lunch-outings during the work day

Few things go together as well as football and chicken wings. In addition to being easy to eat, spicy chicken wings can also help your guests to warm up on a chilly Saturday afternoon before a game. However, unless you are a chicken wing aficionado, cooking those delectable appetizers on your own might be more difficult than you anticipate. Here are two tips for better chicken wings:

1: Grill, Don't Fry

Forget about hauling a gas fryer and a vat of cooking oil to that game. In addition to being unpredictable and difficult to control, frying on-the-go might create more of a mess than you want to look after before a big game. Fortunately, grilling at the game is easy, clean, and can still produce excellent wings.

Because chicken wings typically have the skin and fat intact, grilling wings at high heat will naturally create a frying effect—and reduce the overall fat content of that appetizer. When you grill wings, sear all sides on a hotter part of the grill, and then move them to a cooler part of the grill until they are cooked through and through. To test wings for doneness, cut a wing to the bone to check for blood. If blood doesn't seep out and the liquids run clear, your wings are ready to eat.

2: Let Your Guests Choose Their Flavors

When it comes to wings, some like it hot. However, other people prefer barely-coated wings, or versions with sweet flavors. Unfortunately, if you toss everything from your grill into the same vat of traditional butter and cayenne pepper mix, your guests might not enjoy your offerings. To keep people happy, let your buddies choose their own flavors. Here are a few different types of wing flavorings you should consider offering:

• Sauces: Instead of putting sauces in bowls or other containers, leave the actual sauce bottles out for people to use. That way, guests can pour as little or as much sauce onto their actual plate to toss on their wings, and they can see the heat index information, ingredients, and flavor profiles listed on the label.  
• Dry Rubs: If you know that your guests might shy away from messy sauces, consider providing dry rubs instead. Dry rubs typically come in shaker containers, which means that people can use them just like salt and pepper shakers instead of dealing with messy sauce.

By knowing the tricks to preparing better chicken wings, you might be able to enjoy a nice pre-game snack with your friends—without all of the hassle.  If you're not in the mood to prepare wings on your own, consider stopping by a place like Luxe Sports Grill for some great pre-game wings. If you go early, you still have time to make it to the game.