Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Servings: Serves 4 people

If they are not crispy, chicken wings can be a big disappointment.  I never cared for them until I tried a recipe that involved baking them in high heat for almost an hour.  Wow, what a difference.  Most of the fat is rendered, leaving crispy skin and tender meat.  Wings are now my son’s yearly request for his birthday dinner and we are always game for trying new sauces.

Runamok Consiglieri, Curt Alpeter is all about wings and developed this sauce using the Cardamom Infused Maple for the sweet counterpart to the heat of Texas Pete’s. Curt is from Ohio which is near enough to Buffalo, New York that we are going to allow that he is a wing expert by proxy.  He has related to me that the chopped scallions and cilantro are key.  Another popular variation is Sugarmaker’s Cut pure maple and Siracha. I did not include measurements because it should be a little-of-dis, little-of-dat kind of dish.

Ingredients

  • Chicken wings

  • Vegetable oil

  • Salt and pepper

  • Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce or Sriracha

  • Runamok Sugarmaker’s Cut pure maple or Cardamom Infused Maple Syrup 

  • Butter, softened

  • splash of soy sauce

  • Fresh cilantro, chopped

  • Scallions, chopped

Instructions

  • 1 Preheat oven to 400. 
  • 2 Place wings in a sturdy pan, making sure there is enough room for a single layer.  Drizzle just a tad of vegetable oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper. 
  • 3 Place in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven, flip the wings over, and return to the oven. 
  • 4 Bake until crispy and brown, about another 20 – 30 minutes.
  • 5 In the meantime find a bowl large enough to hold all the wings.  Add equal amounts of hot sauce, maple syrup, and butter.  If you are cooking a few pounds of chicken, try 1/4 cup of each.  Then add a tablespoon of soy sauce. Combine with a fork, mashing up the butter and blending it.  Don’t worry if the butter leaves chunks, it will melt when you add the hot wings.
  • 6 When the wings are fully brown and crisp, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and put in the bowl with the sauce.  Toss until coated
  • 7 Top with scallions and cilantro and serve immediately with plenty of napkins.