sriracha honey baked chicken wings

I just spent my 3rd weekend in Rochester. This was weird given that I’ve lived here since June. I’ve been escaping to camp, or Baltimore, or home all summer.

I subbed a Body Pump class on Saturday- that’s right, finally found a job teaching! I legitimately stalked the group fitness director at a gym like 20 minutes from my apartment, going so far as to request that they put a note with my phone number on her locker. As my mom would say, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil!” It was a success. They gave me (wait for it) the class at 5:30 AM on Mondays. I bet all the other instructors were fighting over that time slot.

It’s not so bad though. I think it sets a good tone for the week in terms of getting up to work out, because usually Monday mornings are the hardest to get out of bed. But since I HAVE to be there, I get there. I’m really looking forward to the winter months when I’ll have to wake up at about 4 AM to shovel the snow off my car and crack the ice on the wind shield and navigate the snowy roads in order to get there on time.

Didn’t you hear? Apparently I didn’t move to Western NY, I moved to Greenland.

Weekend highlights also included visiting the Rochester Public Market, which is amazing. I didn’t buy anything because I was pretty overwhelmed. Just took in the sights- I’ll be back for sure. I finished another t-shirt quilt for a Baltimore friend on Saturday night. Then I made these chicken wings on Sunday so that I could go over to a friend’s house (read: my only friend in Rochester) for football. I showed up in a Ray Lewis jersey to hang out with a bunch of Bills fans, so I figured chicken wings were a good way to get in the door.

Sriracha Honey Baked Chicken Wings

4-5 lbs chicken wings or drumsticks

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sriracha- your own, or from a bottle

2 tbs honey

juice and zest of 1-2 limes

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1-2 scallions, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt it aggressively. Add the chicken in, and allow it to return to a boil, then cook for 2-3 minutes.

Place the wings on a wire rack to drip dry, then pat them dry with a paper towel. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. Turn them over, and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes. The skin should be pretty crispy.

While they’re baking, combine the mayo, sriracha, honey, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Toss the wings in the sauce. At this point, you can refrigerate the wings if you’re making them ahead of time. Otherwise, place the wings back on the wire rack (with a baking sheet underneath to catch any sauce drips) and stick them back in the 450 degree oven for another 5 minutes or so to caramelize the sauce.

Top with chopped scallions, and serve! You can use this cooking method for any wing sauce you like. My drumsticks were pretty hefty- you may be able to lessen the cooking time a little if you’re using wings because they have less meat on them.

This is a pretty high maintenance way to make chicken wings. Your other option is to skip all the boiling, baking, and basting- and just fry them.