I wanted to fry chicken wings and then apply a dry rub to them, yet almost all Internet recipes I found replaced frying with baking or air frying, which often are not worth a damn in taste or texture compared to frying the wings in hot oil. But there are some good baking recipes for chicken wings.

Conversely, at times standard ways of making foods are subject to great improvements, like smoking chicken wings on a charcoal grill. Alas, it is now winter where I live, so I will not be using my charcoal grill until the spring, so this recipe lacks the smoking approach and attempts to replace it using hickory flavored salt and powder.

The essence of the one useful recipe I found is to fry the chicken wings twice at different temperatures and then use a dry rub to season them, while they still have a light residue of oil on the surface of the fried wings to hold the dry rub. The method made sense so I decided to try it. It worked.

I did make some good ingredient and amount changes to the Internet recipe. That recipe called for four times as much dry rub as needed! It also used dry mustard instead of hickory flavoring. Okay, ingredient choices are personal, but amount errors reflect carelessness or lack of knowledge, so beware Internet recipes. Compare different ones as a means to identify mistakes and other types of errors.

The result from this modified recipe was delicious! You want to make these fried chicken wings.

You will also want to serve some crisp and cold celery sticks and carrot sticks along with bleu cheese dressing on the side.

Be sure to have ice cold beer as the beverage, and consider frying some potatoes, like Tater Tots® or French fries, to make this sinful meal complete.

Ingredients: (2 adult servings. This recipe makes about 8 pieces of fried wings per serving.)

2 pounds of chicken wings

1 tablespoon of ground smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of chili powder

2 teaspoons of hickory flavored salt (or sea salt)

1 tablespoon of hickory flavored powder (optional)

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin

6 cups of peanut oil (for frying)

Directions:

Cut the chicken wings in half into drumsticks and ends. Dry the chicken wing pieces with paper towels.

Make the dry rub:

Combine the paprika, black pepper, chili powder, hickory flavored salt, hickory flavored powder (optional), cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, white pepper and ground cumin in a bowl. Whisk until the dry rub is well mixed.

Fry the chicken wings:

Heat the peanut oil at a depth of two inches in a deep pot over high heat to 300 degrees F.

Fry the chicken wings in two separate batches in the hot peanut oil for 5 minutes per batch. Use tongs to put the partially fried wings from each batch on a dinner plate.

Increase the oil temperature to 350 degrees F.

Fry the hot, partially fried chicken wings in the 350 degrees F oil in two separate batches until the skin is crispy and golden brown, about 5 minutes per batch.

Use tongs to transfer the first completed batch of the fried chicken wings to a large bowl.

Start frying the second batch of wings.

Sprinkle half of the dry rub mixture over the chicken wings from the first batch and toss them with two large forks to coat them evenly.

Complete the frying of the second batch.

Use tongs to put the second batch of the fried chicken wings into the bowl, then sprinkle the other half of the dry rub mixture over them, then use the large forks and toss them to coat them evenly.

Toss all of the chicken wings together in the bowl to distribute the dry rub evenly.

Serve the wings hot, along with the cold beer and some celery sticks and carrot sticks and bleu cheese dressing on the side.

Did you remember to make some fried potatoes on the side, like Tater Tots®: or French fries, to make this sinfully delightful meal complete?

Enjoy!