Honey Mustard Chicken Wings

I had some of the kids over for Shabbat and wanted something that picky eaters would enjoy. Luckily, my butcher shop sends me Whatsapp notices when he has a sale and to my pleasure, he had chicken wings. I LOVE chicken wings but HATE cleaning them and he promised me that these would be clean and they were! Yay, go me. I got two packages to test drive them so to speak, and discovered that they were not only cleaned but wingtips cut off and cut in half so that was a nice surprise. A note, you can use whole chicken wings, no prob but it was nice to have that little perk.

So I wanted a quick and easy recipe with few ingredients (picky eaters, remember, too fancy, no eating) and I always try to use things easy to hand in your fridge or pantry. A little side note. Normally, DH doesn’t want chicken wings for Shabbat (not elegant enough, I do hear that but I love ’em) but with this crew he was all go with it. Judging by the huge piles of bones on all the plates, (including his) this was an enormous hit and I might try to sneak this in again for Shabbat, I’ll let you know if I dare. 😉

So gather your ingredients and prepare for happy munching.

Preheat the oven to 425 F/220 C.

Another little note – don’t use clumpy honey for this, use runny honey which stirs up easily. Generally, if your honey crystallizes just zap in microwave a coupla minutes or let sit in a hot water bath (the jar) till runny but there are some honeys that are like churned honey – don’t use those. K. Place the soy sauce, honey, mustard and chopped garlic (fresh, jarred or crushed frozen) in a bowl together.

Stir ’em up till honey incorporates and mostly smooth.

Now place your chicken wings in a row, nice skin side up on foil lined rimmed baking trays.

And DO NOT brush with sauce yet, no no no. The thing here is that the sauce with honey will cause your wings to burn if you brush it on too early in the cooking process and give you aggro when all you are dreaming of is chowing down. So first we roast them for a bit more than half the cooking time before brushing with the sauce. I don’t season my wings with salt since these are kosher chickens and already salted. Good, so place the wings in the hot oven and time them for about 25 minutes or till starting to brown like so:

They are not cooked through. K. Now carefully drain any of the juices which may have accumulated off the foil. If need be, hold the wings on tray with a spatula so the little devils don’t slide off. Now take your patiently waiting sauce and brush nicely on the wings. You are not brushing all over, only on the tops. This also prevents the wings from sticking to the foil.

Another note. I do not double the sauce for dipping. The reason is that once you brush the sauce onto raw wings, you’d contaminate remaining sauce for dipping. So if you want extra sauce to dip the finished cooked wings in, stir up a separate batch in a separate bowl and warm together in microwave or on stovetop till it just comes to a simmer. Personally, I feel they are saucy enough as is, but go with your mood.

Pop your wings into the oven again and roast about 20 or so minutes more, checking carefully at the end to make sure they don’t burn. Once deep mahogany brown, they should be cooked through. Remove promptly from oven. Btw, I reheated these as well and they are delish that way too. This can be served as a first course or as part of a main course, just depends how generous you are with the wings. Serve with plenty of napkins.

Honey Mustard Chicken Wings

4 tablespoons runny honey (not the churned kind)

4 tablespoons mustard – I prefer brown or deli mustard

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon crushed garlic

2 kilos or 4.4 pounds chicken wings

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F/220 C.

Mix together honey, mustard, soy sauce and crushed garlic to make sauce for brushing on wings. Set aside and do not brush on wings yet!!

Place tin foil on rimmed baking sheets. For this amount of wings you will need two baking trays. Bake wings without sauce!!! on foil covered trays for approximately 25 minutes. Remove wings from oven and carefully drain off juices. Brush well with sauce on tops of wings (don’t brush on bottom or wings will stick to foil). Place back in oven and continue baking for about 20-25 more minutes until deep golden brown and crispy. Watch carefully for last 5 minutes to make sure they don’t burn. Serve hot with lots of napkins.