Honey Lime Chicken Wings

If you are new to Macaroni & Cheesecake you may not know that this is my absolute favorite time of year. You may expect the next thing I say to be that it's because of the cool, crisp air, the fall leaves & colors, and the pumpkin & apple flavors. Well all of that is true too...but it's really because it's FOOTBALL TIME!!! I am a HUGE NFL fan (Go Titans!) and I love college football too (Roll Tide!). So, in honor of the kickoff week for college football and the upcoming kickoff for the NFL season I decided to have my in-laws over & make some appetizers this past weekend.

In the near future I'll be sharing them all with you, but first up is these great honey lime wings I found at Joelen's Culinary Adventures. I love honey lime anything, so I knew I would love these. The wings had a wonderful light flavor and are great for any party! The method would also work great for any type of wing flavoring you would like to use too.

Honey Lime Chicken Wings
Source: Joelen's Culinary Adventures adapted from Guy Fieri

Ingredients:

For the Chicken:

3 pounds chicken wings/drummettes
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

3 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Sauce:
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

For the wings:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, set aside. In a large bowl add salt, pepper, garlic & olive oil. Whisk together. Add the wings and gently toss with your hands until the wings are fully coated. Bake for 30 minutes, until just cooked through.

For the sauce:
In a small bowl, add lime juice, honey, cumin, salt & pepper. Whisk to combine. Once you remove the wings from the oven, pour the sauce over wings while they are still warm & marinate them for at least 30 minutes, turning them occasionally to get fully coated.

Grilling the Wings:
Prehead your grill or your griddle on top of the oven. Using tongs, place wings from baking sheet to the grill or griddle & grill wings until the skin is nicely caramelized, approximately 10 minutes, turning every couple of minutes.

Cooking the Sauce:

After you remove the wings from the baking sheet, pour the remainig marinade from the baking sheet to a small pan & simmer until slightly thick, approximately 6-8 minutes.

After removing the wings from the grill, pour the thickened sauce over the wings & if desired, top with cilantro.