Wing Tip Dippers

[Keltin]

Well, after doing the Chicken Lollipops, I’ve been turning over in my head what would the next cool wing be? After some thought, it hits me, and I’ve dubbed these:

Wing Tip Dippers

The idea is to take a whole wing and cut the drumette off, but leave the middle piece and wing tip attached. Reserve the drumette. Now, the thing you do is de-bone the middle piece so that you have boneless meat attached to the wing tip. You use the wing tip as a handle to hold this lovely chunk of boneless meat, and dip it in your favorite sauce.

To accomplish this, first cut the drumette away from the other two pieces and reserve.

Now, holding the wing tip with your middle, ring, and pinky fingers in your left hand (I’m right handed), use your left forefinger and thumb to pull down on the meat at the exposed knuckle where you cut the drumette away. As you pull down, use a knife in your right hand to sheer the tendons and meat away from the bone and slide it down.

Once you have gotten the meat about a half inch down, run your knife through the knuckle and separate the two bones. Now, grab the smaller bone at the tip, and push down the bone with your thumb, forefinger, and middle finger as you pinch the bone. The idea is to push the meat down and away from the bone. Push down about a half inch, then grab a paper towel. With that paper towel, grab the smaller bone (it’s slippery, so the towel helps) and twist it back and forth till it breaks free from the wing tip knuckle.

Once free pull it out of the meat, and use your finger tips to scrap off any clinging meat as it comes out. If any meat comes out with it, use your forefinger to tuck it back in.

Next work on the large bone. Again, holding the wing tip with your middle, ring, and pinky fingers in your left hand, use your left forefinger and thumb to pull down on the meat at the exposed knuckle where you cut the drumette away. As you pull down, use a knife in your right hand to sheer the tendons and meat away from the bone and slide it down.

Once you get the meat about 2/3s down the bone. Grab a paper towel again, and then grab the bone tip. Hold the wing tip knuckle firmly in your left hand, and then twist and turn the large bone till it pops free and then pull it out of the middle piece.

Voila! You now have a wing tip with a hunk of boneless meat attached! I did this with 8 whole wings. Once you are ready, deep fry the Wing Tip Dippers for about 8 minutes, or until the juices run clear.

Drain on paper towels. You’ll do this in batches. Once they are all done, coat the boneless meat only in your favorite sauce. Then bake them at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes to set the sauce. You are now ready to serve.

But hey, you have those drumettes to deal with too! So, unless you’re doing enough Wing Tip Dippers for the whole meal, then fry the drumettes as well, cover in sauce, then bake 5 to 7 minutes as well to set the sauce. Plate this up with the drumettes in the middle and the Wing Tip Dippers on the outside, and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

I have to tell you, these things are an absolute blast to eat! Simply incredible. And not only is the boneless meat great, but if you’re so inclined, you can gnaw on the wing tips as well. Fun stuff.

Oh, and get this, the middle piece, once the bones are out, is hollow. So……you could possibly stuff these things before frying! So many possibilities!

In the next post, I’ll present a pictorial of this process.

[Keltin]

First, we start with a whole wing with the drumette cut off and the knuckle exposed.



Next peel the meat down with fingers and sheer with your knife, and then separate the two bones.



Now, remove the small bone. A paper towel helps here with your grip as this is slippery.



Continue to shave and push the meat down on the large bone, then using a paper towel, twist it free of the knuckle at the wing tip and pull it out.

[Keltin]

Here they all are. Middle pieces de-boned and attached to the wing tip. Ready for frying!


Whoops! I completely forgot to take a pic of the Wing Tip Dippers after frying, but I did grab a shot of the drumettes after they were fried. Sorry!



And now, in all their glory, here are the sauced Wing Tip Dippers after baking ready for dipping and eating. The top 4 are Sweet and Sour, and the bottom 4 are hot (DW does not like spicy food, so I tone it down for her).



Sorry this pic is blurry, but I was shaking with excitement! LOL! Here is a shot of the meat cut through with a knife showing the juicy, tender, boneless interior. Yum!

[Keltin]

And now, a hasty plating to show how it all looks when its time to serve. I’m not much on plating, but I think you get the idea and the possible potential here. The middle drumettes are BBQ sauce, the dippers on the left are hot sauce, and the dippers on the right are sweet and sour.



Here is a close-up of the hot dippers next to the BBQ drumettes.



Here is a close up of the sweet and sour dippers next to the BBQ drumettes.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Hey, Thank you for the terrific idea!