Chicken Wing

Let's talk about the chicken wing, and let's talk honestly. A wing is not a piece of meat with skin on it — it's mostly skin, joints and connective tissue, with just a little meat wrapped around delicate bones. That's exactly why it behaves so differently from a breast. Connective tissue is stubborn at low heat and melts into gelatin only when you push past it — long, slow cooking, or hot and fast with enough fat to protect the skin while the collagen breaks down underneath.

Choose wings by the skin: it should be dry, taut, pale gold or slightly pink, never grey, never slippery. Slippery skin means the wing has been sitting too long. Smell it — good chicken smells of almost nothing at all.

Some people say wings are lean because they're small. No. A raw wing carries 12.85 grams of fat per 100 grams, most of it right under that skin. Ignore this and you'll try to cook wings the way you cook breast — quick and dry — and end up with rubbery skin and tough joints, instead of that crisp, falling-off-the-bone result the wing was built for.