The flour-coated kind that stays crisp and absorbs sauce, but is more akin to KFC in texture than the thin-skinned original.
The naked kind that is juicy and tender, but lacks the blistered, crispy crust that crackles under your teeth and retains sauce so nicely.
Neither method is bad per se. Indeed, if Serious Eats contributor Blake Royer taught us anything with his baked-versus-fried wing taste test, it’s that, depending on how you like your wings, these kinds can actually be better than their deep-fried counterparts.
Is it possible, though, to make Buffalo wings in the oven that are not “different but just as good,” but actually indistinguishable from the deep-fried version? (Hint: If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this right now.)
Now, I’m well aware of the fact that, by definition, anything other than deep-fried wings tossed in a mixture of hot sauce and butter can never be called “Buffalo wings.” So if you’re the type of person who needs to point out authenticity rules like that, you might as well stop reading right now and find something more interesting to do.
I hear that the no-beans-in-chili folk and the no-cottage-cheese-in-lasagna crew are having an infidels’-recipe-burning party. Maybe you can crash.
For the rest of you, read on.
