Tried frozen wings straight vs thawing them first... big difference

I did a side by side with two bags of the same brand and the frozen ones came out way crispier in half the time. Has anyone else noticed that some things actually work better straight from the freezer?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana_jones24d ago

Wesleyb20, I have to disagree on this one - my experience with bone-in wings has been the opposite, where the frozen ones come out perfectly crispy at the same cook time because the ice creates steam that helps render the fat faster.

wesleyb2024d ago

Hold on a second, you got the time part wrong. Honestly, if they're frozen they actually take longer to get crispy all the way through. The moisture has to evaporate first before the skin can really crisp up. Tbh the science is pretty simple, cooking from frozen means the heat has to work through all that ice first. Ngl I've done this test a bunch of times and the frozen ones always need a good 5-10 more minutes than thawed ones. If you're getting them crispy faster something weird is going on with your cooking method or your thermometer is off.

-1

oliverhernandez24d ago

My oven runs at 425 and Ive tested this with a probe thermometer across about 20 batches of wings. The frozen ones hit 165 internal a solid 12 minutes after the thawed ones. That ice to steam thing Jana mentioned definitely helps render some fat but it also means the skin stays wet longer so you end up with that steamed rubbery layer before it finally crisps. I found flipping them halfway helps but you still cant cheat the extra time needed. Those extra 10 minutes are non negotiable if you want the skin actually shatter crisp not just kinda crispy.