HOT HONEY AND BAKED WINGS FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

Hot Honey has recently been one of those culinary buzz words being bandied about in recipes on television cooking shows, etc. While I found the idea of honey seasoned with peppers appealing and intriguing, I did not find the prices to be the same . Hubby likes wings very much and so I thought some baked chicken drumettes as part of our New Year's Eve fare would be good with some hot honey - or in our case so not so hot honey.

Infusing honey with  jalapeño etc. could not be easier.  There are several ways to do this, one way is to use dried peppers and leave the chopped dried peppers in the honey or to strain them out.  Depending on the heat level you desire, there are many different peppers to use - you want heat - use a Scotch bonnet. I prefer the wings to have a little heat but not so much that it takes your head off and the heat is so much you cannot taste the food.  I chose to use a  jalapeño .  I only used one this first time but next time I will use one and a half peppers.

Since I did not plan on straining the honey I chose to cut the  jalapeño in half and scoop out the membrane and the seeds. A little demitasse spoon worked perfectly to scoop out the seeds. BE SURE AND WASH YOUR HANDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER HANDLING THE PEPPERS WITH COLD WATER TO GET THE HEAT OFF THE HANDS. I make  jalapeño mustard and the jalapeños have to be ground and I not only wear gloves but a face mask.

Once you have the seeds out just slice the pepper. When measuring sticky things (honey, corn syrup, molasses) I use one of the non-stick sprays in the measuring device and the sticky item will plop right out into the pan.

The 12oz Miller's Honey was equal to one cup and all you do is add your pepper source and let it infuse while in a double boiler. The price for the Miller's was less than $4.

Make a label for any clean jar and add your infused honey.

Hot Honey Recipe

Ingredients

Makes about 1 cup

• 2–4 hot peppers (such as Fresno, Holland, jalapeño or Thai), thinly sliced
• 1 cup honey

Bring 2 peppers and honey to a bare simmer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Reduce heat to low and let cook 1 hour to infuse. Taste honey and adjust heat with another pepper or 2, remove from stove, and let sit 30 minutes. Transfer to a small jar, straining if desired.I removed the peppers. I do not want my honey to be too hot or someone to bite down on a very hot seed, etc. Personal preference.

Hot Honey Teriyaki-ginger Sauce Recipe

• 1/4 tsp bottled ground ginger
• 1 large garlic cloves, grated
• ¼ cup hot honey
• 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/8 cup water

 To make the teriyaki-ginger sauce take 1/4 cup of the hot honey that you have already made and add the above ingredients and place in a sauce pan and let it just simmer a bit on the stove - do not boil - just let it simmer. No need to strain.

Wash and pat dry your wings (I use the drumettes only). Place 2T oil into a large Ziploc bag and add salt and pepper.  Place the wings into the bag and shake, making sure all of the wings are covered with the oil.

Place the wings into a pre-heated 400° oven for about 40-45 minutes.  Take them out of the oven and using tongs to handle the hot wings, coat them with your desired hot honey.

They will look like this coming out of the oven, ready to coat with the sauce.

Coat them with sauce and back into the oven for about 8-10 more minutes.

Once out of the oven (again using tongs) brush the wings with some of your sauce.

It is also easy to just place the wings into a bowl with the sauce and brush them.

Serve with some homemade buttermilk ranch dressing or your favorite dip for wings.

Cooks Note:  This is really very easy to do and you do not in anyway miss the deep frying of the wings.  My "test pilot" (err, that would be hubby) liked the jalapeño hot honey hands down over the plain hot honey so when I make these for New Year's Eve it will be strictly the jalapeño hot honey wings.

Resource

Ground ginger, grocery and speciality stores

Recipe modified from Bon Appetit

Baking mat, Link

Label for jar, Martha Stewart, Staples

Font on jar label, Cambria 14pt.

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