Keto-Friendly Buffalo Wings

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Can Buffalo Wings Be Keto Friendly?

You can only shove so many chicken breasts into your mouth before you start to go a little crazy. This was my feeling, anyways, and I needed something to take me out of my diet. Not a cheat meal, but something that had reasonable macro’s, easy to make, and something that was full of flavor. Enter: Chicken Wings. I’ve always loved chicken wings, usually too my own detriment, as most wing-joints flash fried their wings in a vat of hot fat. So now I had a new challenge: could I make hot wings at home that rivaled the ones you could find at your favorite beer pub?  Could I make paleo-friendly buffalo wings?  How about keto-friendly buffalo wings? We’re pretty sure we’ve gotten it pretty dang close, and we’ve created a healthy buffalo wing recipe that’s delicious in it’s own right. Here’s how we did it, and here’s how you can do it too:

The first obstacle of course is getting around the traditional fat-fry, and getting around that intense crisp that fat-fry can offer. If you eliminate the fried option, two other choices immediately come to mind: oven-baked and grilled. Grilled wings are a fantastic alternative to fried wings. You replace that consistent crispyness that only hot oil can make with an excellent fire based char type of crispy. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a grill all-year round, so we need to go back to the drawing board. I’ve had ‘okay’ experiences with oven-baked wings, but they are just that, ‘okay’. This method can create a decent wing, but it never comes close to the type of crisp you can get with frying or in a grill. So our two options both leave a lot to desire, so where do we go from here?

A Gimmick Saves The Day

I hate gimmicks.  That’s why when I received an electronic “Air-Fryer” for Christmas, my first response was to chuckle to myself and do an internal eye-roll.  “There’s no way this thing could work, and there’s no way I’d use this thing”.  Since I was at the end of my rope, I decided to go into my closet and dust off my old forgotten about present and see what it had to offer.  I won’t go into specifics too much here, as you can read my full write up on it HERE, but let me just say one thing: this thing blew my mind!

The Air-Fryer was the answer to my prayers.  It gave me a chicken wing that was perfectly cooked, and with a skin that was as crispy as any full-fat fry, all without any extra added calories from the fat.

Meal Prep PRO-TIP:

Meal prepping is a nice idea, but so is fresh food.  Doing one is usually a sacrifice for the other.   However, what if I told you that you could have a high-protein, delicious snack ready in minutes, any time of the day?  Cook the wings to step 4, before the first sauce, and store your wings in an air-tight baggy or contained in the fridge.  Whenever you want hot and fresh wings in minutes, just throw it in the sauce and finish the recipe as described.  Your low-carb buffalo wing will come out fresh and piping out.  I like to keep two third-portion bags in the fridge at any given time so I can have a fresh and low-calorie, high protein snack in minutes when a craving for something delicious hits in the middle of a cut.