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How do you do your wings?

P

Piper

New member
We’re looking to launch some new wings at our shop. We started doing Boneless Buffalo wings about 18 months ago because they were kind of trendy at the time. We have a deck oven, and don’t have a fryer. They take forever in the deck, so we’ve been microwaving them. Obviously not the best quality…

So we’re going to buy a fryer and add regular, bone-in wings. How do you all do that? The wings will be precooked. Do you fry them and then toss them in sauce? Do you fry them already sauced? Or, will the bone-in variety cook faster in the deck oven?

If they’ll properly reheat in the deck oven in about 5 minutes, I’d much rather keep doing that. The fryer is a big expense, and I have other things we need to invest in first.

Any thoughts are appreciated!
 
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I have never had an oven wing that even came close to a fried wing. I am sure it can be done well in an oven, but why bother when frying is so much easier. Just fry them up, put some sauce in a SS bowl and add the wings and toss. You should consider adding other items to your menu that would make use of your fryer as well in order to justify the cost…fries, breaded mushrooms, breaded zucc, breaded ravioli, stuffed jalapenos, chicken tenders, cheese sticks, onion rings, breaded chicken breasts or chicken fritters for chicken sandwiches, and the list just keeps on going. You can make a whole lot of money from your fryer, and it is so easy. Good luck.
 
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Thanks Magoo,

The main reason I’m trying to get the oven to work is because we don’t have a hood, and that will be a big expense with the fryer…

Have any experience with the Autofry systems? They seem cool, but don’t seem to offer much capacity. Like you said, we should offer some more fried items… the Autofry doesn’t look like it would handle very much.
 
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Piper,

we use La Nova wings. Excellent wings, bakers pride ovens. Cook them about 10 min. and they are awsome. Plus, we advertise that they are “oven baked” sounds like it’s not as bad for ya hugh!

Hope this helps.
 
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Hello Piper, buy fresh wings and bag them up by the dozen and just cook them in deep fryer 9-11 min. per order then toss in a stainless steel bowl.This will give you hands down the best wings around as long as your sauce is good.Oven baked wings just suck…sorry
Niccademo
 
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In my opinion deep fried wings are the only way to go. if you get them in fresh you can fry up an order in 7-10 minutes, pizza ovens aren’t really designed to cook wings, they do an adequate job but the quality of deep fried wings that are sauced after cooking them is way better. The temp you’re looking for in wings or any chicken product is 160 degrees when served, oven wings are fine. but deep fried wings are 100 percent better, especially if you make your own sauces. bite the bullet, get a couple of fryers and a hood. Market your wings, do a wing night and really get it out there that you are doing fresh wings. If you sell beer, market the wings with the beer, they go great together.
 
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I gotta say that you need to put some real volume through that fryer or fryers if you are investing in them with the grease hood/ventilation/fire suppression. You could be in the $6000 range quick. That’s a LOT of wings, and ravioli, and fries and mozz sticks. Let’s not forget that you’ll need freezer and/or cooler space for this new product . . . and containers . . . . and processes.

I for one am sold on the fried wing quality and demand for them in my market. Some people drive 20 miles past three pizza places to get my fried wings . . . the others are baked. That said, if it make better financial sense to ge tsome LaNova pre-cooked frozen nuggets of chickeny goodness, and bake them . . . then that’s what you gotta do.

I am huge proponent of fried wings and proprietary sauce, but you gotta look at your own ROI (return on investment) with all the layout of cash. we do almost 30% of gross sales using our fryer. Makes sense for us in our market . . . even more sense when we get beer/wine license.

(Did I mention potential increased Worker’s Comp, and liability insurance premiums?? How about grease disposal and grease trap upgrades possible)
 
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We use La Nova wings as well. We run them through our MM oven twice(almost 12 minutes at 521 degrees) and they come out really good.
 
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Thanks for all the responses. Looks like we need to go the fryer route.

Unfortunately, 12 minutes is just way too long for us. We’re about 65% dine-in, so most of these are for appetizers. We need to be able to get them out in 5 minutes or so.
 
Piper,

One way to speed up the frying process of the wings is to pre-cook them before you open your store or the night before by running them through the oven half-way (if your oven is a conveyor) and then storing them in your cooler. That way, when a customer orders wings, you fry them for half the time (like 4 mins.). This is what I’ve seen some pizza places do, personally I have tried doing this, but nothing beats frying fresh wings and waiting the 9-10 mins for them to properly cook.
 
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Dave:
<> This is what I’ve seen some pizza places do, personally I have tried doing this, but nothing beats frying fresh wings and waiting the 9-10 mins for them to properly cook.
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I can say that I would prefer to cook every wing to order. Ilike the general texture difference, though minor, of fresh out of grease.

I can also say that being able to manage 120 pieces ordered at one time (with more moving up the line regularly) within a 15 minute window, and with consistent quality ‘beats’ waiting 10-12 minutes for my (probably larger sized) wings to fry off each time they are ordered.

Volume in the wing arena requires adequate fryers and/or processes for managing them. I can cook 70 pieces in my fryer in 12 minutes. That means 140 takes 24 minutes cooking time alone. HOWEVER . . . if I par-cook the little jewels ahead, then I can do those same 140 pieces, when ordered, in 6 minutes cooking time with little change in texture and finish. Even stay crispier longer for me after sauced. (BTW I use 6-9 per pound wings . . . which means 140 pieces is average 18.67 lbs)
 
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