Curried Crispy Chicken Wings

I've been on a bit of a chicken wing quest lately. Here's the thing about perfectly crispy wings: you need to evaporate all the surface moisture and render out most of the fat in the skin to get that shatteringly crisp crust. When you deep fry, like in my Tebasaki recipe, it's possible to do this in about 15 minutes, but with a double fry, and the need to break it up into batches, it's time-consuming and messy. 

Oven baking or air-frying wings is great in concept, but they never quite end up as addictively crispy as deep-frying them in oil. Because air doesn't transfer heat as efficiently as a liquid (oil), cranking up the oven just browns the outside before the fat fully renders.

The solution is to break the process up into two steps. Dry brining the wings with salt and spices and letting them air dry in the fridge overnight dehydrates the surface of the wings, making them much easier to crisp.

The best part is that you can add almost any dry seasoning to the dry brine, which gives you a lot of flexibility in changing the flavor of these wings. 

Ovens can be tricky when it comes to cooking time. But I've got a visual trick for you: look for the skin to go from glossy to matte. That's when you know the fat's rendered out, and you've got ridiculously crisp wings.

I'd love to hear if you give these a try. Maybe you'll come up with an awesome spice blend I haven't thought of yet. Drop a comment and let me know how it goes!