Origins
Buffalo wings are said to be the
invention of Teresa Bellissimo,
part-owner of her family’s
Italian-American restaurant,
Anchor Bar, in Buffalo, New
York, which exists to this day.
Family legend has it that Teresa
whipped up the recipe from an
oversupply of chicken wings as
a late-night snack for her son’s
friends 50 years ago. The sauce
has since evolved into a number
of blends with different degrees
of fieriness, but the original
recipe remains a family secret.
No bar menu, Super Bowl party or backyard barbecue is
complete without these fiery chicken snacks in hot-butter
sauce served with a blue-cheese dip and crunchy celery sticks.
Buffalo Wings.
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You’ll need
10 chicken wings, wing tips
removed, jointed to give 20
pieces in total
½ cup (125mL) hot sauce
50g butter, melted
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs Tabasco sauce
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup (250mL) sour cream
½ cup (125mL) mayonnaise
150g (5oz) blue cheese,
crumbled
1 tbs white vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
Seasoning to taste
Celery sticks to serve
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Method
1--- Marinate the chicken wings in a mixture of the hot sauce,
butter, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and cayenne
pepper, preferably overnight.
2--- Deep-fry or grill the wings until cooked and golden brown on
both sides.
3--- Make the blue-cheese dip by combining the sour cream,
mayonnaise, blue cheese, white vinegar and lemon juice. Season to taste.
4--- Lay out the wings on a platter and serve with the dip and thecelery sticks.
TIP This grilled version is less fiddly than the deep-fried
original but no less tasty. Anchor Bar publishes the recipe for
the original blue-cheese dip on its website, so check it out.
Tasting notes
Like spaghetti and tacos, Buffalo wings are a no-no for important dining occasions, such as a
first date. There is simply no way to savour them other than using your fingers to coat hot and
sticky chicken with the unctuous blue-cheese dip. Cooling celery sticks provide the perfect
foil to the fiery sauce. Typically served on platters, the addictive combination of hot chilli
and soothing blue cheese means it is virtually impossible to stop at one. Serious Buffalo-wing
aficionados enter eating and cooking competitions across the country and debate the merits
or otherwise of deep-frying versus grilling; how hot the butter sauce should be; and whether
to use bottled blue-cheese dressing or a home-made version.