Sweet and Sticky Sriracha Wings

This recipe has been in the making (see: trial and error stage) since November.  Last night, Chuck nailed it.  The first night he made was the first night I finally had an appetite after my great Thanksgiving sickness.  I inhaled them.  He says they were bland, he was disappointed.  I was starving and didn't pay much attention.  He did a re-do last month and it was great. But last night.  Last night they were perfect.

We had trouble finding chicken wings in Boise that weren't just ready to heat and serve or whole wings.  Chuck found whole wings in giant packages at the store we normally shop at and a more manageable serving size at the more expensive stores here in town.  After a couple of rounds of the more expensive wings, we bought the bulk size and froze them.  It worked great and they turned out to have a lot more meat on them.

Michigan State (Chuck's alma mater) had a basketball game last night.  For game night we decided to really go for it and eat wings for dinner.  Not just an appetizer like usual. I showed up in my Michigan State shirt and green socks, ready to cheer and eat some game day food. Veggie tray, sweet potato tater tots (yes, they exist, and yes, they are amazing), and chicken wings. 

Sweet & Sticky Sriracha Wings

Ingredients

     16       Full chicken wings (see the pictures, they are kind of big, you can definitely use 
                                                      less)
     4 oz.   Butter
     1         Orange, zest and juice
                Kosher salt
                Fresh ground pepper
     4 T     Sriracha hot sauce
     3 T     Honey
     1/2 t  Garlic powder
     1 T     Ancho chili powder
     1 T     Dijon mustard  

Directions

     1:     Place wings on a baking sheet that has been covered in non-stick foil.  Salt and 
                       pepper both sides  of the wings and set aside.

       2:     Add butter, 1t salt, 1T pepper, orange zest and juice, garlic powder, and ancho chili 
                       powder to a sauce pan and place over low heat to melt together.  Once melted,
                       add honey, Sriracha, and dijon mustard.

  
       3:     Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake wings for 20 minutes, flip each wing over and bake 
                       another 20 minutes.  Flip back, baste with sauce, let bake a couple of minutes 
                       and baste again. Tip from Chuck:  If you aren't making all 16 wings, you might 
                       have enough sauce to dip the wings in the sauce and return them to the oven 
                       insead of basting. Continue to cook for 10 minutes (total baking time of 50 
                       minutes).

Easy, huh?  Wouldn't be complete without something to dip them in, right?  We differed a little with our choices in that last night.  Chuck's pick is Lighthouse Chunky Bleu Cheese salad dressing.  Although I'm a lover of that dressing, it's made in my hometown and I easily ate my weight of it in high school (kind of like alfredo sauce), I wanted something a little lighter.  I lightened mine up by doing about 1/2 of the bleu cheese dressing and half non-fat plain Greek yogurt.  I think I would like the mix I made better than just dressing even if it weren't a lighter choice. 

Best part was that the bleu cheese dip was just as good on the sweet potato tater tots as it was on the chicken wings.