Make the Ultimate Crispy Chicken Wings

About five years ago in Las Vegas, I experienced what are the best crispy chicken wings you will ever eat. While staying at the Cosmopolitan, we made dinner reservations at Blue Ribbon Las Vegas, which is an American cuisine restaurant founded by New York chefs and restaurateurs Bruce and Eric Bromberg. These two brothers founded the first Blue Ribbon in their Manhattan neighborhood in 1992.

Blue Ribbon was made famous for its incredible fried chicken. The success of the fried chicken eventually made its way to chicken wings. When I tell you these wings are that good… they are THAT GOOD! So good that now when I’m in Vegas, stopping by Blue Ribbon for an order of these amazingly crispy chicken wings and some of the best food in Vegas is a must. 

What I am about to share with you is a Blue Ribbon copycat chicken wings recipe. When I returned home and was telling everyone about these wings I immediately went on the hunt for Blue Ribbon cookbooks or chicken wing recipes so that I could make them at home. As I said that was nearly five years ago and I must say that I have perfected these wings at home. 

I can not take credit for this recipe. The first place I found it after going on my own hunt was on the Las Vegas Weekly blog. I have since taken the recipe and adapted it for whatever flavor of chicken wings I want to cook. There is one ingredient that provides the awesome crispiness leading to a perfect bite of juicy tender chicken under the crispy wings.

How to Make the Ultimate Crispy Chicken Wings

Let’s jump right in and make some next-level chicken wings! First things first, these are deep-fried. I have tried grilling them on the grill and do not have an air fryer large enough to try but I can save you the curiosity, you will want to deep fry these. I use the Cuisinart 4 quart deep fryer and can cook about a dozen wings in 10 minutes.

For the deep fryer, you will need a gallon of vegetable oil, and while you are preparing the wings go ahead and let the oil temperature heat up to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix ½ cup of all-purpose flour with ½ cup of Streit’s Matzo Meal. The matzo meal is the secret ingredient that produces crispy chicken wings. You will also add ¼ teaspoon of baking powder and using a whisk, mix all this together in a bowl large enough to cover three to five wings at once. 

In another medium bowl, fill with liquid egg whites. I save myself the time and purchase the cartons of egg whites ready to go.

From here I have my system down with the bowl of egg wash and the bowl of matzo meal and flour side by side so that I can start assembling my wings for the fryer.

When it comes to the actual chicken wings, I like to purchase a frozen bag of chicken wing sections from Costco instead of whole chicken wings. I made the mistake of buying the whole wings before and having to use kitchen shears to cut them apart is too much work for me.

You can get a 10lb bag of sections which is about 50 wings for thirty dollars which is way less expensive than eating chicken wings at a restaurant. Trust me, once you make these you will not be going out for buffalo wings again. Nothing will compare or be as good.

Let your chicken wings thaw out. This 1 cup of flour/matzo meal mix will make about two dozen wings. It is enough for a perfect appetizer or a party wings tray. You can scale it up if you are cooking for a large crowd for game day or super bowl Sunday.

Now you are ready to start deep frying your chicken wings. Take the thawed wing sections and dip them into the egg wash. Let the excess drip off back into the bowl and then place the wing into the flour/matzo meal bowl and generously toss wings to coat with the flour mixture. Take the wing and knock the excess flour mix off and place it into the deep fryer basket. As I said, with the Cuisinart 4 quart deep fryer you can fry a dozen wings at a time.

Once you have the basket full and the oil is at 375 degrees f, lower the wings into the oil, and with the lid on, cook the wings for 10 min. At the ten-minute mark, the wings will be perfectly golden brown on the outside and full of juicy tender chicken on the inside.

While that batch of chicken wings is cooking I have a baking sheet tray with a wire rack set up to lay the wings on and coat with the togarashi seasoning once they come out of the deep fryer.

The Blue Ribbon wings are served with a Japanese seven pepper spice blend also called togarashi mix which is like a dry rub and drizzled with a wasabi and orange blossom honey glaze. 

I purchase the togarashi, Streit’s Matzo Meal, orange blossom honey, and wasabi powder all from Amazon because honestly, it’s difficult to find in the local grocery store. Typically with Amazon Prime, you can have all the ingredients the next day.

After ten minutes in the deep fryer, remove the wings and place them on the wire rack. I immediately sprinkle a generous amount of togarashi seasoning on both sides of the wings. 

For the orange blossom honey and wasabi sauce, mix it to personal taste. The goal is to taste the sweetness from the honey followed by the heat from the wasabi in a nicely balanced experience. All of these flavors combined with the non-greasy crispy chicken wings is an experience your taste buds will not forget. 

If wasabi and honey are not your thing and you prefer hot sauce, you can take the steps above and skip the togarashi seasoning and mix your own favorite hot wings sauce, buffalo sauce, or bbq sauce for the wings. You would just remove the chicken wings from the deep fryer and coat them with your favorite buffalo wing flavor. The secret here is the amazing crispy chicken wings no matter how you want to flavor them. Check out my Carolina Treet recipe and try them with some Carolina Treet BBQ sauce.

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