(upbeat, jazzy band music)
- Hey everyone,
it is Jesse, from the Tasty team,
and today, I'm gonna be testing out
five famous celebrity chicken wing recipes,
to see which one is actually the best.
On today's lineup,
I have recipes from Gordon Ramsay,
John Legend, Emeril Lagasse, Martha Stewart,
and football champion Joe Montana.
I measured out all the ingredients,
exactly as the recipes are stated.
And, I got three friends to taste them
in a blind taste test.
So, who has the best chicken wing recipe?
Let's find out.
First up is Gordon Ramsay.
He does this fancy technique called lollipopping,
which he takes drumettes,
and kinda pushes the meat up towards the top,
so you get this nice, clean bone
that you can pick up when you're eating,
and your fingers don't get all messy.
So, do that to all of them, set them aside.
In a pan, combine honey, olive oil,
harissa paste, which is a type of hot chili paste,
and both lime zest and juice,
and cook it up until it gets nice and thick.
Then, with those lollipop drumettes,
season 'em up with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Toss them together, and scatter them
on a parchment-lined sheet tray.
Pop those in the oven,
and while those are cooking,
you're gonna make your own dipping sauce.
Combine yogurt, cilantro, lime zest, garlic, lime juice,
and a bit of salt, and mix that all together.
Set that aside, and bring back your cooked wings.
Take the prepared sauce and brush them all over the wings,
flipping them once so you can brush them on all sides.
Pop them back into the oven,
and this is just so they get nice and sticky
and the sauce has time to thicken up.
Plate those up, and garnish
with toasted sesame seeds and sliced scallions
and serve them with prepared dipping sauce.
And, there you have it, Gordon Ramsay's fancy chicken wings.
- Ooh.
- All right.
I like the sesame seed detail.
That's kinda cool, into that.
- The skin is not super oily.
- There didn't need to be sesame oil in that.
That's just pretentious or something.
- It's sweet, and then, this is like a little bit savory.
- I really like the dip.
It's like light, and zesty.
- There's really no taste to the chicken.
But, the sour cream and onion dip was great.
- It's really delicious.
The wing is juicy, which is nice.
- The sesame seeds, definitely like that.
- And, it's a really pretty presentation.
Normally, I have never eaten a wing
with the seeds on it before. (laughs)
But, it's good, I like it.
- [Jesse] Up next is John Legend.
He starts the day before by making a brine
with water, seasoned salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder,
and mix that all together and adding wings to it.
He lets this brine for four to 24 hours,
before he gets started on the wings.
While that's happening, in a large bowl,
combine melted butter, hot sauce, and honey.
Mix that all up until a thick sauce forms.
This is what you'll toss the wings in later.
The next day, combine flour, cayenne pepper,
and seasoned salt.
This is what we're gonna toss the wings in.
Bring back your brined wings, toss them in the flour,
and put them on a sheet tray.
Have a dutch oven filled with canola oil,
and heat it up until 360 degrees.
You're gonna fry the wings
in small batches for about 13 minutes
until they're golden and cooked through,
draining them on a paper towel-lined plate each time.
In a large bowl, toss the wings with the prepared hot sauce
until they're nice and coated.
And, there you have it,
John Legend's crispy fried chicken wings
with spicy honey butter.
- Ooh, all right.
- It looks crisp.
- No sauce.
- I never pick this one.
When I get wings, I only want drumsticks.
- If I made chicken wings,
I would it want it to look like this.
- This is good, I like this one.
There's a kick to it, but it's also sweet.
- It's so good, oh my god.
- This one is a little bit on the sweeter side, too.
You can feel like a little, tiny kick,
but it's nothing too crazy.
- I still think I need a sauce,
but overall, I really do like this one.
- There's definitely honey on it.
I think like a regular, smegular hot sauce.
- It's really tender, which I like.
- The crust is a little crunchy.
It's like sweet with a kick.
I really like it.
- [Jesse] Up next is Emeril Lagasse.
He starts by making his own blue cheese dipping sauce,
by combining blue cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise,
butter milk, fresh lemon juice, minced garlic,
salt, and pepper, and mixing that all up.
We're gonna set that aside
and we're gonna serve that with the wings later.
Next, Emeril makes his own hot sauce
by combining hot sauce with apple cider vinegar and sugar.
Heat that up, and we're slowly going to add
some softened butter, using a hand mixer,
just to make sure it all emulsifies.
We do this in a few steps,
just to make sure we're not overloading the butter.
Set this aside.
When it comes time to make the actual wings,
combine flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne,
and mix it all together.
Bring in some wings, and we're gonna put these
in Ziploc baggies, with the flour, and shake it all up,
just to make sure they're nice and evenly coated.
His recipe says to shake it all up in a bag,
but we had to use two,
just because there's enough wings to fit in two.
Dump these out onto a sheet tray,
and let it dry for about an hour.
Once those are dry, fry those in a large cast-iron pot,
filled with oil at 350 degrees,
in batches, until they're nice and golden.
This takes about 10-13 minutes per batch.
Take those wings and toss 'em
in the hot sauce you prepared earlier,
just so they're nice and evenly coated.
Serve these with celery, carrots,
and the prepared blue cheese dipping sauce,
and Emeril's wings are done.
- Ooh, all right.
- This looks like a Pizza Hut wing, that's good.
That's a good thing.
- See, this is the kind of wing
that I'm used to getting at the restaurants.
- I always like when the wings come
with the carrots and celery,
even though I don't eat it at all.
- Oh, blue cheese, my favorite.
- Pretty standard, pretty regular.
It's good.
I'm not super crazy about it, but it's good.
- Yeah, Pizza Hut wing, or just like a regular bar.
- It's like on the average level.
- There's like nothing special about it,
but there's nothing wrong with it.
- It's such a classic, delicious feeling,
that you know, just by looking at it,
just by the color of the wing,
what it's going to taste like, exactly,
and that is what it tastes like.
It's a buffalo wing.
- I'm always the person to eat it.
It's pallette cleanser.
- [Jesse] Next up is Martha Stewart.
She starts by tossing wings with salt in a large bowl,
and scatter them onto a baking tray
with no oil or parchment paper,
and baking them until crispy.
In a separate bowl,
combine maple syrup, grainy Dijon mustard,
and stir that all together.
Once baked, take those wings
and toss them directly in the sauce.
Give them a nice coat,
and you're gonna pop these back into the oven,
just so the glaze has time to stick to it
and thicken up a bit, about two to three minutes.
Serve them with lemon wedges, and that's it,
Martha Stewart's super simple wing recipe.
- This has a cute little glaze to it.
- It's got little seeds on it, and a lemon.
It's served with a lemon.
So, we're trying to be fancy.
Is it mustard seeds?
- This comes with a slice of lemon,
and since it's here, I'm just gonna squeeze it on.
- There's like, kinda no taste,
but there's also kind of a taste.
- It's not quite sweet, it's pretty neutral.
But, it's good.
Like, I want to take another bite.
- It's sweet, it's just sweet.
I don't like that there was a lemon wedge here,
'cause it's like, why would I do that?
- I feel like this is probably like
a healthier version of a chicken wing.
- I really have no idea what's in this wing.
I think that's what got me,
is 'cause the outside is like a yummy glazed layer,
and then the inside is like pretty tender.
- I'm not mad, but I wouldn't order this, per se.
- [Jesse] Last, but not least,
is football legend Joe Montana.
In a bowl, he combines salt, pepper,
seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika,
and stirs that all up to create his own seasoning blend.
Set that aside and take a large bowl,
and add whole wings to it, with the tips cut off.
Toss those in a bit of oil,
then take half the seasoning mixture,
and toss it right on top.
Finish it with the remaining,
so it's nice and evenly coated, and transfer these wings
onto a baking tray with a baker's rack.
Scatter those around, and pop them in the oven.
And, that's really it,
that's Joe Montana's whole chicken wing recipe.
- This is cute.
- It's pretty standard.
It's got a little oil.
You know it's the kind
where you know you're gonna need a little napkin,
and maybe like, a wet wipe.
- This doesn't look like wings necessarily.
I can see this in like an oil tray at like a barbecue.
- It's very juicy.
I like it.
It honestly tastes like a rotisserie chicken.
- Has some good spices.
Could have a little bit more.
- This is good, but, it doesn't have a super ton of flavor.
- I think a dipping sauce would be nice.
- This takes like if you're just getting
a piece of rotisserie chicken with your meal.
Which, I love, I love rotisserie chicken, I love sodium.
- Maybe this would be
in your meal prep rotation, which is fine.
- It's good, it's very moist, and delicious,
but not as a hot wing.
- Out of the five, I think four and five are out for me.
I like one, two and three.
I like the sauces.
Because I'm not the hugest fan
of buffalo wings, I'm cutting three.
But, because the first one had the sauce
and I'm someone who's lactose intolerant
and can't help myself, I'm gonna go with one,
because I love dipping the wings in sauce.
- [Jesse] Gordon Ramsay.
- Okay.
Hey Gordon.
Being a chef, and all, he knows what's good, I guess.
It was delicious, that sauce was delicious.
- So, I think my favorite wings was the first one I got.
It had the sesame seeds.
It had a really dope sauce.
Easy to bite into, it was tender.
It had a nice little layer.
It was sweet.
So, all the things I'm looking for in a wing.
Gordon Ramsay, okay.
So, eating some fancy wings up in here.
- Out of the five wings I ate,
I think number two was the best.
It wasn't like a crazy taste.
There was a little bit of a kick to it.
It was a little bit sweet.
And, it was fried, which I like.
I like fried and baked, but that tasted really good,
and was moist.
- [Jesse] John Legend.
- (gasps) Oh, and he's great.
He does no wrong.
He's got an EGOT.
- He does have a lot of awards.
- He has all the awards.
The chicken wings on Christmas, you can smell it.
That's great.
Yeah, they're really, that's good.
I like them even more that I know who got that.
- [Jesse] So, there you have it,
Gordon Ramsay has the best chicken wing recipe.
Which recipe do you want us to test next?
Let us know in the comments.
- [Man] Oh, oh yes.