Five Chicken Wing Recipes: Crispy Oven Wings, Sticky Tray Wings, Coca-Cola Glazed Wings, Spicy Ranch Wings and Cola-Marinated Air Fryer Wings

Five ways to cook chicken wings with crisp skin and juicy meat, none of them deep-fried. The first fixes the usual mistakes: whole wings cut at the joints, never rinsed, patted dry, salted at a tablespoon per kilo and left uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight, then baked at 130 °C to render the fat and at 220 °C to crisp, and tossed in a honey, soy and ketchup glaze right before serving. The second is a tray for a crowd: flats split between the bones, brined an hour in salt, sugar, bay and peppercorns, coated in a yogurt, tomato paste, sriracha, soy and mustard sauce and baked for twenty-five minutes. The third boils the wings for eight minutes, bakes them on a rack at 230 °C and coats them in a Coca-Cola glaze cooked down with onion, garlic, soy, chili, smoked paprika and vinegar, then back in the oven for five minutes until sticky. The fourth is the crunchiest: wings with garlic and onion powder, cayenne, salt and a teaspoon of baking powder per pound, air-fried for twenty minutes. The last is the laziest: wings marinated an hour in cola, dipped in barbecue sauce, rolled in breadcrumbs and air-fried on two levels for thirty minutes. Every chapter gives the exact temperature and time, and the first one explains why the skin stays soft when wings are cooked the usual way.