Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings
Baked crispy chicken wings. That’s right. Baked! These Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings feature a tasty combination of buffalo sauce and homemade blue cheese dressing.
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We have a birthday tradition around here, and it involves lots of chicken wings and beer. As I’ve mentioned before, there is a hole-in-wall bar around the corner from us that offers free chicken wings on your birthday. You can get your age in chicken wings. Turning 25? That’s 25 wings. 45? That’s 45 wings.
We were in there once, and there were 2 twins celebrating their birthday. They were turning 83. Holy chicken wings, Batman! You can share the wings with others at your table, but that’s 166 chicken wings. Even I wouldn’t know what to do with that! (We celebrated Laura’s mother’s birthday there a couple of years ago. 61 wings. 4 people. We struggled mightily, but we did it. We also didn’t eat again for the next week.)
At this bar, you can order wings in different flavors (minimum 10 wings per batch), and over time we’ve narrowed it down to our favorites. Medium (don’t mess with the classic!). Blue Heat. And perhaps we’ll use the odd number of leftover wings to try a new flavor (General Tso’s, anyone?). But back to Blue Heat. This flavor was added a couple years back, and at first we didn’t know what it was. However, one bite and we were hooked. I don’t exactly how they make the Blue Heat sauce, but we’ve decided that it’s basically a combination of medium buffalo sauce with blue cheese dressing. Whatever it is, it’s amazing! Well, except for that time when we think they used hot buffalo sauce to make it. I like spicy foods, but umph.
Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings
Blue Heat Baked Chicken WingsSince I love recreating foods at home, I decided to take a stab at making these Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings here in my kitchen. Now at the bar, they fry their wings. I certainly don’t mind frying things on occasion, but I decided to go with the baked route thanks to Kelly @ Foodtasia. About this time last year, Kelly posted the most amazing looking baked chicken wings. I literally did a double take when I saw her post. No way are those baked! However, sure enough, they were baked…and they looked crispy. I decided to try this method out. One word: awesome!
As Kelly points out in her post, baking powder is the key here. The baking powder helps pull moisture from the wings as they bake. The result is a good, crispy wing. (Note: These wings are best consumed fresh. They won’t be as crispy if you reheat them. Then again, fried wings aren’t crispy if you reheat them, either.) Kelly did a fun test in her post where she compared 4 different methods of baking wings to see which yields the crispiest wing. Check out her post to see the results. It’s pretty cool!
These baked chicken wings start at a low temperature to render some of the fat, and then you boost the oven temp up to get those crispy nubbins that make chicken wings so darned tasty. Now we can’t exactly call these Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings healthy. Sure, there’s no added fat from frying, but these are still chicken wings. Consume at your own risk. Or just throw caution to the wing and do an extra workout later this week. 🙂
I hope you enjoy these Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings as much as we did. Heck, let me know when your birthday is and I’ll whip you up a batch of these baked chicken wings! Cheers, friends!
Did you make these Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings at home? Leave a comment. Or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog)!
Looking for other tasty Super Bowl appetizer recipes? Check out some of these other favorites, too:
Pull-Apart Cheeseburger Sliders
Muffin Tin Garlic Knots
Pizza Stuffed Pretzel Bites
Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches
Bourbon Pecan Brownies
Blue Heat Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
For the Wings
- 4 pounds chicken wings separated into drumettes and flats
- 2 Tbsp aluminum-free baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
For the Blue Heat Wing Sauce
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup hot sauce
- 2 Tbsp white vinegar
- ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 oz. blue cheese crumbled
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Instructions
For the Wings
- Preheat oven to 250°F.
- Line a sheet pan with foil and then place baking rack onto pan. Spray rack with nonstick baking spray. Set pan and rack aside.
- Using paper towels, pat wings as dry as possible.
- Place wings in a large bowl. Add baking powder and salt; toss until wings are evenly coated.
- Arrange wings on the prepared baking rack. (Tip: The wings will shrink while baking, so they can be placed fairly close together.)
- Bake wings on lower rack of oven for 30 minutes.
- Increase oven temperature to 425°F.
- Move wings to middle rack and continue baking for 40-50 minutes, flipping once after 25 minutes. (Tip: This is a great time to make the wing sauce.)
- Remove wings from oven and place in a large bowl. Add wing sauce and toss until well coated.
For the Blue Heat Wing Sauce
- Using a small saucepan, add butter, hot sauce, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Place over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Remove pan from heat and let cool slightly.
- Using a medium mixing bowl, add blue cheese and buttermilk; mash with a fork until only some larger pieces of blue cheese remain. Add remaining ingredients (sour cream, mayonnaise, sugar, salt, garlic powder and pepper); stir until well combined.
- Pour hot sauce mixture into the blue cheese mixture; stir until well combined. Serve immediately.
Sign me up for all things Blue Heat! I LOVE blue cheese! Add some buffalo sauce and I can just imagine how addictive it would be. I’m keeping these in mind for March Madness!
Oh, you totally need to make this sauce, Kelsie! We used to always order medium wings, but Blue Heat has pushed medium buffalo sauce back to #2. That’s right – it pushed a classic out of the top spot. It’s THAT good! 🙂
First of all, what’s blue heat? I guess I’m old. On my next birthday I’d be served 64 wings!!! But I’m not sharing. These look fabulous. Last year I baked wings as well and they were outstanding. I wonder if I used the same recipe? Well anyway, I’m printing this.
So Blue Heat is the name this bar came up with for these wings. It’s a combination of buffalo sauce and blue cheese…and it’s amazing! Blue heat is now our go-to sauce choice for wings. In fact, I need to find other ways to use this sauce…hmmm, salad dressing, fry dipping sauce, in a glass? 🙂
I love a good wing, David! And you’re right, Baking Powder does the trick! This sauce, though, wow! Sounds like something I might want to eat a number close to my age. But that would be wrong. Wouldn’t it?
Nope. Eating the same number of wings as your age is totally allowed. After all, it’s your birthday, so you get to make the rules! 🙂
I’d definitely do an extra workout for these! They look so good and who doesn’t love blue cheese and hot sauce??! Now this place that serves free wings on your birthday…how cool is that?? Now I’m seriously craving wings for b fast! Can’t wait to give these a go 🙂 Pinned! Hope your week is going great so far, my friend!
You and me both, Dawn! We’ve been in detox mode after the holidays, and it’s made me really stop and appreciate things like desserts and wings. It’s definitely worth an extra work out if you get to have a tasty weekend meal…and these wings qualify for that! Next time you have a birthday, you should come down. We’ll eat wings together! 🙂
What a fun recipe and a fun restaurant! I think I’ll need to plan my next birthday dinner there! 🙂 I love how these wings are baked – makes me feel like I can eat a few more without the guilt!
Come on down! I’ll eat some wings with you on your next birthday. 🙂 But you gotta promise that at least some of the wings can be Blue Heat flavor, ok?
I will have to remember the tip about the baking powder. These wings look wonderful and they sound like they have a ton of flavor!!
Yes, baking powder is a secret weapon when it comes to crispy wings! It pulls the moisture out and leaves you with that crunch that you expect from the fried version. So good! 🙂 Thanks, Dawn!
That restaurant is so cool! What a fun idea to serve you a wing for every year. My birthday is tomorrow and I don’t want to tell you how many wings I’d get, but I’ll say I could invite a few friends. 😉
Just loving your version of wings too, David. That sauce sounds incredible!
WHAAAT! Today is your birthday? Well get in the plane and come on over. I’ll eat some wings with you! (And we won’t tell anyone else how many wings we ate…haha.) Thanks so much, Marissa, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
That sounds like a brilliant place to spend your birthday! I used to love getting wings (ok I still do), and those baked ones look so crispy. However, I am really loving that sauce. Blue cheese and hot sauce, there is a real winner!
Well those wings are certainly a reason to look forward to turning another year older! 🙂 While I still love traditional fried wings out at the neighborhood bar, this baked version at home is right up there for sure. And the combination of blue cheese and hot sauce? Delicious! Thanks, Matt!
I wonder how many of these wings I could eat. I really have no idea what my limit might be. I think that eating your age in chicken wings is the best birthday tradition I’ve ever heard of. I’d be so curious to see how old I’d have to get before I couldn’t do it. Or am I already there? Obviously, this calls for research.
Clearly this is a situation that needs further research. When’s your birthday, Jeff? Come on over and give the wing challenge a try! I can say from personal experience that I can put down a few of these blue heat wings. (Also, anyone at your table is able to help you eat the wings…you just can’t take any home.) Now that the rules are on the table, let’s put our order in!