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Notes -
Sour cream and milk should work just fine, as long as you get them to the right consistency. Heck, I've got dairy allergies in the family to watch out for and my 'oat milk and tofu-based sour cream substitute' even works just fine.
Sounds like you just need to master how thick the batter should be. Start thick, test a wing, if ends badly add a bit more liquid, repeat.
But I prefer a seasoned flour anyways, and if your 'buttermilk' consistency is right you don't need to worry about it. Save the batter for fish.
I use half flour, half corn or potato starch, with a bunch of spices. Roughly in order of amount:
-Salt
-Paprika
-Smoked paprika
-Black Pepper
-Garlic powder
-Onion powder
-White pepper
-Mustard powder
-Celery seed
-Ginger powder
-Dried basil
-Dried oregano
-Dried thyme
-MSG
You can eyeball it and taste a pinch of flour to adjust once you get the hang of it. I like to smoke them for an hour, marinate in buttermilk for a bit, dredge in flour mix, fry at 325F. Still good if no smoker, replace normal paprika with smoked.
Same recipe can be used with chicken thighs, except I brine them in pickle brine overnight instead of smoking first. Great for sandwiches with lettuce, sauce of choice, pickled red onions.
Of note, I've noticed that cheaper water-plumped wings tend to turn out noticeably less flavorful when making fried wings. Usually doesn't make much difference in recipes, but it seems it prevents flavor formation in this case.
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