Tender and Gooey Teriyaki Chicken Wings

This weekend I helped host a baby shower for my dear friend Clint and his wife Marisa, who is due at the end of February. The idea, thought up by our friend Heather, was to have a party focused on the father, sort of a bachelor party for a dad-to-be. Combining cutesy baby crap with men and beer… literally. Because we’re all starving artists, we couldn’t really swing a swanky bar or restaurant to host, so instead we used the game room in my building – free and cozy. Done. Heather took care of the invites and the decorations. She cleverly hung all sorts of male-oriented onesies (superheroes and such) and instructed all the guests to bring a six pack of beer and diapers. And because their baby is in fact a boy, he got to take home all of them to be used in the not-too-distant future. So resourceful.

As you might have guessed, my job was to provide food. To me, nothing says man party like chicken wings. I’m not gonna lie, I make some pretty damn good wings. Well, I should say my mom makes pretty damn good wings – I’ve just been making them for friends and parties for years. I use fresh chicken wings you find next to the breasts and thighs and such in the refrigerator section of your grocery story. Truth be told they are not cheap, particularly considering how many you have to make to feed a crowd. BUT this time of year with football season in full swing, they had huge family packs for 50% off. I was able to leave the grocery store with about 40 wings for less than $15. That is a steal. And remember these aren’t party wings or drummettes, these are full-on chicken wings, labeled “wings” on the package.

To make, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. One batch of sauce consists of: 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of white sugar, and 1.5 cups of dark brown sugar. You need one batch of sauce per dozen wings. I had three dozen, so I tripled the recipe. I combined everything in a large sauce pan, mixed well, and put it over medium high heat, stirring frequently until it JUST comes to a boil. Be careful as the sauce boils over REALLY fast. While this was cooking I arranged my wings in three disposable aluminum pans. You definitely need disposable since this sauce is way sticky – you do not want to have to clean it off your pans. I put about a dozen wings in each pan – you want to make sure they fit in an even layer, so you may wind up with a few less or a few more depending on the size of your pan. Once the sauce came to a boil I killed the heat and poured it over all the wings, using tongs to make sure every wing was coated. There should be a good pool of sauce at the bottom of each pan. Place them in the bottom half of your oven and bake for 1 hour. After an hour they will be brown, bubbly, and fall apart tender. It doesn’t get any better. I usually plan for two wings per person, but use your best judgement for your own party.

In addition to the wings, I made Sherri’s potato wedges, which you might remember from an earlier post. They went SUPER fast. Both items were smash hits and made for perfect snacking at an early afternoon party. Yum.

I’ll have all of you know that because I’m doing bootcamp, I didn’t eat a SINGLE one. Bootcamp update tomorrow!

TIP: try making these hot by adding a squirt of Sriracha in the sauce – mmmmm!!!! Happy Sunday!!