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I can’t believe I’m kicking this off with chicken wings. First off, I’m not a huge chicken wing fan in the first place; second, it starts with raw chicken. But my hubby loves chicken wings & lately we’ve noticed restaurant prices are rising while portions are shrinking. Therefore if I want to satisfy his desire for chicken wings, I must bite the bullet and make them here. This will be a major first for me.
I like sweet flavors, he likes things with a kick, so I had decided to try out this recipe I saw on Delish.com for sweet & spicy to satisfy both tastes. At first when I looked over the recipe, I thought, what is picante sauce? Doesn’t that mean hot in Spanish? Is this hot sauce, like American hot sauce? Hmm…maybe this isn’t such a good idea, but then I press pass my fear and continue reading. Honey, check…ginger, check…chicken wings tips removed. Oh no, tips removed? What does that even mean? I have flashes of the food prep guy at the restaurant I worked at years ago chopping chicken wings in half. Gross, no I don’t think I’m ready to handle that just yet. So I’ll have to buy the drumettes for this.
I went shopping for the ingredients earlier in the week. I looked over
the chicken selection trying to hold in my fear as I saw raw chicken after raw
chicken. Finally I came across the chicken wings. I couldn’t bear it; they
looked so….well I’m sure you
know. I decided I’d wait and go to another grocery store to see if theirs was
better. On to the sauce aisle. Bottle after bottle of hot sauce and “Tabasco”
sauce, but no picante sauce in sight. Again I wondered what picante sauce is.
Maybe we’ll have to scrap this recipe and try something else.
I headed to the next store on my list and of course, the chicken is still
“chicken looking”. So I finally decided to look in the frozen section. Success!
These chicken wings don’t look so slimy and scary so maybe I can start small
and work my way up to the “real” thing. But still no luck on the picante sauce.
I purchased the wings and decided if I can’t find picante sauce, I’ll find a
different recipe.
At home I hopped online and decide to type “what is picante sauce” in the
search bar. Almost all the results contained the word salsa, and as I dug
deeper I realized it’s similar to salsa with the main difference being the
texture. Salsa is thinner than picante. So why not just use salsa instead?
Finally it is time to get cracking on this recipe. Today, I got the chicken
wings out and dumped them in a bowl to thaw. I re-read my recipe. It says to
toss the chicken wings in the sauce mixture. I glanced @ my bowl and realized I
was going to need a bigger bowl unless I wanted the chicken wings escaping.
Reluctantly I switched bowls, knowing that I just created an extra dish to
wash. Now I’m thinking since I’m in no time crunch, I’ll make the sauce now
& let the chicken wings marinate in the mixture so they’ll be really
flavorful.
Fast forward and they’re ready to go in the oven. I turn the oven on to
heat, put foil on the baking pan, and sit down to write while I wait for the
beep. When the oven beeps I run into the kitchen to put my chicken wings in,
but what I find is chicken wings still in the bowl and an empty foil lined pan!
How could I forget to put them on the pan? I frantically search for the tongs
so I can get them on the pan and in the oven before the oven loses its heat.
Thankfully I get them in, and have 25 minutes to wait. 25 minutes, then I have
to start turning and brushing them with sauce frequently while they cook an
additional 30 minutes.
I’m puzzled by this instruction.
How can I do that frequently without letting all the heat out? Don’t they say
every time you open the oven door or remove a pot lid it adds time to your
cooking time? But who am I to question this recipe, I mean to be published
obviously someone tested it before hand. So I adhere to instructions and pull
them out at the beginning of the 30 minute mark. I brush them with sauce. Now
turn. Turn how? Turn over, turn around, turn the pan? C’mon, I honestly have no
clue so I rolled them a little, turned the pan around and stuck them back in
the oven. Ok that was 2 ½ minutes that they
weren’t cooking, will they even be cooked when the timer goes off? Seven
minutes later I run back in and pull them out again. As I’m brushing and turning,
my light bulb turns on and I realize I can adjust the timer to make up for this
non-cooking time. Back in the oven they go & rotate the pan. Yum, they’re
starting to smell good. Two more brushes and turns, and I pray that qualifies
for frequent.
I didn’t want to just toss the extra sauce as per the instructions, but
it had raw meat so I wasn’t about to just pour it over my food. I grabbed a
small pan and boiled it for a few minutes, then let it simmer while I got some
rice ready. The oven timer goes off and the chicken wings look delicious, smell
heavenly, and I’m instantly starving. I can’t resist a taste test even though
hubby isn’t here yet. I mean, I need to make sure they taste good in advance so
I don’t serve him bad food right? Reason enough for me! Yes, they taste as good
as they look & smell.
Dinner was an amazing success. The sauce tasted great mixed with rice.
Hubby was more than impressed with my skills. Despite the confusions I had, the
recipe felt really easy and I am confident I can cook more chicken wings as
long as they are this good!
Sweet & Spicy chicken wings
1 cup picante sauce
¼ cup honey
½ tsp ground ginger
12 chicken wings (tips removed) or 24 chicken drumettes
- Stir the
picante sauce,
honey and ginger in a large bowl.
- Cut the
wings in half at the joints to make 24 pieces. Toss the wings with the
picante sauce mixture. Place them in a foil-lined shallow baking pan.
- Bake at
400 degrees F. for 55 minutes or until they're glazed and cooked through,
turning and brushing often with the sauce during the last 30 minutes of baking time.
Discard any remaining sauce.
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