Sticky red onion marmalade chicken wings

If one can use the word “sophisticated” for chicken wings, these fit the bill. Sticky, tangy and a little bit sweet, the complex flavors of the marmalade make these wings a great first act to a multi-course dinner. You can make the marmalade up to a week before. Once that’s done, the recipe is quick and easy.

Unlike my recipe for Buffalo wings, these are baked rather than fried. Frying gives you crispy wings, which are great, but it’s best done just before tossing them in a sauce and serving them right away.

For this recipe, simply season and roast the wings in the oven as you would a whole chicken, before coating them with the marmalade. Then continue to bake them, basting with more marmalade, until the wings are beautifully glazed.

Unlike Buffalo wings, which go from spicy to call the fire department, these are, as written, not hot. Add as much Aleppo pepper to the marmalade as you’d like, or even add a dash or two of Tabasco if that’s the way you want to go.

You can put them in the oven up to an hour before you want to serve them and they’ll be waiting for you, biding their time and keeping warm.

Is it polite to lick your fingers at a fancy dinner? When these come to the table, I say yes. Of course, you could have finger bowls and little towels at the ready for each guest. You do you!

Sticky red onion marmalade chicken wings 

For the Red Onion Marmalade

The trick to making this marmalade is to go low and slow. You want to cook it down until it’s a thick, sticky tangle.

This will keep in the fridge for a week.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons fruity extra-virgin olive oil, such as Kirkland Italian

• 2 large red onions, thinly sliced

• cold water as needed

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 large clove of garlic, minced

• 3 tablespoons orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed

• ½ teaspoon orange zest

• ½ teaspoon herbs de Provence

• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

• ¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or more to taste. (You can use red pepper flakes, but Aleppo pepper is a bit milder and more flavorful.)

• kosher salt and pepper to taste

• Warm the oil in a skillet. Add the sliced onions to the pan with a light sprinkling of salt and 2 tablespoons of cold water. Cover the pan and let the onions cook until they’re soft and beginning to caramelize.

• Remove the cover and add a few more tablespoons of water. Continue to cook the onions, stirring often, until the water is evaporated and a golden brown fond develops on the pan.

• Add a few more tablespoons of water to the pan. Cook, stirring and scraping up all the fond from the bottom. That golden goodness will be transferred to your onions.

• When the water evaporates and a fond develops again, repeat the process. Again, add a few more tablespoons of water to the pan and cook, stirring and scraping up all the fond from the bottom.

• Add another 2 tablespoons of water, this time with the sugar, the orange juice, the zest, the garlic, the herbs de Provence, the Aleppo pepper, the balsamic vinegar, and a few grinds of the pepper mill. Cover the pan and cook the onions over low heat until they’re a deep mahogany color, lifting the cover from time to time to stir.  

• Taste for salt and add as needed.

• Then, remove the cover and cook the red onion marmalade, stirring constantly, until it’s thick and sticky.

• Allow to cool and store in the fridge in a covered jar.

For the wings

Ingredients:

Measurements are only a guide. I don’t measure; I just sprinkle.

• 2-3 pounds Chicken Wings, drums and flats separated and wing tips removed

• A bit of good olive oil, as needed.

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

• Red Onion Marmalade

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 400°.

• Rub the wings very lightly with olive oil so that they’re just nicely coated. You don’t want them swimming in oil.

• Sprinkle them all, on both sides, with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika.

• Set an oven-safe cooling rack onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put the wings on the rack, in a single layer. You may need to use two pans. (The rack will assure even baking, top and bottom)

• Bake the wings for 15 minutes.

• Remove the pans from the oven, turn all the wings over, and generously coat them with the Red Onion Marmalade. A pastry brush is the best way to go.

• Return the pans to the oven and bake for 5 minutes more.

• Once again, turn the wings. Coat them with more marmalade and return them to the oven for another 5 minutes.

• Remove them from the oven. Let the wings cool a bit so that you can handle them. Transfer them from the rack to the parchment-lined sheet and coat them heavily with more of the marmalade. Spread them out over the parchment and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes.

• Then turn the oven off and let them stay there until you’re ready to serve them. If you haven’t used it all up, serve the remaining marmalade with the wings.