There’s a few recipes out there for Honey Sriracha wings. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve to make these The Ultimate. These are hot, sweet, a lil funky, and super crispy. Keep reading for why these are the Ultimate Baked Honey Sriracha Wings.
Let’s look at crispness. In a perfect, cholesterol ignorant world, I’d deep fry or even double deep fry my wings. That’s not only a little outside my allowable cheat-treat, it’s also a pain in the ass and time consuming. As learned from the best roast chicken recipe (which I’m realizing I should do soon), you can get a super crisp chicken skin by combining two methods. The first is Active Drying. Completely dry the chicken with some air-dry time in the fridge and pat down paper towels. The second is Contact Drying. Kosher salt and baking powder are added to the chicken to make it dry and to give it micro-surface nooks and crannies.
I’m a purist and could eat chicken wings that have been air-dried with baking powder and salt and be a happy boy. The next step from there is adding more ingredients to the “dry rub”. You could add dried herbs, flavored BBQ rubs, or plain ol’ garlic and onion powder and you’d be doing well for yourself. I once made a rub with powdered vinegar, fennel pollen, and habanero powder?. Today we’re using sriracha power. Just to be sure we’ve got the spice level pumped up, we’re adding some hot paprika as well.
When it comes to the glaze, sriracha and honey are the main players. You could certainly add some sesame oil for added flavor but I think that’s a little competitive. Fish sauce gives us a nice round umami and salty funk to compliment the Sriracha. After baking, brushing the glaze on the wings and finishing in the broiler will give us an almost grilled texture. What we really get out of it is extra crunch and browning/charring. Finally, we can toss the wings in the remaining glaze with some sesame seeds then serve with cilantro and green onions.
I highly recommend this delicious and flexible recipe. You could, as I have in the past, go crazy with preparing the wings. Twenty four hours to air dry and twenty four hours to brine would be incredible. Or, if you’re strapped for time, and dying of hunger, whip these up in a couple hours. For Nearly Ultimate Honey Sriracha Wings, you can let the wings air dry for 30 minutes and brine for one hour.
For more information on why baking soda is great for drying chicken wings, check out this post at Serious Eats.
Ultimate Baked Honey Sriracha Wings
Ingredients
- 8 whole wings seperated
- 3 tbs Sriracha
- 3 tbs honey
- 1 tbs vegetable oil
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tbs baking powder
- 1/2 tbs koser salt
- 1/2 tbs hot paprika
- 1 tbs Sriracha powder
- 1 tsp sesame seeds.
- Chopped cilantro and green onions for garnish.
Instructions
- Place wings on cooling rack set in a sheet tray. Allow to air dry in refrigerator for 1 to 24 hours.
- Pat wings completely dry with paper towels.
- In a large bowl, toss wings in combined dry ingredients.
- Return to cooling rack and allow to brine for 1 to 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Combine wet ingredients and apply with brush on one side of the wings. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Turn wings with tongs and glaze with brush. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Turn wings with tongs and glaze with brush. Bake for 3 minutes.
- Turn wings with tongs and glaze with brush. Place in broiler until brown and slightly charred.
- Turn wings with tongs, glaze with brush and broil until brown and slightly charred.
- Add sesame seeds to remaining glaze and toss wings.
- Serve garnished with chopped cilantro and green onions.
