When it comes to game-day eats, dips are convenient, chili is comforting, and pizza is a crowd-pleaser, but none of them hold a candle to the reigning champion: fiery, tangy buffalo wings.

While it's a game-day requirement, buffalo chicken isn't the most ideal to make; even with special cooking equipment, its deep-fried preparation can be dangerous, messy, and laborious. Leave it to the king of food science, Alton Brown, to come up with an alternative cooking method for this classic.

His recipe calls for steaming, chilling, and then baking the chicken wings to a crisp. It's lighter, less messy, and even my sports fanatic boyfriend can't tell the difference!