January 14th, 2014
06:00 PM ET
America's Test Kitchen is a real 2,500 square foot test kitchen located just outside of Boston that is home to more than three dozen full-time cooks and product testers. Our mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods. To do this, we test each recipe 30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times, until we arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time, and equipment that yields the best, most-foolproof recipe. America’s Test Kitchen's online cooking school is based on nearly 20 years of test kitchen work in our own facility, on the recipes created for Cook's Illustrated magazine, and on our two public television cooking shows. It’s hard enough to cook chicken properly on the stovetop or in the oven, where you have complete control of the temperature, but in a slow cooker (see which models we recommend in our equipment testing) it’s even trickier to ensure moist, flavorful chicken at the end of a long cooking time. We’ve seen soups and stews full of dry shredded chicken and braised breasts and thighs that were bland and unappealing. Here is what we’ve learned about getting juicy, flavorful chicken from a slow cooker. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts: 2 to 3 hours on Low Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts Bone-In Chicken Breasts Chicken Thighs Drumsticks and Wings Ground Chicken Slow-Cooker Asian Glazed Wings Why This Recipe Works: We love making wings in the slow cooker where the low, slow heat renders their fat and leaves them meltingly tender. First we built flavor with a dry rub of brown sugar and ground ginger, then we cooked the wings in the slow cooker until tender. Finally we broiled the wings, glazing them partway through, until browned and caramelized. For a tasty Asian‐inspired glaze, we used thick, sweet hoisin sauce, balancing its sweetness with some rice vinegar and a tablespoon of spicy Sriracha. 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar *We prefer to buy split chicken wings, but you can purchase 4 1/4 pounds of whole wings and split them yourself. 1. Mix sugar, ginger, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together in bowl, then rub mixture evenly over chicken; transfer to slow cooker. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, 3 to 4 hours on low. 2. Adjust oven rack 10 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Place wire rack inside aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and spray with vegetable oil spray. Transfer chicken to prepared sheet; discard cooking liquid. Broil until lightly charred and crisp, about 10 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking. 3. Meanwhile, combine hoisin, vinegar, and Sriracha in bowl. Brush wings with one‐third of sauce and continue to broil until wings are browned and sticky, about 10 minutes, flipping and brushing wings with one‐third more sauce halfway through cooking. Brush wings with remaining sauce and serve. More from America's Test Kitchen:
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Slow cooker wings recipe: messing up too many pots and pans, and way too much sugar.
"It’s hard enough to cook chicken properly on the stovetop or in the oven, where you have complete control of the temperature..."
Uh, no it's not.
Ok, maybe I am wrong, however, the idea between slow cooker recipes, is throwing everything into one pot, cooking it all day, and coming home to a complete meal. While the Asian Wing recipe looks good and all, it is entirely too much work for a slow cooker recipe. I don't want to have to take my wings out of the slow cooker, slather them with something, then broil them. I want to come home to a fully cooked and ready meal.
Agreed. However, when you have the time for the broiling and brushing steps, I highly recommend them. It caramelizes all those flavors together in a way that merely slow cooking can't.
Hey Andy, everybody wants to come home to a nice fully cooked meal. But unless you have a fantastic life partner or can afford your own chef maybe you should stick to Mickey D's. I hear they've been hoarding millions of pounds of wings for their McWing relaunch.
The real S Y J isn't that snarky and does not spell their handle like that. Troll Alert.
Au contraire, mon frere. The original was exactly like this. That's why his I.P. address was permanently blocked by our dear Editors. The current one sounds like he needs to have a little heart-to-heart with his S.O. this weekend. ~_~
Master Slow Cooker Wings
Go figure, I just started some chicken in a slow cooker then I read this. :( Next time.
Definitely going to try the Asian wing recipe.
Guess I know why my next venture will be. Yay for slow cookers!