If the legend is true, there were no chicken wings until March 4, 1964, at least none that anyone had ever eaten. Wings were considered a waste, or, at best, used for making stock. That all ended on a gloomy night at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

Late in the evening, a crowd came into the bar, hungry, thirsty and able to pay. The problem was that there was hardly anything to buy. In a moment of what is now considered sheer genius, a few pounds of chicken wings were found, dredged in flour and deep fried. The cook decided it needed something more. He found a large bottle of French’s hot sauce and a pound of butter. He melted the butter, combined it with the hot sauce, and a whole industry was born. Forty nine years later, almost every restaurant chain in America serves a version of wings. The Anchor Bar now has a web site, sells wings over the internet, and even provides a youtube video on how to make them.

The problem is that not everyone, in fact relatively few, want to undertake the mess of deep frying food (what do you do with the left over grease?) nor do they want the attendant fat overload. There are alternatives, both in the cooking process and the sauce.

While the wings can be grilled, it is easy to over cook them, leaving you with morsels of what seems more like bone than meat. The preferred method is to bake them. In a Gaggenau steam oven, you pre-heat to 360 degrees with 60% steam. After seasoning the wings, place non-stick foil on a baking sheet and spread out the chicken. Because of the steam, they will be done in 45 minutes and still tender.

Here is where the sauce alternatives come into play. The classic Anchor Bar recipe for 36 wings is: 1 tsp. salt; 1 stick butter; 4 tsp. cider vinegar; ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (*any time a recipe calls for ¼ teaspoon of anything, it probably isn’t really necessary.); 4-8 Tbsp. French’s hot sauce. Put them all together in a sauce pan, heat until the butter is melted, and simmer for a few minutes. When the wings are done in the oven, (40-45 minutes), put them in a large bowl, and then pour on the sauce. To make them crispy, grill them with considerable care for just a minute or two. Serve with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

The really fast alternative is to buy a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Wings sauce, or one of several competitors.

Nothing says you have to douse the wings in hot sauce. Guy Fieri, of Food Network, has a “tequila-lime wings” recipe that is excellent. (*For a hilariously vicious review of Fieri’s new restaurant in New York, read “Fieri Restaurant New York review”.) The cooking process for these is the same: bake and grill. For three pounds of wings, the sauce, poured on between those two events, is: 1 tsp. grated lime zest, ½ cup lime juice; ¼ cup tequila; 1 tbsp. agave syrup; 1tsp. ground cumin; 1 tsp. adobo sauce
(*I can’t find a store in Grand Rapids with adobo sauce); salt and pepper.

Combine all ingredients, pour over the wings when out of the oven. Let marinate for 30 minutes. Grill carefully, pour remaining sauce over wings and serve.

For tailgating, we wrap them in foil when out of the oven and covered in sauce, heat them in the foil upon arrival, then slightly char them.

You know that wings are everywhere when McDonald’s has them, which they do currently. I’m willing to bet that any of these versions described above are better than Mac’s.