The Best Chicken Wings for the Super Bowl
With all due respect to steak and lobster, I think the best surf ‘n’ turf combination is chicken and anchovies. It’s an opposites-attract situation: The chicken is large and plump with a soft-spoken umami; it says: “How nice to meet you. I’m looking forward to working together.” Anchovies, scrawny and electric with salty savoriness, kick in the door, press play on the boombox and say: “I’m here. Let’s do this.”
You can see this partnership at work in top-rated New York Times Cooking recipes. The Anchovy Queen Melissa Clark has her garlicky chicken with lemon-anchovy sauce and Green Goddess roasted chicken (there are a couple of anchovy fillets in the Green Goddess dressing to give that fresh, herby concoction some oomph). Anchovies also appear in the form of fish sauce in Sheree Sarabhaya’s kai yang and Kris Yenbamroong’s pad krapow gai, both recipes adapted by Alexa Weibel. And, of course, there’s Eric Kim’s roasted chicken with fish-sauce butter, one of the loveliest chicken dinners you can pull together in under an hour.
But I have my eye on Rio’s spicy chicken wings, which get their name from the chef Rio Irie and punchy red yuzu kosho. (If you can’t find red yuzu kosho, notes Melissa, the recipe’s adapter, you can substitute some hot sauce or chile powder mixed with lemon juice and zest.) There’s fish sauce in both the marinade and the glaze, along with soy sauce and mirin for that perfect funky-salty-sweet balance. Make these wings for your Super Bowl party or, as I plan to do, for dinner with rice, an easy cucumber salad and an icy Sapporo.
Featured Recipe
Rio’s Spicy Chicken Wings
You’ve scrolled through this curated collection of 12 of our best Super Bowl recipes, yes? There are more great “good for a party but also good for dinner” options in there, like Melissa’s vegetarian tamale pie, Kay Chun’s Korean BBQ-style meatballs and Genevieve Ko’s easy, smoky pulled pork. To go with the pulled pork: Andy Baraghani’s pickle biscuits, which are so tender thanks to the acidity of the pickle brine.
It might also be fun to lean into the New Orleans of it all and make Paul Prudhomme’s hearty, rich chicken and sausage gumbo. Vallery Lomas has an excellent vegetarian gumbo, too, bolstered with roasted sliced okra and thickened with red lentils. Mark Bittman’s recipe for New Orleans BBQ shrimp actually has nothing to do with grilling (I can hear all the snowy-clime readers sighing in relief); the shrimp get their BBQ-ness from Worcestershire sauce and lots of black pepper. And speaking of snowfall: Ready the powdered sugar for Kay’s beignets.
Lastly — you’ll notice I’m burying this at the bottom — I’d be remiss if I didn’t sneak in a “Go Birds.” (I did live in Philadelphia for five years, and the Chiefs are the favorites, so.) I’ll leave Kia Damon’s Philly cheesesteak right here; it’s up to you to serve them “wit Whiz” or without.
