Finding The Perfect Chicken Wing...

Can such a thing really exist?

First off, you know my general thoughts on chicken wings...they should be used to propel fat chickens around the coop, and not for anything food related. Unless of course you slather them in a good hot sauce, which is surely what God intended when he created the chicken.
So how would one set about creating the 'perfect' chicken wing? Well obviously it requires the addition of sauce which perfectly compliments the wing. The wing should act as a delivery system for the sauce, but it's important that the two form a perfect marriage.

These are the things I look for when eating a sauced wing -

1. There should be a good deep fry on the wing, a little residual crisp and crunch to take away some of that undesirable skin texture.
2. There shouldn't be any loose skin on the wing, it isn't pleasant.
3. The deep fry oil shouldn't leave behind any prominent flavor or additional greasyness
4. The sauce should be deep in color with a heavier consistency, almost like a puree
5. The flavor should be quite complex, with fruity undertones and perhaps a little chipotle smokiness, though easy on the smoke
6. The sauce should have a slight acidic bite to cut any sweetness, and have sufficient salt, to excite the appropriate part of the tongue.
7. The heat level should be sufficient to cause sweat beads under the eyes, but not so hot to cause actual mouth pain
8. The heat shouldn't take away from the flavor of the sauce to a large extent
9. Yes I like 'em Hot, but there's a time and place for competition level heat, and I don't want to suffer through an ordeal when I'm just out for a few beers and some good bar food

So these are all considerations, which of course are quite subjective. We all have a different tolerance for heat, and different flavors and aromas excite us, so it's hard to tell someone that you've found the perfect wing, and expect them to agree with you.
But reviewing is all about the opinion of the reviewer, and in my opinion I think I may have found the perfect chicken wing at the Peninsula Pub in Door County, about a week ago.

I've written elsewhere on this blog about my fondness for the food at the Pen Pub, and we all know that they were the recipients of the 2010/11 Refrigerated Toiled Roll Awards for Door County WI. So these were good indicators that their chicken wings might be something special. And yes, the regular hot wing menu item has evolved into something very good....but they're not the ones I'm referring to here.
Kyle (chef/owner) makes up a pepper base which is the foundation for his Hot Wing Challenge sauce. He simply adds a few drops of Bhut Jolokia extract to the pepper base to take the wings into nuclear mode for the challenge. But it's the pepper base that I'm excited about here, prior to the addition of the extract, which makes it strictly a competition style sauce. The pepper base is made from a puree of 9 or 10 different peppers, including Habaneros, all blended for taste and heat, with various spices and additions to boost the flavor profile. The result is what I would call a near perfect sauce, balancing flavor with heat, sweetness with acidity and just presenting an altogether rounded taste experience.
Heat may be a notch too high for the uninitiated, but that shouldn't stop people from at least sampling it for its incredible flavor properties.
So about a week ago Kyle cooked me up an order of wings, using the pepper base in place of his regular menu hot wing sauce...and boy were they ever good.
The heat has a nice steady build up quality and doesn't try to rip out your throat on the first taste. The flavors just wash around the palette leaving you with a big stoopid grin on your face as you start to break out into a slow sweat. The afterburn is very manageable and controllable with a couple of White Russians. The endorphin rush is mild but pleasing, lasting at least 20-30 minutes.
So an absolutely excellent accompaniment to the chicken wing, though in realty, the sauce is too darn good for a wing.
Get on down to the Pen Pub and ask Kyle to sauce your wings with his special pepper base reserve!

Cheers