Sometimes I have a stroke of genius in the kitchen, and I daresay this was one of them. I had defrosted some chicken wings and drumsticks for dinner but was undecided how to make them, so I opened my cabinets for inspiration. I saw the molasses, and it hit me: what about using molasses and ginger on my chicken, like the main flavors in gingersnap cookies? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.
I ended up using the typical flavorings from those delicious, chewy cookies to make a glaze for my chicken. I first crisped the pieces in the oven, then added the glaze and baked them a bit longer. The result was sweet, sticky, super flavorful wings and drumsticks that my kids proclaimed were “the best chicken you’ve made recently.”
This recipe is great for many different diets- it is gluten free, dairy free, allergy friendly- free of the top 8 allergens if using coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. And since it is using chicken wings, which is generally the cheapest part of the chicken (I just bought them for 50 cents a pound) it is pretty frugal. You can also use thighs for this, but I don’t know how white meat chicken would stand up in this recipe.
I definitely recommend you try this one.
Ingredients
- 2 packages chicken wings ot drumsticks or a mix
- A generous amount of onion powder
- A generous amount of garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper
- A splash of oil
Glaze
- 1/2 cup molasses
- Heaping 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 5 cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Sprinkle chicken wings and/or drumsticks with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. No specific measurements, just put enough on that if that was all you’d put on the chicken, it would be flavorful enough to eat.
- Put the chicken in a flat layer in a baking pan to allow it to crisp up.
- Cook at 350 until starting to crisp, then pour off the liquid, flip over the chicken, and cook until browned. If you see any liquid showing up, pour it off. Save this liquid, it makes a good base for soup.
- In a saucepan, combine all glaze ingredients.
- Heat on medium until the sugar dissolves, then reduce to low and simmer until the glaze thickens enough that it is syrupy, but make sure to watch it so it doesn’t burn.
- Toss the crispy wings in the glaze until coated. (Make sure not to include the few cloves.)
- Return wings to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
- Serve hot.
- Enjoy!
Are you a fan of gingersnaps? How about molasses? How does the sound of combining those flavors with chicken sound to you? Does this look like a recipe you’d try?
