These chicken wings, cooked on the grill or under the broiler, are very flavorful. Don’t let the photos fool you that they’re burnt; you’ll want that flavorful char on them from all the brushed-on marinade.
Ancho chilis work well for this recipe because of their mild, smokey flavor. They provide a little heat for the marinade without overpowering the honey. If you do want more heat, you could try an árbol chili, or something similar.
Note that if you use square or round skewers, you’ll want to use two in parallel for each set of skewered wings. Because my skewers are relatively flat, I could get away with using a single skewer without the wings rotating. Also, due to the wing’s longer cooking time, wooden skewers wouldn’t work for this recipe because they’d burn up, no matter how long you pre-soak them.
I recommend using wing flats for this recipe, but you could also include drumettes if you note they’ll need a longer cooking time.
What you’ll need
- 1 dried ancho chili, cut into medium pieces. Retain the seeds.
- 2 garlic cloves
- 150g (about 0.5 cups) honey
- 2T white-wine vinegar
- Dash each of salt and pepper
- However many chicken wings you want to make
What to do
Put the chili into a medium bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water on it. Set it aside to cool before reserving about 0.33 cups of the water and draining the rest. Be careful to retain the seeds, too.
Place the chili, reserved chili-water, garlic, honey, vinegar and salt and pepper into a food processor or small blender and pulse until you have a smooth paste. Put the chicken wings into a bowl and add a few tablespoons of the honey/chili mixture, stirring them to coat. Reserve the rest of the marinade for brushing on the wings as they cook.
Prepare your grill or broiler. If grilling, ensure your grates are clean and oiled. If broiling, line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and place cooking racks on top. Spray the racks with cooking spray to prevent sticking.
While your grill or broiler’s heating up, thread 4 or 5 wings onto each skewer or pair of skewers. You could brush on a light coat of oil to the wings, if you wish.
When you’re ready to cook, start cooking the wings and immediately brush on some of the marinade. Cooking time will vary by grill and broiler, but as a rule, turn the wings every 3 or so minutes and brush on more marinade. The marinade will start to char, which is what you want. Mine cooked in the broiler for about 12 minutes before they were ready. The wings should be cooked to at least 165 degrees internal temperature.
As an option, you could brush the wings with a coat of just honey before serving hot.
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