Triple Threat Chicken Wings

Whenever I roast a chicken, my favorite part is the crispy little wings. Since there are only 2 of them per chicken the hubby is sweet enough to let me have them all to myself but I’m pretty sure that he’d like to try them sometimes so this is my way of saying, “Thanks honey!” This is one of those dishes where the amount of effort vs. the payout is disproportionately low. The 450F temperature is just perfect for giving you crispy wings (you can even hear your dinner companions happily crunching away) with tender flesh and by roasting them, most of the fat ends up in the bottom of the roasting pan and not on your hips. w00t! The glaze caps everything off with the trinity of sweet, sour, and spicy from the honey, rice wine vinegar, and chili paste. And to make a great thing amazing, I’ve added the zesty duo of garlic and ginger which make all the other flavors sing with harmonious resonance. Actually, the hardest part of making this is keeping yourself from licking any stray bits of tangy, spicy, zesty sauce that happens to coat anything around you but what’s a little glaze among friends? This tasty, easy dish is perfect for lazing on the deck, watching Stanley Cup, or any impromptu picnics or guests that just happen to come your way 🙂

Wingettes & drumettes, a great name for a band?
If your butcher doesn’t already separate your chicken wings into wingettes and drumettes for you, it’s actually very easy to do so yourself with no brute strength or berserker hacking necessary. I find the easiest way to disarticulate them is to bend the joints and then insert a sharp knife (I like to use a small utility knife with a sharp tip) and wiggle around. You’ll automatically get your tip into the empty spaces in the joint and easily slice away the tendons connecting the muscle to the bone. No mutant superpowers or knife damaging bone hacking necessary.

Triple Threat Chicken Wings

2 lb chicken wings, in wingettes and drumettes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Triple Threat Glaze (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 450F. Grease and place an oven-safe wire cooling rack in your baking sheet. I have one by the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA) that is oven-safe to 450F (not under a broiler though!) and fits in my half baking sheet perfectly 🙂 If you don’t have an oven-safe cooling rack you could use a broiler rack inside a broiling pan but will likely have to divide your wings into 2 batches since they’re smaller than baking sheets. I like to disarticulate my wings while the oven is heating up.

Season wings with salt and pepper. Bake till golden-brown and a meat thermometer registers 165F. With 2 pounds of wings and convection it takes me ~30 minutes. If you like your wings extra crispy, flip them over after 15 minutes so the underside can crisp up too 🙂 Toss in glaze. Makes 4-5 servings.

Triple Threat Glaze
6 tbsp unseasoned rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp light soy sauce (I used Yamasa) **if cooking gluten-free look for tamari soy sauce without wheat in the ingredients as not all tamari is wheat free
4 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sambal oelek or your favorite chili paste/hot sauce
2 tbsp (1-2 inches) crushed ginger
4 tsp (7-8 cloves) crushed garlic

10 minutes before wings are done, in a large skillet combine all ingredients and reduce over med-hi heat till volume reduced in half. I like to use a skillet so I can just toss the wings into it straight out of the oven and coat them in sweetly sour, spicy, finger-licking glaze. Is it bad that I made this 2 times in 3 days? Dear hubby’s not complaining ….

Tags: chicken, easy, entertaining, weeknight