Quick and Easy Chicken Wings
My love of eating chicken wings began in college when I really got a taste of how wonderful they were- mild, hot and spicy and always with some sort of creamy dip and a side of fries. It’s the college kid ting to do, right? Well, the saucy wings weren’t the first kind I was exposed to, but the first kind I actually liked. My mom used to order the southern style fried wings that came with fries and gravy smothered on top, a sort of specialty in our small town’s tiny but popular mom and pop restaurant called Rainbow Kitchen. But as a kid, I couldn’t appreciate anything but the fries…
Looking back, it’s the stuff people crave now- totally homemade meals like mom used to make, reminiscent of the olden days when things really were farm to fork on a daily basis. It was also a time when people weren’t so wigged out by cooking with the raw product.
When you have a beautiful and clean product to work with, there should be nothing to get squirmy about, although wings should probably be cut in half (which I did not do in this recipe and wish I had) for ease of eating, having more bites available for more people and for the pure aesthetics of it, as wings look better cut in half.
I simply got carried away with this recipe and went full force preparing and photographing before even thinking about all that because it’s so easy to make, and so quick, that it’s just delightful to get right into the cooking and eating part.
All you need are a few things:
About 1 and 3/4 pounds chicken wings (that’s often how the packs come), one tablespoon of date vinegar (but you can use just about any other type of vinegar you like), one teaspoon of sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and one packet of Saffron Road’s Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce (although it’s delicious with the Moroccan Tagine Simmer Sauce, too).
Make sure to use a good sea salt (coarse or fine) and a pungent black pepper. I know the Simmer Sauce has spice in it already and if you like your wings mild, my recipe will keep it that way with the addition of a tiny kick. If you like things hotter, add some chili flakes or chili powder.
Check out that gorgeous color of the Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce, which has no artificial color, additives or preservatives. It’s also gluten-free, low in carbs (only 3 grams) and calories (only 20). To top it off, it’s ingredients are non-GMO, which is not easy for food companies to do anymore.
Next, pour on the vinegar. I like to use either apple cider vinegar or date vinegar in this recipe, but you can liven it up with other types of vinegar you have on hand, preferably something dark. The Simmer Sauce already has some vinegar in it, but since we’re either oven-roasting or grilling these wings, the additional vinegar helps give the sauce a little more cooking liquid without liquefying the dish-basically so it doesn’t become one big mess that doesn’t stick to the chicken.
Add the salt and pepper.
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Mix it all together to coat the chicken well.
Alternatively you can do this in a bag instead of a bowl: simply place everything in a bag instead of ever using a bowl and shake it up. It’s easy to marinate for a bit this way, too, although there is no need for marinating the chicken in this recipe unless you want to do that.
Now here’s another alternative: You can either opt to grill or oven-roast these wings. You can also do a little bit of both stove-top grilling then oven roasting or use the oven the whole time. I’m giving you the recipe for all three at the end of this post, but in the rest of the post I’m going to show you how to oven roast them only. If you were to use the stove top or outdoor grill, be sure to crank up the heat nice and high before adding the chicken.
Otherwise, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. You can thank me later about how much less the cleanup is.
Add the wings. Be sure to spread them apart nicely so they can roast evenly. The oven should be preheated to 375°.
Let them roast on one side, without turning, for 20 minutes. Crank up the heat to 425° for 15 minutes, then turn each one over. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes, or until nicely browned and fully cooked on the inside. Remember, chicken should read at least 165° F on a meat thermometer, away from the bone.
Looks like they’ve been grilled outdoors, don’t they? You can also do a bit of stovetop grilling first and then move to the oven to get this effect, but oven-only grilling will do the same if you crank the heat up to broil for the last five minutes of cooking. Not necessary, but it’s a nice effect.
Plate the finished chicken however you like. In this case, I added chopped cilantro, cut radishes and lime to the top because I planned to make tasty tacos out of the wings.
I’ve sort of adopted that, too. Just add tortillas, sour cream and salsa and you’ve got it together. In this case, though, the wings are great all on their own.
Can you believe a Simmer Sauce can help you do this so easily? What other Simmer Sauces by Saffron Road would you try that you think would be great on wings?
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however, all opinions and recipes are my own and not that of the sponsoring company.
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