Chipotle Lime Chicken Wings

Prep time: 10 min • Cook time: 1 hr • Yield: 16-18 pieces

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds chicken wings
• ¼ cup ghee, melted
• ½ cup fresh lime juice (approximately 3-4 medium limes)
• 2 teaspoons lime zest (approximately 2 medium limes)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons chipotle in adobo (about ½ tablespoon chipotle and 1 ½ tablespoons sauce)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon coconut nectar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven.
2. Disjoint wings and cut into 3 pieces. Keep the tips for stock or discard.
3. Place wings on a sheet pan and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake wings for approximately 45 minutes until they are starting to turn golden.
5. While wings are baking mix remaining ingredients in a glass bowl.
6. Remove wings from oven, and while still warm, place in the bowl of marinade and mix well to coat wings. Marinade for at least 30 minutes or up to one hour at room temperature.
7. Preheat broiler to low, return wings to sheet pan, and broil for about 7 minutes, turning once, until wings are golden brown. If you prefer to finish the wings on the grill, heat grill to medium high and grill turning as needed for about 7 – 10 minutes. When you first put the wings on the grill, they may flame. Quickly move wing to another area to avoid over charring.
8.  Optionally, top with chopped cilantro and serve immediately.

Tips Chipotle in adobo is found in most grocery stores in the Hispanic section. It is a canned product containing chipotle chili peppers in a thick, rich sauce, adobo.

Notes Everyone’s taste for spicy hotness varies. If you want the wings hotter, use more chipotle in adobo. Taste the marinade as you mix it to adjust the heat.

Here’s a fun food fact: Chipotles are actually smoked jalapeño peppers. They impart a smoky, earthy spiciness to food. These jalapeño are not harvested until they turn very dark red and lose much of their moisture. They are then smoked in special smoker units for several days and stirred often allowing the smoke to penetrate the pepper.

At the end of the smoking process, the peppers have become brown and dried. At this point they can be used as they are, ground into a powder, or canned as chipotle in adobo which is a lightly seasoned sauce containing vinegar and paprika.  Adobo is a Spanish word meaning marinade, sauce, or seasoning.