A problem I'm having with wing sauce
 

Hello culinary people,

I like to bake wings in the oven in a glass pan in a sauce. They taste really good, but the problem is that when the wings are ready the sauce is really watery. I thought adding some sugar to the sauce might make it caramelize, but that didn't work. Does anyone know what I could add to make the sauce sticky/thick instead of watery?

Thanks in advance.

-Tamerlain

I might try to either cookthe wings on a rack, so they aren't sitting in the sauce..or pre cook the wings first -- draining them first before puttingthe sauce on -- the cooking themthe last10 minuteswith the sauce

Most good / spicy wing sauce is very thin. There isn't really that much you can do about that
Here's what I do with wings...
1. Coat wings with a good overall dusting of a spicy/cajun seasoning.
2. Fry in a deep fryer (I use a wok) in oil until outsides are golden
3. In a large bowl toss / coat wings with wing sauce of your choosing
4. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes
5. Repeat step 3, and serve.

Since I have been dieting the past few months, here is a low-fat alternative...
1. Remove skin from wings
2. Coat wings with a good overall dusting of a spicy/cajun seasoning.
3. Bake wings at 350 for about 15 minutes
4. In a large bowl toss / coat wings with wing sauce of your choosing
5. Bake at 350 for additional 10 minutes
6. Repeat step 4, and serve.

You most definitly did not provide enough info to answer your question the very best. Which wing sauce are you using a sore bought or homemade if homemade what are the ingrediants. Its hard to say what you can add if we dont know whats already in it. Differant ingrediants react differantly to other ingrediants.

a little cornstarch or flour

Yeah I thought about cooking them first and then rolling them in the sauce, like they do in a wing place. I just thought there might be a way to make the sauce thicken while cooking it.

Adding flour or cornstarch might be a good idea, though.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Oh, it's homemade. BBQ sauce, Worchestershire sauce, honey mustard and pepper.

-Tamerlain

It might not be a problem. Consider that fettucine alfredo, when served piping hot, is a liquid mess, but after a few minutes at the table, congeals nicely. Is it a similar situation for you, where, once the sauce cools a bit, it's the right thickness? If that's the case, you just need to take the wings out of the glass and drip the sauce over them, and trust that time will thicken the sauce. Unless you're putting tremendous amounts of worchestershire sauce, it seems like the BBQ sauce and honey mustard should be plenty thick at eating temperatures.

I'd keep away from cornstarch--if you heat up cornstarch for more than 10 minutes or so, the thickening properties completely disappear. If you're going to use flour, I'd suggest making a roux first (i.e., frying the flour in a little butter or chicken fat for 2-5 minutes) so that you don't get that raw flour taste.

Bake wings first, drain, and then saute' with whatever wing sauce you use.

you don't need to heat up the cornstarch any more than you need to heat it up to melt it into some water... and then pour it slowly into your sauce...

ever wonder how the chinese food sauce is thick? cornstarch baby.. and stir fries don't last longer than 10 minutes...

yeah cynthetiq--it sounds like his approach is to bake the raw chicken wings though, which will take at least 30 mins? (I don't really know, being a vegetarian)

yes you don't sauce during the baking process... you leave them au natural or you sauce a little and then sauce again when it's done...

Or even better, you use a rub before baking of seasoning and a drizzle of oil...then bake until done...THEN toss the wings with sauce and toss them back in the oven for a couple of minutes, just to get the sauce hot ;)

Have you tried adding creamed honey? (Not the clear golden type)

When I cook my wings in the oven, I bake them on a rack on a coockie sheet covered with tin foil. This keeps the wings out of the juices on the bottom of the pan. The tin foil makes for easy clean up. After baking them, I put them in a bowl and pour my own sauce over the top of them and shake the bowl a bit to get all the wings saucy... I dont have a problem with watery sauce because my sauce is pretty thick to begin with.

Ding!

coat with oil, cayanne, cumin, and a little vinegar.

the catsup/tabasco concoction goes on after they're out of the oven. but yeah, the sauce isn't supposed to be all that thick.

If you aren't frying chicken wings that is the way to do it. That's how almost all pizzarias do it. The first pizzaria I worked at made their wing sauces like this:

Mild - 1 part Red Hot sauce to 1 part liquid margerine
Med - 1 part Red Hot sauce to 0.5 parts liquid margerine
Hot - Red Hot sauce only
Suicide - Red Hot sauce plus garlic salt, crushed red pepper, and jalepenos

To this day, they are my favorite chicken wings (and I worked there almost 8 years).

The original Buffalo wing sauce was half melted butter, half bottled pepper sauce.
The original method was to fry or bake with oil until cooked, then toss with sauce and bake for an additional ten minutes. Original accompaniments were celery stalks and blue cheese dressing. Additional heated sauce is served as a dip on the side.

For a sticky coating, use a Chinese barbecue recipe with cornstarch.