Baked Honey Sriracha Wings

Today, I bare my soul to you and the entire internetting world so that my top hits list will forever be etched into the mysterious coding language of the blogging world. It's still all a mystery to me, but as long as I can blog and get my love for food out there, I'll let it remain magical and mysterious. For reals though my top five hits list (2-5+honorable mentions are interchangable on any given day and fall on and off the list):

1. The Divine
2. The Mister
3. my crazy kiddos
4. food/this blog/my ?/you guys (okay, so that's actually a few things)
5. sriracha sauce 

honorable mentions:

• my sister and her convincing ways to get me to do the craziest things possible
• my bed because glorious sleep
• my gym membership (more love/hate than just solidly love)

Why am I telling you about this? Because, did you notice #5? I ? sriracha sauce. As in when I heard about a potential shortage of sriracha, I went to Target (and pretty much every other store I could) and cleaned off their shelves. Yes, I'm that crazy hoarder you hear about on the nightly news. And guys, I rationed that sauce like my life depended on it. I would silently pray and breathe a sigh of relief when the Little Diva would ask for something else besides eggs with sriracha for breakfast. She has almost that same love for spice that I do...ALMOST. In fact, she asks for spicy eggs and potatoes and the sauce on these twice baked potatoes.

And while I love sriracha, I do not love wings. You're probably thinking 'Who is this weirdo and why is she telling all of these offensive things like her disdain for wings?!' It's true though; I do not feel the love for chicken wings. Wings, whenever I eat them, leave me with an I-ate-all-that-fried-stuff-and-it-wasn't-even-worth-it feeling. They're traditionally breaded and then deep fried. But it all changed for me when I started baking my wings naked. Naked as in no heavy breading/flour coating; just plain wings with some salt and spice, broiled to perfection.

These chicken wings, or drumettes, are in their most simplest form and then they're tossed with a sweet and spicy glaze made of two very easy to find ingredients: sriracha and honey. That's all that's in the sauce. At first, I was thinking about what else to add but then I decided, why complicate a fantabulous thing? Sometimes, less is more and simplicity makes for the most flavorful food.

Speaking of simplicity, these wings have very little hands on time and are almost impossible to mess up. All you're doing is:

• marinating (or cooking immediately) chicken wings with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder
• baking then broiling said wings to crisp up the skin
• tossing the wings in a saucepan with sriracha sauce and honey and cooking until the sauce thickens and adheres to the chicken
• eating until you can't eat any more

The honey sriracha sauce is so complex, which is pretty amazing given that it's made with two amazingly simple ingredients. It has a ton of heat which is partially muted by the sweetness of the honey; still, there is plenty of heat and is a spice-lover's paradise.  The skin becomes crispy after broiling so you get crunch as you bite into the chicken, and even with the heat, you just want to lick all that amazing sauce off your fingers.  With the crispy skin, you won't miss the heavy coating or the oil. I actually licked the tongs after I finished plating the wings. True story.

An important note: you'll want to line your baking sheet/pan with aluminum foil and spray it generously with cooking spray or a nice coating of oil to prevent the wings from sticking. But stick they will. I line my baking sheets with silicone baking mats, which are worth their weight in gold. They prevent food from sticking to the pan and ruining my baking sheets. I have a few different sets: one for sweet treats, one for savory foods, and one for roasting vegetables. If you don't have these mats, parchment paper will work as an-in-a-pinch-alternative but be very careful because it will burn under the broiler if left too long or too close. Technically, parchment paper is only supposed to be safe in the oven until 400 degrees but I've been able to use it under the broiler, as long as I watch constantly.

These wings are also perfect for football day finger food when served with this chili. In fact, the honey sriracha wings went almost as fast as I set them out during my superbowl party and my guests prefered them to the traditional buffalo wings that were also on the table.

On second thought, why wait until football season? Just make them now! And don't forget to rate and review this recipe and tagging me on IG @mannaandspice.

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