Confit Chicken Wings

Elevating a Super Bowl classic while honoring its communal nature.

Chicken is not usually something I put on the menu, just because our space has been limited and the chances for mishandling chicken are high. And even though it seems like chicken is a commodity, in restaurants it’s very difficult to order chicken. It’s not something that’s readily available, and you have to pre-order it.

But for the moment right now, people synchronize this time of year with eating chicken wings. I’ll get a lot of pushback on adding wings to the menu at Lilia Comedor. People might say, “Why are you serving wings? You know, it’s Cocina Noroeste. Why would I want to do something that’s not in my usual format?”

And my answer to that is, well, that’s kind of what we want to do, right? We want to serve something that’s attainable to everyone, but shown in a different way.

What I like about wings is that it’s always been something that I eat with my hands and enjoy. You know, you get a little messy. Get a little dirty. It’s something that kind of centers around bringing people together. Most of the time, I’m eating wings at someone’s house, or I’m used to being at a bar, watching UFC or a game, so it just goes hand-in-hand with community.

How to make wings that stay crispy and juicy

Classic Buffalo wings are usually made with chicken that comes straight out of the bag and gets double-fried, which will either dry them out or they’ll get rubbery, depending on how you make them. I’m doing confit style to cook our wings, which involves brining and cooking them in a container of melted butter at a low temperature for 2-3 hours before they get fried to a crispy texture and tossed in our sauce. Confit retains the chicken’s moisture while also imparting a nutty flavor into it.

I make a salsa that’s modeled after a classic Mexican salsa called Búfalo Salsa, but it’s ironic because that salsa doesn’t really have anything to do with Buffalo sauce. But to keep it similar to American Buffalo sauce, it has a simpler ingredient list: fermented garlic, chiles, vinegar, etc. The wings have other components that’ll make it a more complex dish.

Ranch that doesn’t go by any other name

So in my perception, ranch has always been the number-one dip for my wings, and people are gonna want to fight you on that—specifically people from the East Coast. Ranch is kind of seen as a basic sauce. Really though, if you incorporate some fun stuff like dino kale, it could be a lot better.

So we have a little bit of pickled serranos and ramps in there, roasted poblanos. There’s gonna be dino kale that gives the ranch a green color… buttermilk, mayo… there’s a lot going on, but for the most part it just tastes like ranch. Again, the idea is to make attainable for people to taste it and recognize that it’s definitely ranch, but there’s a lot more to it behind the scenes. I could have called it a buttered preserved, serrano pickled and buttermilk aioli–but did I need to? No. Not for wings. For wings, we’re calling it dino kale ranch.

Transcending wings into a Cocina Noroeste dish

The wings are crusted in a pepita dukkah, which is a Middle Eastern spice crumble. Ours has a ton of spices like black peppercorns, cumin, coriander, ginger, etc., which gives the wings texture, an explosion of flavor, and a way that sets it apart from being “just wings.” It just ties everything together.

An unexpected crudité

When I was going to the farmer’s market and I was talking to my farmers, I was explaining how I needed something with a lot of texture and a lot of flavor that’s not too bitter. They said Tardivo is the one. It’s sweet, the texture is beautiful, almost buttery. I use that as a crudité on top of the wings, similar to how carrots are served with Buffalo wings.

So as you take a bite of a wing, you take a bite of a leaf, and you’re dipping it in ranch, and you’re using your hands to enjoy it. Believe it or not, I really like it when people eat with their hands here. The idea is to get messy. And if you don’t leave with at least a little bit on your shirt, did you really dine with us at Lilia? It’s a lot less formal, it’s a lot more communal. It’s really about just enjoying yourself and letting go of everything else.