These hot honey wings are some of the best chicken I’ve had in a very long time. They are so juicy and all sauced up it’s insane. The best way to describe how they taste is that they are sweet and slightly spicy. No buttermilk was involved-just a seasoned egg marinade and a seasoned flour coating- and these wings were still super crispy.
Making the wings
For this recipe, I recommend using split wings. I used eggs, salt, black pepper, garlic powder and ginger in the egg marinade. If you still prefer the buttermilk marinade, have a look at my fried buttermilk wings. The coating was equally simple-all-purpose flour, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning. If you want to use parsley flakes instead of Italian seasoning, that’s okay. Frying the wings is probably the hardest part of this entire recipe. The oil needs to be at least 350°F/175°C for this to be crispy and nice. Another great tip is to let the wings cool on a wire rack as opposed to paper towels. This is because the paper towels create moisture beneath the wings so it might dampen the coating. A wire rack also doesn’t trap any excess oil from your fried goodies. Start letting your fried foods cool on a wire rack and see the major difference in crispiness.
The hot honey sauce
The hot honey sauce is just a combination of honey and crushed red pepper. Crushed pepper is not to be confused with chili flakes. I like this article by Kitchen Substitute which breaks down the differences between the two spices. You just need to bring it to a slight boil for about 5 minutes, and let it rest, uncovered for about 15-30 minutes. The longer you leave your hot honey to cool, the better it tastes I think. Leaving the sauce to cool is also better for the wings because it will not make the coating as soggy. I added in vinegar and chopped green onion to the sauce but that is completely optional. Simply toss the wings a few batches at a time into the cooled hot honey and now you have hot honey wings.
You can serve these solo or with fried rice or fries. Check out my peri-peri wings if you want more equally delicious, saucy wings.
Ingredients
Wings marinade
1 kg/2lbs split chicken wings
4 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon black pepper or cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Coating
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon table salt
1 tablespoon black pepper or cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 cups oil to fry wings
Hot honey sauce
2 cups honey
3 tablespoons crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or other vinegar)
3 stalks green onion, chopped (optional but recommended)
Instructions
Wings
- Pour the marinade ingredients except the wings in a large bowl and whisk together.
- Add the wings to this bowl and you can refrigerate it for 1 hour if you want tastier wings but it is optional.
- Whisk the coating ingredients in another large mixing bowl.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan (I like to use my 10-inch cast-iron skillet) until the internal temperature reaches 350°F/175°C.
- Dip each marinated wing into the coating bowl and shake off any excess. Place a few batches of coated wings at a time on a plate as you go along.
- Deep fry a few wings at a time in the hot oil on high heat for 5 minutes on one side, and 4-5 minutes on the other side.
- Let the fried wings cool on a wire rack (see above for why it is better than paper towels).
Hot honey sauce
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, add the hot honey sauce ingredients and let it come to a slight boil (uncovered) for about 5-6 minutes.
- Once the sauce starts to bubble a lot (rise), turn off the heat and let it steep (soak) for a few minutes. The longer you leave it to soak, the better the sauce will taste.
- When the sauce has cooled, add the fried wings to the saucepan in batches until all the wings are coated in the sauce.
Notes
Leftovers taste okay for up to 2 days but be warned that the coating will definitely get wetter over time especially since these are tossed in a sauce.