

Chef Chris tosses his crispy wings in his own fermented hot sauce, which provides a tremendous depth and contrast of flavors. “I don’t use hot sauce to make things spicy,” he says. “I think of it as any other acid — I use it to brighten flavors.” And when not making his own sauce, he turns to Tabasco (and you can use whatever hot sauce you like). 

Can’t find potato starch in your local grocery store? Any of the above starches listed will make a fine substitution. (Chef Chris’s favorite is rice flour.) “Combine rice, corn and potato, and see the wonderfully crispy possibilities!” 
 

Recipe

Five-Alarm Wings with Fermented Hot Sauce
Fermented Hot Sauce

Ingredients

  • 500 grams each of habanero, serrano and jalapeño peppers, all stemmed and cut in half.
  • 200 grams fresh pineapple, cubed
  • 10 garlic cloves, root removed
  • 1 liter of 2.5% brine (1 liter water with 25 grams salt dissolved)

Directions

  1. Place solids in a fermentation jar, cover completely in brine. Use a fermentation weight to keep all solids under the liquid. Top with a fermentation lid and allow to ferment at room temperature for two weeks.
  2. After the two weeks, transfer solids to a Vitamix and blend until smooth.
Five Alarm Wings

Ingredients

  • 500 milliliters fermented hot sauce
  • 100 grams sugar
  • 400 grams butter
  • Xanthan gum (as needed)
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 pounds chicken wings
  • 200 grams potato starch
     

Directions

  1. Bring hot sauce and sugar to a boil, making sure the sugar dissolves completely.
  2. Pour hot sauce into Vitamix. Running on low setting, slowly adds cubed chunks of cold butter. Adjust viscosity with xantham gum (be careful — a little xanthan gum goes a long way). Reserve.
  3. Set a fryer to 325 F. In a large bowl, add potato starch and a pinch of salt.
  4. Dredge wings in potato starch mix, tapping each wing on the side of the bowl to remove excess. 
  5. Working in batches so to not crowd the pot, fry wings for 6 minutes and drain on a sheet tray lined with a wire rack. 
  6. Add wings to a bowl, coat with sauce, toss and serve immediately.
     

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