Nat’s What I Reckon’s chicken wings of love

Let’s not kid ourselves here – wings are clearly the best part of the chicken. But something magical happens when you go and make them so much more awesome by covering them in rad stuff and deep frying them to a point where you’re almost concerned with how many of these things you could probably put away in one sitting.

This dish also gives us a chance to make chipotle mayo together, which is very trendy indeed and also super tasty. So drop-kick that zinger and let’s make a winner.

Serves 4–6 Cooking time 1 1⁄ hours, including marinating 2

Ingredients

■ 1 tablespoon garlic powder

■ 1 tablespoon ground white pepper

■ 1 tablespoon onion powder

■ 1 1⁄ tablespoons sweet smoked paprika 2

■ 2 teaspoons cayenne

■ 2 teaspoons dried thyme or dried oregano

■ 1 tablespoon salt flakes

■ 600ml buttermilk

■ 1.2kg chicken wings

■ 2 1⁄ cups plain flour 2

■ 1⁄ cup cornflour 2

■ Enough vegetable oil to half fill a deep saucepan (1L or possibly more), to deep fry

Chipotle Mayo

■ 300 ml vegetable oil

■ 2 teaspoons Dijon

■ 1 garlic clove, chopped

■ 1 tablespoon finely chopped chipotle in adobo (from a tin), or 2 teaspoons chipotle powder

■ 1 lime, zested and juiced, plus extra lime wedges to serve

■ 1 egg, at room temperature

■ salt, to taste

Method

1. Chipotle mayo, let’s rage. To save you a bit of time, let’s go for this stick blender technique. Bang everything except the egg and salt into a narrow jug or container that’s just wider than the head of the blender.

2. Gently crack in the egg over the oil and other ingredients before placing your notyet-blending blender in over the mixture, gently pressing it down right to the bottom.

3. On a medium-high setting, kick the blender off and slowly pull it from the bottom to the top until voila – mayo. Season with salt, to taste. Refrigerate.

4. Combine the spices together in a small bowl with the salt. Remove 2 tablespoons of the spice mix you just made and put them into a big bowl with the buttermilk. Stir together to combine.

5. Using a sharp knife, cut small incisions in the wings. This will help you look tough and also help the wings cook a little quicker, all the while avoiding us needing to incinerate them. Add the chicken wings to the buttermilk mix and give them a good toss about in it. Cover and bang in the fridge for at least an hour but preferably overnight if you can wait that long.

6. Soaking the wings in buttermilk is a power move. When it’s time for you to cook the wings, you’ll need to remove them from the fridge for about 45 minutes (or thereabouts) beforehand to come to room temperature.

7. Place them on a plate to come to room temp if that helps, but make sure they stay completely covered in the buttermilk mix before the next step. Combine the two types of flour in their own large bowl with the rest of that spice mix you set aside wondering ‘‘ What the do I do with this, then?’’ Now, coat the wings really well in the flour and spice mix, shake off the excess and set onto a plate or tray ready to cook.

8. You’re gonna need a lot of oil for this ’cause we are deep frying. Get yourself a large saucepan or your deepest pan and halffill with oil. We wanna bring this to the pretty specific temperature of between 150 degrees Celsius and 160ºC. WARNING: If you just keep heating the oil temperature through the roof, it might burst into flames, and burning oil is a real ‘‘burn your house down’’ vibe, so having a thermometer around is a move to avoid this palaver. I use a meat thermometer to monitor the oil temp the whole way through.

9. Now, carefully either with tongs or a metal slotted spoon (and not with plastic cutlery), carefully lower some wings into the oil and cook in batches of 8 minutes each, remove and set aside on a wire rack above a tray and lightly sprinkle a pinch of salt over the wings. DO NOT use paper towel! Resting them on paper towel will make the wings soggy and then they won’t be rad and you’ll be sad.

10. If you’re worried and you want to check that the wings are a safe eating temperature, insert the thermometer into the thickest part and if it reads 75ºC or more, you should be sweet.

Serve the wings with the mayo and smash into your hungry face. Give the occasional one a squeeze of lime over at some point . . . It goes pretty well with ’em.

Death to Jar Sauce by Nat’s What I Reckon