These are the best wings I’ve ever made. Bright, sweet, spicy, they’re like the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend. The hot sauce itself is only 5 ingredients long and is so good you’ll want to have it on everything. Getting the wings cooked and crispy is secondary to this recipe, if you have a favorite method, such as the air fryer or just straight up deep frying them, you should use it, but this is dinner and chill, so we are going with oven baked, because that’s easiest.
How to make crispy wings in the oven
To get crispy wings in the oven, you generally want to dry them as much as possible, then toss them with baking powder (per the internet) or corn starch (per Asian people). I tried both the baking powder method and the corn starch method, and to be honest, they both taste the same to me. Steph on the other hand didn’t like the baking powder wings she made years ago and didn’t like these ones either, but loved the corn starch wings, so make of that what you will. The method is actually the same for either ingredient, so I’ve left both in, with a gentle recommendation for corn starch or whatever you have on hand. Either one will get you crisp, shattery oven baked wings.
How to cook wings in the oven
To get optimal wings, you can go low and slow at 325 for an hour, then broil them at 500 for the last few minutes to get a nice golden brown color, or be dinner and chill about it and just set your oven to 425 for 40 minutes, flipping once.
How to make pineapple habanero hot sauce
This is the easiest hot sauce you’ll ever make. It’s almost all-season version that uses canned pineapples. If you live in a major city, you shouldn’t have any problems finding a mango and habanero peppers even in winter. This sauce is addictively good and just the right thickness without needing any thickening agents (due to the mango).
You’ll notice it says 6-8 habanero peppers (I used 7), you want enough to get the habanero flavor in, but not so much that you are dying from heat. 6-7 was a good number for us. When I developed this recipe, it actually tasted a lot better with half a can of pineapple and no sugar than 1 can of pineapple and a little sugar to balance out the tartness, but it was just too spicy to enjoy. If you are a spice head, try the recipe with no sugar and half a can of pineapple.
If you’ve never cut a mango before, my preferred method is to peel it with a vegetable peeler, then use your knife to cut straight down until you hit the pit. Follow the pit and slice off fillets until you have nothing left.
One last note: straining the sauce through a fine mesh sieve will make the wings look better and the sauce look more professional, but won’t do anything for you taste wise. The lead photo is unstrained sauce. The bottom photo is strained.
Tips and tricks for the best oven baked wings
Follow these tips and tricks to get the best oven baked hot wings:
1. Let the wings sit on the counter after you’ve come home from the store (or while you’re waiting for the oven to heat up) so they cook more evenly
2. Dry your wings with paper towels as much as you can before shaking with cornstarch or baking powder
3. Shake the wings with an actual ziplock bag if you have one, not a bowl, so you get an even coating
4. Look for smaller wings, they’ll be tastier and crispier
5. Let the wings rest for 5-10 minutes before tossing in sauce, or better yet, serve them on the rack and just dip into the sauce, you’ll get more flavor and crunch.
What do you need?
A blender and a baking sheet with a rack that fits.
How do you serve this?
Serve these wings with a small dish of extra sauce for dipping. Steph and I straight up demolished 2lbs of these wings on their own in 5 minutes flat.
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 1 tbsp baking powder or cornstarch see notes
- 6-8 habanero peppers
- 1 can pineapple 13.5oz
- 1 small mango
- juice of 1 lime
- 1.5 tbsp sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF. Pat dry your wings and optionally season with salt. Toss your wings in cornstarch or baking powder, then arrange on a single layer on a rack over a foil covered baking sheet
- Bake the wings for 40-50 minutes, turning after 30 minutes.
- While the wings are baking, make the sauce by seeding, then blending the habenero, pineapple, mango, and lime juice until smooth.
- Transfer the sauce to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and temper with the sugar if you find the sauce too tart.
- Toss the wings in sauce, then enjoy immediately.
Instead of either/or on the cornstarch/backing powder, can you use both to get the best qualities of both?