Soaking in the Sauce

• Marinating chicken wings before cooking imparts flavor and helps tenderize the meat. Acidic marinades, such as those made with vinegar, lemon or tomato-based products, help break down the connective tissue in the meat and make them less tough. Soy sauce and other savory marinades add another dimension of flavor to the meat. Marinate wings in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Discard the marinade and pat the wings dry before battering or frying. This is not the same as a sauce, although you use it before cooking.

Batter Up

• For extra crunch and flavor, bread or batter the chicken wings before you fry them. Wings can be dunked in beaten, raw egg then tossed in breadcrumbs for a light, crispy coating or doused in a thick, flour-based beer batter for a crunchier appetizer. The breadcrumb coating will not adhere to the wings as well as a batter when fried, so clear floating crumbs out of the hot oil frequently to avoid attracting the burned crumb particles to the fresh wings.

Getting Saucy

• Wing sauces range from light and mild to alarm-sounding hot. For milder sauce, try barbecue, honey mustard or teriyaki. For something with more kick, coat the wings with sauce containing chipotle, jalapeno or cayenne pepper. For mouth-blazing sauce, dare to douse your wings with sauce containing Scotch Bonnet or habanero peppers.

Submit Your Application

• For maximum crispiness, deep-fry the wings and allow them to drain on a paper towel. Toss the wings in the prepared sauce or apply sauce liberally with a brush and serve the wings immediately. For a stickier, gooier texture, heat the sauce in a pan on the stove until bubbly and add the cooked wings and toss them in the sauce.