Fiesta Ranch Crispy Baked Wings

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Crispy chicken wings aren’t just for sports bars! Fiesta Ranch Crispy Baked Wings are super crispy and packed with flavor. Your house is the new popular sport bar!

We are big game day people here.  SportsCenter is the first thing on the television in the morning.  We watch football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and many more.  Both professional and college sports alike.  We have been known to spend hours at a local wing joint watching footballs games.

Of course, those wings are delicious.  However, they’re also fried.  And probably coated in all kinds of butter and fattening, cholesterol nightmares.   Even knowing all this, we still order too many wings and leave completely stuffed.

Wings are not difficult to make, really.  I mean, you coat them, or you don’t coat them, and then you cook them.  You can either bake them or deep fry them.  And then you coat them again.  That’s when you dig in and eat them.

I think most shy away from baking their wings because they don’t really know to get that crispy crunch that you get when you fry them.  However, you can get that crispy wing with your oven.  You don’t need one of those air fryers.  You just need an oven.  If you have a convection oven that’s even better.  But you don’t need that either.

I’m like you.  I was amazed and dazzled by the air fryer.  Really?  Super crispy food with no oil or fat?  How can that be?  Then I was talking to my mother about it.  She then went on to tell me that my step-dad was going to get one.  Of course, he doesn’t buy or do anything without researching it first.  He was reading about how it works and what it does.  It basically does the same thing as your oven.  High heat cooking with lots of air circulation.

I think it’s the last part that people seem to miss the mark on.  They will put it on a baking sheet and be disappointed that it’s not crispy.  The key is air circulation.  If the hot air doesn’t circulate around the whole wing, then it’s not going to be crispy.  If you’re lucky it will be crispy on one side and soggy on the other.

The key to crispy, Fiesta Ranch Crispy Baked Wings at home?  A roasting pan.  Seriously.  You can see that I’ve put my wings on a roasting pan.  That allows the hot air to circulate around the wing and cooking it to crispy perfection.  It’s a simple adjustment to the way you oven fry or bake.

It’s how I get all my oven fried or baked recipes to have a deliciously crisp outside and a tender, juicy inside.  You can’t look at these fish sliders and this eggplant parmesan and tell me it’s going to be soggy.  Then there’s the one other wing recipe I shared.  You can’t say they’re not crispy either!  And oh so full of delicious garlic and peri peri flavor.

 

 

Mmmmmm.  I should make those again.

This recipe came about because 1 – I wanted to make some more wings for my blog and 2 – I LOVE me some fiesta dip mix.  I discuss that in this post.  However, I don’t think I’ve shared as many recipes as I’ve made with this fabulous tasting dip mix.  At some point, I’m going to find a copy cat recipe and make it instead of buying it.

It’s not a spicy dip mix.  Yes, it does have that smoky chipotle flavor to it, but it’s not overly spicy.  If you want your wings to be a little more spicy, you could add some cayenne or chipotle chili powder.  Or, if you have it, ghost pepper powder!  Man.  Those things are way too spicy for me.

I’m a medium spicy person where I can feel a little heat, but it doesn’t last long and I can still taste food after having them.  With the ghost peppers, I can’t taste anything for long time.  They burn my mouth so bad that tasting anything is impossible until I either drink some milk or stop eating anything until the heat passes.

So, for those of you that can eat those no problem, more power to you!  I cannot do that.

See those extra crispy bits there?  That bit of caramelization in the edges?  That’s how you know these wings are super crispy and delicious.  If you lightly coat the wings like I did, then they will remain crispy.  If you like a little more sauce on your wings, that might make them less crispy.  But they will still be delicious.

You can see what type of set up I have for oven baking wings.  I have a sheet pan (that I coat with foil to catch the mess) and a basic roasting rack on top of that.  There’s a good inch of space between the wings and bottom of the pan.  This allows the hot air to wrap itself around the wing and make it crispy good.

That’s why a convection oven would be really great for this, too.  It circulates hot air around the oven as opposed to a regular oven with little to no air circulation.  Convection ovens would ensure that your wings are super crispy.

What’s your favorite wing recipe and flavors?

Football Food

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