These chicken wings are great to serve up at a large party, or as an appetizer for a medium-sized group. The wings are sauced after they have been partially cooked in the oven, and they finish baking in the oven with the spicy sweet & sour sauce. After the wings are done baking, they are garnished with toasted sesame seeds, scallions, and fresh cilantro.
One thing I like about this recipe is that it is easy to scale up or down, depending on your party size. If you want to double or triple the recipe, just make more sauce and bake more trays of wings!
Spicy Sweet & Sour Chicken Wings
These chicken wings are great to serve up at a large party, or as an appetizer for a medium-sized group. The wings are sauced after they have been partially cooked in the oven, and they finish baking in the oven with the spicy sweet & sour sauce. After the wings are done baking, they are garnished with toasted sesame seeds, scallions, and fresh cilantro. One thing I like about this recipe is that it is easy to scale up or down, depending on your party size. If you want to double or triple the recipe, just make more sauce and bake more trays of wings!
Ingredients
- 24 chicken wings, (or about 40oz)
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- ¼ cup cup salted butter, (melted)
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup sriracha
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- Zest of 1 lime
- Juice of 1 lime
- 3 Tbsp sesame seeds, (lightly toasted, as garnish)
- 3 scallions, (finely sliced, as garnish)
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, (finely sliced, as garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- In a shallow bowl, combine the kosher salt, cornstarch, ½ tsp onion powder, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp cayenne pepper, and the 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper and whisk until fully mixed.
- Place the chicken wings in the dry mixture, and toss to coat.
- Place a wire rack on top of a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.
- Lightly rub the rack with a small amount of vegetable oil, so the wings don’t stick as much to the rack while they bake.
- Shake off any excess spice mixture from the wings.
- Spread the wings out on the wire rack.
- Bake the wings in the oven at 425F until they are about 75% cooked, or roughly 15-20 minutes.
- While the wings are baking, prepare your spicy sweet and sour sauce.
- In a large-sized mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, water, cornstarch, honey, sriracha, soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, lime zest, and lime juice.
- *Use a larger-sized mixing bowl then you need here, as you will toss the partially cooked wings in this sauce before returning them to the oven to finish baking.
- Stir to fully combine all of the sauce ingredients.
- When the wings have about 5-7 minutes remaining left to cook, remove them from the oven and toss in a large bowl with the wing sauce.
- Return to the oven to bake from an additional 5-7 minutes, or until the wings are fully cooked and the sauce has begun to brown.
- Allow the wings to cool at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
- Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, finely-sliced scallions, and some fresh cilantro!
Notes
Make sure to serve these wings with some napkins.
I will often dry or wet brine my chicken wings if I have the time. For a simple dry brine, salt the wings lightly with kosher salt and allow them to sit in the fridge for a day or two before cooking them.
For a wet brine, combine ½ cup kosher salt and ¼ cup of white granulated sugar with about 1 quart of water until it tastes salty and sweet. Submerge the wings in the salty and sweet brine mixture for 8 hours before cooking.