Welcome to Parfait!(ish) Week – wherein I revisit some pretty darned tasty recipes from the past and, ermmm, adjust them a wee, tiny bit.
First up, Candy Apple Chicken Wings were a big hit when I first made them last year, but I wasn’t able to find the right kind of cinnamon candies called for in the original recipe and I always wondered if that would make a difference. I also tried (with popular results) replacing the candies with cinnamon whisky…
Then, I came across the candies called for, and thought I’d take another stab at it, adding a lightly seasoned flour coating to the wings before baking.
Yum.
Next time, I believe I will use the candies and the cinnamon whisky, but for now, these’ll more than do.
INGREDIENTS
Chicken:
•2 dozen or so chicken wing drumettes
•1/2 cup flour
•1 tsp seasoned salt
•1 tsp paprika
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•1/2 tsp ground ginger
Sauce:
•1 (18 oz) jar apple jelly
•1 cup Red Hots cinnamon candies
•3 tbsp butter
•3 tbsp hot sauce (I used 1 tbsp Earl’s and
2 tbsps Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Sauce)
Heat your oven to 325º and whisk the flour together with the seasonings and set aside.
Rinse the chicken wings, shaking off most of the excess water, and place in a gallon-sized zipper bag.
Add the seasoned flour and shake well to coat all of the chicken.
Apply a bit of cooking spray to a rack set into a foil-lined baking pan and add the chicken wings.
Bake the chicken for about an hour, then raise the oven temperature to 375º and bake for another 20 minutes.
While the chicken is baking, make the sauce by stirring the cinnamon candies together with the apple jelly, butter, and hot sauce(s) in a medium sauce pan over moderate heat.
You won’t need to stir the pan constantly, but every couple of minutes or so while the jelly and the candies melt.
Note: as the candies melt, there’ll be a kindofa gummy residue in the pan. Fret not, continue cooking the sauce and use a whisk to blend it all together. This is the bit that will take a bit of time, plan on about an hour for the sauce to really come together – coincidentally about the same time it’ll take to bake the chicken wings.
Sauce and chicken wings (almost) ready, remove the chicken from the oven and toss with the sauce to coat in a large bowl.
Place the sauce-coated wings back on the rack and then back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
TaDa! TASTY candy apple chicken wings that need nothing else but mebbe some napkins.
Ermmm, and next time, that cinnamon whisky…