Southern Style Sweet and Hot Wings

Name: Southern Style Sweet and Hot Wings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons baking powder (NOT baking soda); 2 teaspoons sea salt; 1 ½ teaspoons garlic granules; 1 ½ teaspoons ground smoked paprika; 2 tablespoons avocado oil; 4 pounds dry chicken wingettes and drumettes; ½ cup hot sauce (Frank’s Redhot sauce or Cholula Original hot sauce); 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted; 6 tablespoons red pepper jelly, melted

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Once the holiday season is tucked away, resolutions have been made, Fantasy Football is nearing a crescendo and the football playoffs are at a fever pitch; it’s time for wings! Wing recipes abound but this one is worth putting on repeat. They are craveable, crunchy, saucy, multidimensional wings. You don’t have to be a sports fan to fall in love with these wings, you just have to like good food.

Let me walk you through simple steps for making the most lip-smackingly good hot wings with bold flavor and a bit of Southern twang, but first a few interesting facts.

Hot Wing Origin Story

The classic hot wing aka “Buffalo wing” originated in Buffalo, New York in 1964. The Anchor Bar and its co-owner at the time, are credited with its creation.
Before hot wings took off, chicken wings were one of the cheapest cuts and considered an undesirable byproduct used primarily for soups and stocks, if at all.
Football fueled the popularity of hot wings. They were highly marketed through out the 1980’s and 1990’s as the “perfect” communal and tailgating “game day” food. This popularity got a big boost thanks to the Buffalo Bill’s Super Bowl run of four consecutive appearances in January 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994.
The original sauce for Buffalo wings is a simple combination of only two ingredients: hot sauce and butter melted together.
National Chicken Wing Day is July 29th.

What Makes Them Southern Style

Pepper jelly! Pepper jelly is believed to have originated in Texas in the late 1970’s, the same decade as hot wing origination, further proving these two are a match made in tastebud heaven. All these years later, pepper jelly is widely used and synonymous with many parts of the South.

There are many types of pepper jelly with variations in heat and flavorings. My standard is red pepper jelly; however, I am always excited to swap out my standard when a good local pepper jelly crosses my path. I recently had a fantastic local pepper jelly made with jalapenos. Now, I’m trying to muster the courage to try a bit of the company’s ghost pepper jelly in my next batch of wings, but for this recipe I’ve stuck with standard bearer, perfectly delicious, red pepper jelly.

Six Tips for Crispy Baked Chicken Wings

Pat chicken wings as dry as possible. This helps remove surface moisture and encourages crisp baking instead of steaming.
Air dry chicken wings. Air dry wings uncovered on a baking sheet for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. This further dries the wings for a crunchier texture.
Coat chicken wings with baking powder. A pre-bake dusting of baking powder raises the PH of the chicken skin, helping to breakdown proteins for better fat rendering and browning, facilitating super crispy skin.
Bake wings on a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack. Baking wings on a wire rack circulates hot air for a more even bake and allows fat and juices to drain away from the wings preventing soggy bottoms.
Bake at high heat. Baking wings at high heat allows for quick evaporation of moisture and therefore drier, crispier skin.
Warm wing sauce. Warming wing sauce before tossing with hot chicken wings prevents a drastic temperature change on the surface of the wings, avoiding hot and cool extremes that cause steam and soften the crispness you worked hard to achieve.

Without further ado, let’s get to baking and eating!