The Best Homemade Buffalo Wings in the World

Being Super Bowl weekend and all, I wanted to share my personal recipe for Bufallo Wings. While good fried wings from the restaurant are awesome, I find that an oven yields the best results at home. I have a convection roast mode on my oven that is great for this, but the regular bake setting works fine:

Sauce

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter - the good stuff
1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot - Original (Not the Buffalo flavor)
1 tablespoon Louisiana Hot Sauce - Original
1-2 tablespoons Tabasco pepper sauce (depending on desired heat level)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Wings

up to 36 wing pieces (flats and/or drumettes) - Fresh, room temperature, patted dry
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper (optional)
canola oil
Pam cooking oil spray

1. Sauce - Melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar, then add vinegar, and hot sauces. Cook on lowest heat for 3-5 minutes, then turn off heat source.

2. Wings.
a. Pre-heat oven to 425. Use convection or convection roast feature if available.
b. Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to all sides of wing pieces.
c. Brush a thin coating of canola oil to all side of wings. (This helps crispiness.)
d. Line sheet pan with aluminum foil, add wire rack insert, and spray rack with Pam.
e. Evenly space on rack(s) making sure they don't touch, and place in middle rack of oven.
f. The wings take 25-30 minutes to cook. Depending on the oven, setting, and number of wings, you may need to move the wings around or even flip them. The skin should be crispy and golden.

Once the wings are done and out of the oven but still on the racks, use a clean brush to brush on the Buffalo sauce. Instead of a big soupy bowl of sauced wings, I prefer to serve the wings crispy with a side of additional sauce to dip one by one. Add another side of blue cheese dressing and you are good to go.

If you have a good exhaust fan, you will appreciate it. If not, be prepared to open a window. The oil and aluminum foil help, but the chicken fat dripping into the sheet pan tends to smoke.