Football season is here, which means more importantly, hot wing season is here! Hot wings are one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. Juicy chicken with crispy, crunchy deep-fried skin, covered in spicy, buttery sauce -- hot wings are everything I could want in a hand-held guilty-pleasure treat. That got me thinking, though, what if I could have delicious, delicious chicken wings, but not feel so guilty?
As it turns out, it's totally possible. Removing the skin and making your own super-easy sauce, gives you much more control over the fat and calories, and my unique cooking method will still give you a bit of crisp to the wing, without adding any extra ingredients. Fair warning, though: these guys are a little labor-intensive. Just think of that as an extension of how "skinny" they are! If you can find skinless chicken wings at your butcher, then these little things will be a breeze to make; I've heard skinless wings are common in Europe. Here in the US, however, our wings tend to come skin-on, and with the drummette still attached to the flat, which means there's a little elbow grease required in prepping the wings.
If you aren't a fan of Valentina, you can absolutely substitute it for your favorite hot sauce. If you just can't find it where you live, it's available on Amazon here: Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce
. You should know that it's only about $2 if you can find it in a store instead of on the internet though, where you'll pay a premium for the shipping and packaging.
Ingredients
- 8 Whole Chicken Wings roughly 2 lbs
- 1 cup Valentina
- 2 tablespoons Butter melted
- Cooking Spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
- Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pan. While you're waiting for the water to boil, using a very sharp knife or kitchen shears ( hint hint use the shears if you have them -- makes it a lot easier! ), remove the "tips" of the wings and discard them, and then separate the drummies from the flats by cutting directly through the joint.
- Add the newly separated chicken wings to the boiling water, and boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain the wings, and let rest until cool enough to handle.
- Remove the skin from the wings. Expect this step to take at least 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how surly your wings are feeling that day.
- Pat the skinless wings dry.
- In a bowl large enough to hold all of the wings, mix half of the melted butter with half of the Valentina ( 1 tablespoon of melted butter, 1/2 cup of Valentina ), and toss the wings in that sauce. Discard any remaining sauce.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper ( or foil ), and set a wire rack on top. Spray the rack with cooking spray.
- Arrange the wings on the rack, and spray them with cooking spray.
- Bake for 7 minutes. Flip all of the wings, and bake for another 3 minutes, then turn your oven to "Broil" ( high, if that option is available).
- Broil for 4 minutes, then remove the wings from the oven.
- Mix up a second batch of sauce in a clean bowl, by mixing the rest of the Valentina ( 1/2 cup ) with the rest of the melted butter ( 1 Tablespoon ).
- Toss the cooked wings in the second batch of sauce, and serve!
About to go into the oven!
Yessssssss. Wings and football are the perfect combination to me (I picked up Hometeam wings for GT's season opener). This will definitely be in my game day rotation!
OH MY GOSH. I could eat wings everyday if I could. I can't wait to make these
These look so yummy! I'm going to have to try these out for my next party 🙂