Chicken Wings — How To Prepare In The Best Manner
Culinary Chemistry At Work
Be sure to read this article alongside this Baked Chicken Wings recipe by Becky Hardin from the Cookie Rookie: https://www.thecookierookie.com/simple-spiced-baked-chicken-wings/
Chicken wings are a delicacy and it’s sure nice to know how to prepare them right at home.
However, how can you be sure the recipe you found will actually produce heavenly flavour? How can you avoid long periods of trial and error before finally finding a recipe that works?
Well, the answer to that lies in chemistry!
Let’s look at what’s happening at the atomic level while your chicken wings are being baked. Spoilers, this recipe is certainly one of the best and we’ll prove that chemically!
Hi! I’m a chemistry enthusiast and I’m here to take you on a voyage through the wonderful applications of chemistry.
Maillard Reaction — Why Butter?
There’s a reason why in this recipe, and in many others, you have to dot the aluminium foil with pieces of butter and why the wings are coated with a flour mixture and that’s the Maillard Reaction.
The Maillard Reaction occurs between reducing sugars (present in the flour coating and butter) and the amino acids (present in the chicken).
You know how a large assortment of foods brown upon heating? Well it’s this reaction that’s taking place!
The mechanism sort of goes like this:
- The amino group (-NH2) of the amino acids attacks the carbonyl (C=O) group of the sugar.
- After a series of displacement of electrons and species, a glycosylamine is produced.
- The glycosylamine is unstable due to its structure and hence, undergoes rearrangement to become a ketosamine.
- The ketosamines further react to produce melanoidins which give foods their characteristic brown colour.
That’s why you need to make sure that the flour mixture is evenly coated onto both sides of each wing and that the butter pieces are evenly distributed as stated in the recipe. This will allow the Maillard reaction to take place favourably and produce a nice brown colour.
Ingredients — The Perfect Mixture
Now let’s examine each component of the flour coating to see why it works so well.
Flour
A major component in the composition of flour is starch (structure of a simple starch shown below). If you’ve read my previous articles, you can see the hydroxyl (-OH) groups present in starch’s structure. Indeed, hydrogen bonding is at play, i.e. the favourable interaction between a hydroxyl containing compound and water.
You can learn more about hydrogen bonding’s applications in these articles about Haircare and Cotton Fabrics.
The starch then gelatinises as the water, when subject to high temperatures, dissolves it. This produces a gel-like layer which solidifies into a crispy outer-coating. Yum!
Paprika
Paprika contains an important compound known as capsaicin (structure shown below). Capsaicin is responsible for that spicy sensation that arises when you eat the chicken wings or any spicy foods.
The vanilloid group of capsaicin binds to certain receptors when it enters our mouth which signals the nerves to invoke a spicy sensation.
That’s why you can use a variety of spices like cayenne pepper as mentioned in the recipe as long as they contain capsaicin. The capsaicin amount determines how hot it is so you can always adjust according to your tastes!
Garlic Powder
It’s not always just the taste that matters right? You have to ensure it smells delicious as well. No point in eating it if you have to cover your nose throughout!
That’s one reason why garlic powder is added: to enhance the aroma of the wings.
Garlic powder contains trace amounts of diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide (structures shown below) but that’s just about the amount you need to ensure the wings don’t smell too pungent.
In the presence of water and when being heated, garlic powder releases these two compounds. They don’t release entirely at once and so the aromatic profile of the wings remains apparent until long after they’re out of the oven. Just like taste, we experience smell through a receptor as well.
If you like experimenting but you want the aroma to remain the same, you can try onion powder or shallots as well! Of course garlic powder is the best option; however, both onion powder and shallots release diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide in a similar fashion to garlic powder and so are plausible substitutes.
And we’re done! Once the wings are in the oven, all of the ingredients play their role and result in the Best Baked Chicken Wings!
Final Words
I hope you enjoyed reading through the article. Be sure to check out the recipe as well if you haven’t: https://www.thecookierookie.com/simple-spiced-baked-chicken-wings/. Clap loads if you found something useful or interesting. Share your thoughts about this recipe and any other that you’ve tried and found delicious — I’d love to hear all about it!
Thank you so much for reading! Leave any suggestions that you have for me — all support is appreciated. Check out these articles while you’re at it as well and explore the world of chemistry even further!
- The Most Underrated Skincare Routine Step: https://medium.com/illumination/this-is-the-most-underrated-skincare-routine-step-e67baff21695
- The 3 Ways To Protect Your Hair — Backed By Chemistry: https://medium.com/illumination/3-chemically-proven-ways-to-protect-your-hair-59b1d9467eae
X Account: @K_Inferno1
