We love chicken wings in our house. I mean, really, who doesn’t? And after spending so much money on them in restaurants I now continue to make them fresh at home. This way I will know exactly what ingredients are used and I prefer to bake them, rather than frying,  in my oven on convection roast. (I have a convection option on my oven) The flavors are endless. From the old standby “buffalo” flavor to the unique flavors of garlic/parmesan to teriyaki. I keep experimenting.

I used to buy the giant frozen bag of cooked buffalo chicken wings and go from there. Realizing they were almost as expensive as eating them in a restaurant I then moved onto the giant bags of frozen uncooked wings. Still too pricey and the wings they used in these bags are what we started calling mutant wings. Most of them were either too small or the machines that cut them severed the bones leaving too many sharp edges and mutant looking wing pieces. Searching the supermarkets for fresh wings became my next challenge. Have you ever priced fresh chicken wings? They can be very expensive as well. $3.99/lb and up in most places. We found a few stores would have sales at $2.99/lb which wasn’t bad but still not good enough for my budget. And then grocery gods smiled upon us and opened an Aldi store in my neighborhood. There was much rejoicing when I saw the prices of their fresh chicken wings. $1.99/lb! At that price, I now buy two packages. Each package usually has about 10 wings, uncut, which comes out to 20 when I cut them myself. So for about $5-$7 we get 20 wings! (and yes, I leave the wing tips on as well, gives you a little handle!) And an even better deal when they have a sale on them at $1.79/lb. I stock up big time! I live in south Florida so the prices may vary depending on where you live.

This recipe is a no sugar added teriyaki. We try to avoid sugars in foods if we can and I use sucralose as a substitute. But if you prefer, just use regular sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 fresh chicken wings, cut into 20 pieces
• Teriyaki sauce (recipe below)
• sesame seeds
• 2 scallions chopped

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to convection roast at 400ºF. (or bake)
• Place plain wings on large rimmed cookie sheet. (I use a ceramic cookie sheet so I don’t need foil or anything, but if using a regular cookie sheet use foil or spray pan as they may stick)
• Roast for about 20 minutes and turn wings over. Roast another 20 minutes.
• By now the wings should be crisping up pretty good, remove them to a large bowl and pour the teriyaki sauce all over them to make sure they’re coated completely.
• Return wings to the cookie sheet and roast another 5-10 minutes, watching they don’t burn with the sauce. 
• Remove from oven and sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions. 
• Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing and celery/carrot sticks.

Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sucralose (or sugar if you prefer)
• 1 teaspoon vegetable/canola oil
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1-2 cloves of garlic minced

Directions

Mix all ingredients together.