How To Make The Ultimate Buffalo Wing Slideshow

"The chicken does most of the work," says chef Big Lou of Wildwood BBQ. Your Buffalo wing will only be as good as the chicken it came from, so make sure to only use fresh and all-natural chicken wings. Never, and we mean never, start with frozen chicken.

While we're familiar with brining, we had never thought about doing it with Buffalo wings until chef Shamel Moorehead of Tribeca Taphouse told us he puts his in a brine for just an hour before making them. Any brine recipe will do, but it's usually a solution of sugar, water, spices, and vinegar. 

We don't do this in our recipe, but wanted to mention that Big Lou does. If you're lucky enough to have a smoker on hand, it wouldn't hurt to throw your wings in for an hour or two.

First things first, you have to cook the wings before doing anything else. Anyone in Buffalo, N.Y., will tell you that a Buffalo wing is not a Buffalo wing unless it's fried, and that explains the unmistakable crispy skin that everyone attributes to a Buffalo wing. If you're looking for the real deal, frying is the way to go. Deep-fryers are a nice toy to have, but we crafted a recipe that will require nothing more than a skillet.

If it's summertime and the living's easy, why not go outside and fire up the grill? You won't get the same skin we were talking about earlier, but you will get a smoky taste and a nice char on your wings. Because they're so tiny, they only take about 15 minutes to grill up.

And if it's not summertime and you can't stand hot oil, there's always the oven. Baking is a bit of a slower process, but your golden, crispy wings should be ready in about an hour in the oven at 375 degrees. 

Now that you have your wings crisped up perfectly, it's time to talk about flavor. The secret's in the sauce, and that's all there is to it. If you're lucky enough to live within driving distance of Anchor Bar, you can swing by and pick up a bottle, but until then, we've decided to go with another favorite, Frank's Red Hot Cayenne Pepper Sauce, and we laced it with a tiny bit of vinegar to get that unique, Buffalo-sauce flavor.

This isn't a mystery to many, but you have to add butter to your Buffalo wing sauce. It's the perfect complement to the spicy heat of the sauce and it adds that shiny, glistening texture to the wing.

Chef Michael Siry of Duke's in New York City says that the secret to their Buffalo sauce is that they play around with the spices. You'll see several variations of the recipe calling for cayenne this, paprika that, but we're confident that Frank's does most of the work for us. Because we can't resist, though, we add just a pinch of garlic powder for another layer of flavor.

Once you have your wings ready to go, you can't forget about the blue cheese dressing for dipping. Many restaurants like to play around with this, like how Tribeca Taphouse serves ranch (kudos to that), but we're sticking with the tried and true dip that soothes your taste buds just as the fiery wings are heating them up.

Last but not least, the wing's only two companions in this world. You wouldn't be enjoying a plate of wings without these guys, so make sure you have some carrots and celery on hand for a refreshing and cool bite between wings.

No matter how you put it, it doesn't get any better than a classic Buffalo wing. This wing recipe is the ultimate — giving you that hot, buttery, and crispy goodness you crave.

Click here to see the Ultimate Buffalo Wing Recipe