If you like spicy as well as tangy flavors together, welcome to the easiest baked chicken wings recipe in the world. Red Devil hot sauce and fresh lime juice are combined with some really standard powdered seasonings to yield a succulent chicken wings that fall off the bone … provided you have some patience! This recipe is easy, but it’s certainly not quick.
The quick tips I’m about to share are true for all cooking all chicken, and are also covered in my previous post for Easy Jerk Chicken. But seeing how these are baked chicken wings, instead of larger chicken parts or a whole chicken, there will be some advantages. Because of their smaller size, they cook faster and you can manipulate each wing as needed.
Here’s what to do…
- Marinate your chicken overnight in the fridge. Most chicken instructions say three hours of marinating is sufficient. But I find it really benefits from sitting for a much longer time … at least 12 hours.
- Allow your marinated chicken to come to room temperature before you put it on the grill, about 2 hours. A too-sudden change in temperature creates tough meat. No chicken should EVER be cold when you start cooking it.
- Here’s a tip I learned from America’s Test Kitchen … ovens are generally hotter towards the back. This helps you be able to achieve even cooking by strategic placement. If you have a bunch of unevenly sized chicken wings, put the larger ones in the back and the smaller wings towards the front.
- Arrange your chicken wings only on one layer, do not overlap them and/or stack them.
- Flip your wings approximately every half hour.
- Be patient. You really can’t rush cooking good chicken. One rule of cooking is to never cook while you’re hungry, so just call a local restaurant and order yourself some delivery food.
Ingredients
- 12 whole chicken wings
- 1/2 cup Red Devil hot sauce
- juice of 3 limes
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- olive oil
Instructions
- Wash chicken wings thoroughly and transfer to a medium bowl.
- In small bowl stir together lime juice and hot sauce. Pour over chicken until evenly coated.
- Combine and stir dry ingredients in a separate bowl to create a spice rub.
- Add dry spice rub to coated chicken making sure all chicken parts are evenly coated and refrigerate.
- For best results let chicken sit in seasoning overnight, 3 hours at a minimum. Stir the wings occasionally while resting to assure even distribution of seasoning is happening. Be sure to remove wings from refrigerator one hour before cooking so they can come to room temperature.
- Line a shallow 13″ x 9″ pan with foil and brush with a light coat of olive oil. Arrange wings in pan so are not touching each other. If you’re doubling the recipe, you must fight the urge to cram more into the pan than can fit comfortably. They need room to breathe for successful cooking, so it’s well worth the investment to get a second pan.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping wings once after the first 15 minutes. Edges will begin to brown slightly.
- Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue cooking, flipping wings occasionally to assure even cooking happens. Continue baking until the wing sections effortlessly break apart, this will usually take about 2 more hours for medium-sized wings. If the wings are really large it may take up to 3 more hours. Be patient.
- Once the wings are falling apart easily, remove them from heat. Let wings sit for 20 minutes before serving.
Yield: 12 whole wings (24)
