Ginger and Maple Glazed Chicken Wings

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chicken wing garnished with scallion

The humble chicken wing is so cheap—and so satisfying.

(And, come on: What self-respecting carnivore doesn’t like to gnaw a little meat off the bone every once in a while?)

one chicken wing

Chicken wings are easy to make in the oven. You can bake a pan in under an hour (try 40 minutes). And because they’re on the bone, they’re harder to dry out.

All good reasons to put them on your weeknight menu.

These chicken wings are hot, spicy, and sweet.

They get a subtle heat from Aleppo chili flakes (totally my favorite, if you haven’t tried ’em) and a  generous amount of ground ginger.

Maple syrup and orange juice provide sweetness and tang.

Sesame oil and hoisin sauce round them out with good, earthy undertones.

A few notes on ingredients.

Use real maple syrup

Not “pancake syrup,” which is mostly sugar and artificial maple flavor.

It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should be the real deal.

Pure maple syrup

What is hoisin sauce, anyway?

Good question. Hoisin sauce is a common Chinese dipping sauce.

It’s made from fermented soybean paste, garlic, red chilis, and sweet potato.

I like Lee Kum Kee brand, which is pretty easy to find in major markets around Boston. (If you can’t find it near you, Amazon sells it here.)

Hoisin Sauce

It’s salty, sweet, and earthy all at once—and is a great way to add lot of flavor to a dish with very little effort.

Because it has plenty of salt, don’t add any extra salt to the wings until you taste them.

spoonful of hoisin sauce

Food safety, chicken, and reusing marinade as basting liquid

Alrighty, I know a lot of you probably know this. But in case you don’t, here’s the deal with raw chicken and marinades.

The minute you put raw chicken into your marinade, the marinade gets raw chicken cooties.

All of it. Every last bit of it.

Now, if you cook the chicken in the marinade from the start, that’s just fine.

chicken wing on pan

What’s NOT safe is to take the leftover marinade that the chicken was sitting in, and baste your bird with it as it cooks.

You run the risk of getting sick from the chicken juice in the marinade if it doesn’t cook through (that’s cross contamination at its finest).

How do you get around that?

Before you marinate the chicken, reserve about a quarter of a cup of the marinade. Pour the rest of it over the chicken.

Baste the chicken with the quarter cup of marinade that you saved.

Your chicken will have a beautiful glaze on it—and you won’t poison your friends. Everybody wins.

The same principle applies to any marinade that you put on raw meat. Just save a little before you contaminate it.

How many chicken wings will serve four people?

Count on about 4 wings per person, or about half a pound of wings.

You do the math based on how meaty the wings are and how hungry your dinner crew is.

As a general rule, I usually say that 4 pounds of wings will serve about 8 as an appetizer, or 4 as a main course.

Ginger & Maple Glazed Chicken Wings

3 Tbls. ground ginger
1 Tbls. ground garlic
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 tsp. Aleppo chili flakes
4 lbs. chicken wings
2-3 green onions, sliced, for garnish

Serves about 8 as an appetizer, or about 4 for dinner

Make the marinade for the chicken wings

Put the ginger and garlic in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk them together.

Spice mixture for chicken wings

Pour the maple syrup into the spices.

Maple syup and spices

Add the hoisin sauce.

(Scrape out the measuring cup with a spatula so you get it all. It’s sticky stuff.)

hoisin sauce, maple syrup, and spices

Pour in the orange juice.

Orange juice and maple syrup mixture

Add the sesame oil.

whisk the maple ginger marinade

(For sesame oil, I like Kadoya brand best.)

kadoya sesame oil

Toss in the Aleppo chili flakes. If you don’t have any Aleppo (wonderful Turkish pepper, Penzey’s sells it), you can totally substitute regular red pepper flakes.

If you do this, though, cut the amount in half.

California crushed red pepper is about twice as hot as Aleppo chili flakes.

aleppi chili flakes

Whisk the marinade together. It may take a minute to incorporate all the maple syrup.

When it’s uniform in consistency, taste it and make sure you like it. If you think it needs something (more pepper, etc.), correct the seasoning until you’re happy.

Reserve some marinade for basting

Measure out about a quarter of a cup of the marinade.

Set it aside to baste the chicken as it cooks. (See food safety note above.)

reserve a little marinade

Marinate the chicken wings

The longer the wings marinate, the more flavor will penetrate into the wings.

If you have time, let them soak overnight. If you don’t, they’ll still be really good if you make them right away.

A quick note on chicken wing tips.
They can burn slightly in the oven because they’re so thin.

This doesn’t bother me one bit. The rest of the chicken tastes great, and I don’t know anyone who eats the very tippy tips of the wings.

If this bothers you, whack the tips off with a cleaver before proceeding.

Put the chicken wings in a gallon-size zip-top bag.

bag of chicken wings

Pour in the marinade.

pour the marinade over the chicken wings

Seal the bag up and smoosh the chicken around to distribute the marinade.

If you have time to marinate them, pop it in the fridge. If not, to the ovens!

marinated chicken wings

Bake the chicken wings

When you’re ready to make your wings, line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. (Double line it, if you want super easy clean up.)

Fish the chicken wings out of the bag. Let the wings drip a little.

You want them to have some marinade on them, but not be swimming in it. Too much marinade, and they’ll sort of steam—and won’t get crispy.

Arrange them on the pan. (If they won’t all fit, just use an extra pan.)

pan of chicken wings

Pop the pan into your preheated, 400-degree oven.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Pull the pan out of the oven.

Brush each wing with some of the reserved marinade. Pop the pan back into the oven for another 20 minutes.

And…voila! They should look about like this.

cooked chicken wings

Serve and enjoy!

Serve the wings hot or at room temp, garnished with green onion.

close up of chicken wing

Nutrition

Calories

260 cal

Fat

8 g

Carbs

15 g

Protein

31 g
Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Serves About 8 as an appetizer

Ginger and Maple Glazed Chicken Wings

The humble chicken wing is so cheap—and so satisfying. These chicken wings are hot, spicy, and sweet. They get a subtle heat from Aleppo chili flakes (totally my favorite, if you haven't tried 'em) and a generous amount of ground ginger. Maple syrup and orange juice provide sweetness and tang. Sesame oil and hoisin sauce round them out with good, earthy undertones.

Save RecipeSave Recipe

Ingredients

3 Tbls. ground ginger
1 Tbls. ground garlic
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 tsp. Aleppo chili flakes
4 lbs. chicken wings
2-3 green onions, sliced, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Make the marinade: Put the ginger, garlic, maple syrup, hoisin, orange juice, sesame oil, and chili flakes into a medium sized bowl and whisk together until uniform.
  2. Reserve some marinade for basting: Measure out about a quarter of a cup of the marinade. Set it aside to baste the chicken as it cooks.
  3. Put the chicken wings in a gallon-size zip-top bag. Pour in the marinade. Seal the bag up and smoosh the chicken around to distribute the marinade. If you have time to marinate them, pop it in the fridge. If not, to the ovens!
  4. When you're ready to make your wings, line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.
  5. Fish the chicken wings out of the bag. Let the wings drip a little. You want them to have some marinade on them, but not be swimming in it. Too much marinade, and they'll sort of steam—and won't get crispy. Arrange them on the pan. (If they won't all fit, just use an extra pan.)
  6. Pop the pan into your preheated, 400-degree oven. Bake for about 20 minutes.
  7. Pull the pan out of the oven. Brush each wing with some of the reserved marinade.
  8. Pop the pan back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
  9. Serve the wings hot or at room temp, garnished with green onion. Enjoy!
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https://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/02/24/ginger-and-maple-glazed-chicken-wings/

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Jessie Cross is a cookbook author and creator of The Hungry Mouse, a monster online food blog w/500+ recipes. When she's not shopping for cheese or baking pies, Jessie works as an advertising copywriter in Boston. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband and two small, fluffy wolves.

10 COMMENTS

  1. I kind of want to make these on an oven rack on a sheet pan so the bottoms can get crispy, too. These look soooo goooood, and now I am hungry. Unfortunately, it's 9:10 PM, which is not eating time for me! Also, thanks for posting the chicken reminder! I am always hella panicky around raw meats, in part because I have had food poisoning before, more because I don't want to give it to others.
  2. I'm so glad that I'm not the only person who bakes her chicken wings! I love to do that, because it's so easy and requires minimal input. I am definitely going to give this recipe a whirl the next time I make wings, though. Nice one, Mouse.
  3. I was looking for a little something to bring to a large house party, so I tried your wings using the smaller pre-cut wing/drumettes. I marinated them overnight and when they were done cooking they looked great and had awesome layers of flavor! A keeper, as my wife would say. It looked like I lost a fair amount of the Aleppo pepper taking the chicken out of the marinade so I added some to the 1/4 cup I retained. Since I like it a little spicier, next time I'll sprinkle some more directly on the chicken after I baste them, if needed. Thanks for recipie!!
  4. Just found your blog on Twitter.. LOVE IT!! Great recipe we love wings at our house! I think I am going to make these on Sunday for a get together Thanks for sharing!!

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