Spicy & Sweet: Sriracha, Brown Sugar & Garlic Wings
Whew, summer has started in our household!! VBS, hours of swimming, Monopoly marathons ((Oh, I warned them of the Monopoly pitfalls — but so far they are having a grand time. I am holding my breath)), reading races and general free-spirited shenanigans.
With every seasonal schedule change, it takes me a while to find a groove that allows me to get all the things I need to get done — done AND, at the same time, “go with the flow”. Although I have several recipes waiting to be written and shared, I have to jump ahead and share my recipe for these spicy wings that we served for dinner last night.
Our Zach ((find out who Zach is by reading the 5 part story of Shep’s appendix rupture last summer while we were on vacation — TRIP OF A LIFETIME)) just finished his freshman year at OU ((Boomer)), and returned from a school trip to Italy. We are busy and he is busy – but never too busy to get together for dinner.
So what do I serve a big college guy?? Chips & Salsa and spicy wings! My 7 minute salsa is a must & I sent him home with a jug of salsa leftovers — I would have sent the chips too, but an entire bag was ingested by some men last night, haha.
I bought 4 lbs of wings at Whole Foods, but next time I will make 5. David was right for once ((just kidding)), apparently you can never have too many wings!!
For the sriracha wings, I kept it really simple by adding the following
- 4 – 5 T of sriracha
- a scant ½ c brown sugar ((not packed))
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 5 T fresh thyme, removed from the stem
- 2 T fresh chopped chives
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
These amount are for 1 pound of wings. So if you are making a larger batch, increase the amounts accordingly. The remaining wings were marinated in what I like to call “an homage to Chinese food condiments”. I will tell you more about that in another post.
The key to making tasty wings is to allow the flavors to marry all day in the fridge before cooking. I assembled these wings at 7 in the morning and baked them at 6:30 the same evening. So plan on about 12 hours of marinating time.
Don’t they look promising?? After refrigerating for 12 hours, bake at 400° on a parchment lined baking sheet, flipping each wing halfway through.
After about 25 minutes, I turned the oven to “broil” and broiled the wings for 2 minutes in order to add color and a bit of crispiness to the skin.
It is just that simple! Summer may be throwing your schedule for a loop, like it is mine, but it is recipes like this that will keep us all going. Dinnertime is a treat, 20 minutes where we are all sitting close to each other, sharing the same food and catching up on each other’s day. Wings are one way to make it happen easily ((and happily)).
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 4 - 5 T of sriracha, more or less depending in taste
- a scant ½ c brown sugar ((not packed))
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 5 T fresh thyme, removed from the stem
- 2 T fresh chopped chives
- sea salt and fresh cracked pepper (a few dashes of each)
- Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for 4 to 12 hours. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400°. Place wings, evenly spaced, on a parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle remaining sauce over the tops of the wings. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes and then remove the sheet from the oven. Flip the wings over and return to oven to complete baking. After 25 minutes ((total baking time)) turn the oven to the broil setting and broil for 2 minutes. Keep a close eye on the wings, as they can easily burn.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool 1 to 2 minutes before serving.