Spicy HOT Chicken wings that will kill you slower than bar wings

I know, I know.  I do not usually do recipe posts.  I always forget to take pictures at relevant times or I’m too busy trying to put out fires and forget all about blogging (e gads, no!) But this time, I remembered.  And I was calm, cool and collected.  And I did not drop, break, burn or forget anything.  So, I feel that this is as a good time to share a recipe with you as there will ever be.

Now, I must preface this with telling you that I do not eat chicken wings.  It’s far too much like work and when I eat, I’m not looking to work hard.  I don’t like trying to fight my food off the bone.  I want it well cooked, yummy, and pretty much leaping from my plate into my mouth.  No work involved over and above lifting my utensils.  Yes, I’m a lazy eater. BUT, Mr. K.B. and one of my smalls LOVE chicken wings.  And since discovering that the ones I make are even better than the best ones we’ve ordered in restaurants, I make them, when asked.

I started off oven baking them (deep fryers scare me. Clumsy girls and deep fryers are a recipe for a big fucking mess), but then Mr. K.B. had to go gluten-free for a long while and the oven wings were just missing some of the magic he found in the restaurant-prepared wings, you know, the wings that he could no longer eat. So, in the name of love, I learned how to make chicken wings from scratch using a deep fryer and a prayer.  I purposely blocked out all of my fears about serving deep fried food and what that meant of my nutritional morals.  Denial is a wonderful tool under certain circumstances. But then, after a long spell, Mr. K.B. was much improved and could be reunited with gluten.  But then grease became an issue, so back to oven wings we went.  And this time, they were better.  This time they were “as good” as the wings cooked in the deep fryer.  Chicken wings will never be considered a ‘healthy choice’ but these oven-baked chicken wings are a healthier bad choice. First, I mix up a batch of the coating.  When going gluten-free, I used rice flour for the base and other than costing a bit more, there was no discernible difference.  So now I use whatever flour I have on hand, gluten or non-gluten.

So, without further ado, first, the recipe in pictures and then the details, all laboriously written out at the end. Just because I wanna.

Baked, not Fried Spicy Hot Chicken Wings
20-30 split chicken wings

Dry Mix Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce:
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup hot pepper sauce, such as Frank’s, but any will do.

Directions:

1.Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and lightly grease with cooking spray.

2. Prepare the dry mix and store in a air-tight container. Split, wash and dry the wings and place in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle dry mixture and toss wings until completely coated. Store the unused dry mix in the air-tight container in the refrigerator for next time.

3. Place the coated wings on the previously prepared baking sheet and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

4.  Preheat oven to 400F.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the wings over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly. (My crew likes the wings crispy, so I usually leave them in for 60 minutes, turning once).

6. Toward the end of the baking time, combine the sauce ingredients in a large, clean bowl.

7. Remove wings from the oven and immediately toss them in the prepared wing sauce until thoroughly sauced. Discard any unused sauce.

Serve immediately with carrot and celery sticks and choice of Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing. Fries are optional, but word to the wise: if you pair the wings up with a pizza, you’ll have covered off all your food groups in one meal. 😉