How to Reheat Chicken Wings
Buffalo wings are a delight, and here’s how to reheat chicken wings effectively.
Chicken wings are among the most beloved finger foods in the United States.
With the popularity ever growing, and new sauces and flavors emerging, make sure you get the most out of reheating them.
The chicken wing used to be a less desirable part of the chicken that was eaten as a last resort.
Often used to make chicken stock, wings have now become the star of the show.
Chicken wings are now the second most expensive part of the bird in the US, after boneless breast.
The Popularity of Chicken Wings
The rise of the chicken wing is of course due in large part to how it is cooked, and the type of sauce added.
A normal chicken wing consists of three pieces, the tip, wingette, and drumette.
Nowadays there is such a thing known as boneless chicken wings, and no they don’t come from boneless chickens!
In fact these boneless wings are not chicken wings at all, but boneless chicken breast masquerading instead.
In other words more akin to a chicken nugget than a wing; you can see why they’d be popular.
Most typically in the US chicken wings are cut into two pieces for cooking, the wingette, and the drumette, with the tip being discarded.
In the Middle East the whole wing tends to be cooked including the tip.
Less food is thrown away in general in Arab countries where the whole bird is eaten.
Wings of course are best when freshly made, but there are effective ways to reheat wings making them taste as good as fresh.
From reheating wings in a toaster oven to reheating wings in the oven there are many reheating methods for cooked chicken wings.
The main thing you want is for the crispiness of the outside, and the well cooked soft inside to be fresh tasting.
How to reheat chicken wings in the oven
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit, put the wings and their sauce on a baking sheet or cast iron frying pan.
Once the oven reaches the desired temperature, place the tray in the oven for fifteen minutes.
Remove the tray, turn wings, and cook for an additional fifteen minutes.
Once a safe internal temperature is reached remove from the oven and place in a bowl.
Add fresh sauce, and stir until well coated; serve immediately.
How to reheat chicken wings in the microwave
Place cooked wings on a microwave safe plate, lined with a damp paper towel, and place in the microwave.
Cook on high for 3 minutes or until wings are heated through.
Once done place in a bowl with additional sauce, stir until well coated, and serve with preferred dips.
This method is my least favorite since microwaving won’t really provide any crunch to the chicken wings.
How to reheat chicken wings in a frying pan
There are a couple of ways for doing this.
Depending on if you want to deep fry the wings or not.
I prefer to just put a little oil in the pan.
Then just fry the wings on both sides until they are warm through and crispy.
You can drain the wings on a paper towel if too much oil stays behind.
Then place them in a bowl with additional sauce, mix until well coated and serve.
To me the best methods for reheating are the use of the oven or frying pan.
Because these methods are the most likely ones to leave you with crispy wings.
How long can you keep leftover chicken wings?
The US department of agriculture recommends no more than four days.
As long as the wings have been kept at or below a refrigerated temperature of 40ºF (4.4ºC).
You won’t have all the cross contamination issues you would with raw chicken.
But it is important to remember to keep cooked meats either refrigerated or sufficiently heated.
This is to make sure that bacteria does not begin to grow making it less safe to eat.
Making sure leftovers are stored properly is very important to maintain the safety aspect of food preparation.