Sweet and Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through one of these links, Penguins in Pink will receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

What’s better than chicken wings? Sweet and Spicy Baked Chicken Wings!

Why baked instead of fried? Good question! I LOVE chicken wings, but all the deep fried goodness of traditional wings does not sit well with me anymore. Plus, most wings are breaded which means loaded with gluten and I don’t like that either.

We leave our wings naked instead of breaded. Smothered in my sweet and spicy sauce and baked in the oven makes for a delicious dinner that is lighter (and lower calorie) than traditional wings.

Frank’s Hot sauce would work on these wings, but I always use Tijuana Flats’ Hot Sauce. For those of you not familiar with Tijuana Flats, it is a locally-started Tex-Mex chain that has some colorful names for their sauces. 😉 For this recipe I used Tijuana Flats’ “Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally” Habanero Sauce.

I love the flavor of the habanero sauce on the wings. The sweet and spicy sauce gives a nice, slow burn thanks to the combination of the honey and habanero hot sauce.

Sweet and Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• 1-2 oz habanero hot sauce (or more if you like)
• 1/4 cup honey (agave would work also)
• 3 tbsp butter melted
• 3 lbs chicken wings

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Line pan with parchment paper.
3. Bake for 25 minutes flip wings over.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 180 degrees.
5. While chicken wings are baking combine hot sauce, honey, and melted butter in a large bowl.
6. Working in batches, place chicken wings in bowl with sweet and spice sauce.
7. Toss or stir gently until coated.
8. Remove wings and place on a serving platter. Repeat with remaining wings.

These wings are perfect when dunked in ranch dressing or smothered in my personal favorite: blue cheese dressing. I like to serve my sweet and spicy baked chicken wings with carrot and celery sticks.

While the adults love the sweet spiciness of these wings, we don’t give them to the girls. For the girls, I make a simple honey-butter sauce.

Honey-Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP melted butter

Directions:

1. Combine honey and melted butter.
2. Toss over a few wings.

The girls love their honey-butter wings, but Doodles has been sneaking pieces of our sweet and spicy wings recently. It won’t be long before she is asking for the spicy wings!

How do you like your chicken wings? Do you enjoy a nice, slow burn of sweet and spicy wings? Or do you prefer a non-spicy taste like honey-butter, bbq, or teriyaki?

Have a blessed day!
Brandi
This post may or may not contain referral links. Please read my disclosure policy here.