Oven Baked Chicken Wings Recipes for Your Party

One of my favorite finger foods and appetizer are chicken wings.  Usually when I go for chicken wings the little boogers are fried, and while I love fried food sometimes things can be made healthier with little to no change in the amount of flavor.  I worked out a couple of chicken wings recipes that are baked instead of fried, and they taste great.  Anytime I have made them for a party, whether it is at my house or to a party thrown by someone else, there are no leftovers.  None.  These baked chicken wings are devoured!

One of these is a classic style Buffalo chicken wing with a unique twist that keeps everyone coming back for more.  The second is a teriyaki style chicken wing recipe that gets eaten up like candy.  I like to make them together, but my favorite is the Buffalo style chicken wings.  You try them and decide which is the best.

Okay, the first one is the Buffalo-style Hot Wings:

Whenever I cook, I usually don't bother following quantities to a tee, so this is just what I
use as a guide. Since I often buy a lot of wings to make significant quantity, I usually adjust up or down depending on what I have and what I need to make.

The ingredients you will need are:

20 wings -- Split and discard the tips, but you can leave whole if you prefer, especially if grilling instead of baking

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup red pepper sauce (I use Frank's brand) -- You are better off getting a cayenne based sauce such as Frank's as the flavor is superior to Tabasco.

3/4 cup tomato sauce -- canned is fine

1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder -- even more is fine as this and the tomato sauce give the chicken wings a unique flavor compared to traditional Buffalo-style chicken wings recipes

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper -- less if you don't like them too spicy, but I usually
add more as I like fiery wings.

1. Preheat your oven to 375^o.

2. Bake chicken wings in the preheated oven 30 minutes or until cooked through and
crispy (up to 45 minutes). The best way to tell if chicken is done is to poke it with a knife or fork and if juices run out clear instead of cloudy or bloody, the meat is done.

3. While wings cook, mix together in a bowl the melted butter, hot sauce, tomato
sauce, chili powder, and cayenne pepper.

4. After the wings are done dip them in sauce to coat well. I usually just throw in five or so at a time and make sure they are fully coated. Then remove them and shake off the excess sauce. 5.Return the coated chicken wings to your baking pan. Reduce the oven temperature to 250^o and bake them for another 15 minutes to set the sauce.

6. Serve baked chicken wings with your favorite dipping sauce. I use bleu cheese dressing.

OPTIONAL: I usually like to marinate chicken before cooking, so you can
brine it or soak it in a half hot sauce and half vinegar mixture for at
least 4 hours. This is not absolutely necessary, though, as the chicken wings will
taste good either way. For instructions on brining meat, go see my hub on the subject. There is no better way to keep chicken moist.

Next up is the Party Wings Teriyaki style:

24 wings -- Split and the tips discarded, but you can leave them whole if preferred.

1 1/2 cups soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons garlic powder

Optional: I often add green onion or chives and 1 or 2 tablespoons of ground ginger.

1. Combine all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together, emulsifying the mustard. Set aside 1/4 cup or your marinade for basting. Cover it and refrigerate until baking begins on the wings.

2. Put the chicken wings into a large ziplock bag. You can also use a shallow bowl, but I prefer bags for marinading. Pour the marinade over the chicken wings. Make sure to turn and mix around to coat wings well and ensure good immersion in marinading solution. Place the bag into the refrigerator and leave overnight or for at least 8 hours.

3. Preheat your oven to 375^o

4. Drain the chicken wings and discard the used marinade

5. Place the wings in a single layer on shallow baking pan

6. Bake the chicken wings uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour. Let them bake untouched for the first 25 minutes. After this you will then brush them every 5-10 minutes with marinade mixture you had reserved. You may need to turn wings and play with them, since these can burn due to the sugar in the marinade. These also have a tendency to stick to metal pans if they are not the nonstick kind, so be careful not to tear them up when moving around on the pan.

That's it! Enjoy your awesome baked chicken wings!