Melt Your Face Off Spicy Asian Baked Chicken Wings
These are insanely delicious chicken wings. I got my inspiration for these Melt Your Face Off Spicy Asian Baked Chicken Wings from the movie Big Hero 6.
We are big time movie buffs at my house, especially when it comes to suphero movies. We can't get enough of them. My daughters still being a bit young for some of the darker, more adult Marvel and DC films, got super excited when Big Hero 6 came out. A superhero comic book based movie geared toward their age group. We saw it opening weekend.
There is so much food involved with this movie and names of food throughout it. The movie short that plays before Big Hero 6 is called "Feast" and I considered doing recipes based on that but there were way too many to choose from. Plus with all the food and food names in Big Hero 6 I decided to have some fun with a play on words for these recipes here. I am a huge fan of different Asian cuisines and with Big Hero 6 being based in fictional San Fransokyo there were many Asian themes throughout. I loved the play on words with the city name and the animation of the city scenes in the film are stunning.
In the movie Hero's Aunt Cass makes him dinner one night and she tells him she made her famous "Melt Your Face Off Wings". I knew I wanted to make baked chicken wings for this post and figure out how to make them so they would melt your face off. I bought 3 lbs of wings. I went with the whole wing route as they were $2 a pound less than ones that were fully butchered into drumettes and wings. All I did was cut the wing tip off. Rinsed and dried and placed them in my new favorite giant stainless bowl. I LOVE huge kitchen prep bowls and this one is beyond awesome. I can thaw a whole chicken in it and still have room!
These wings have three levels of spice. There is spice added to the wings before they are baked. There is spice in the sauce and a spice drizzled over the top. While they don't technically melt your face off, they are spicy and so good. I discovered this spice years ago when I was making homemade spicy tuna rolls. I had been doing some research on the spices used and this was one. Its been a staple in my pantry ever since. Its an awesome spicy spice and I knew it would be perfect for these spicy Asian baked chicken wings.
Ready for the oven. Also after more internet research I discovered many recipes for baked chicken wings - SUPER CRISPY - baked chicken wings called for baking powder. It helps draw the moisture out. I was already planning on dusting the wings with rice flour so I made it a 50/50 mix of rice flour and baking powder. These came out so super crispy and without any of the added fat from deep frying. Win!!
Seriously crispy.
So we have "melt your face off" in honor of Aunt Cass from the movie and I added in a wasabi cream sauce because one of the main characters nicknames is Wasabi. I really wanted to name the whole recipe "Aunt Cass's Melt Your Face off Spicy Asian Baked Chicken wings with Wasabi Cream Sauce" but google goes nuts when you name your recipes with 85 words or more. So a super long name for a really delicious, crispy, spicy, crunchy, sticky, sweet and finger licking good Asian baked chicken wings recipe. Make them. I know you will love. And if you want more spice double up on all the spicy ingredients, extra wasabi sauce and make sure you have a pitcher of water near by to douse the flames.
Melt Your Face Off Spicy Asian Baked Chicken Wings
Ingredients
For the chicken wings
- 3-4 lbs Chicken wings
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoon rice flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 teaspoon Nanami Togarachi Spice
- Olive Oil
For the Sauce
- 3 tablespoon Soy sauce
- 3 teaspoon Sesame oil
- ¾ c Sake
- ½ C Sweet Chili Sauce
- 2 - 4 tablespoon Chili Garlic Sauce
- ¼ c Rice Wine Vinegar
- ⅓ c Mirin
- 1 tablespoon Minced Ginger
- ½ c Honey
- ½ c Water
- 1 tablespoon Corn Starch
Garnish
- Wasabi Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
- ⅓ c Diced Green Onion
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken wings. Preheat oven to 425 Deg F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place an oven proof cooling rack on the sheet. Lightly spray with oil. Cut the wing tips off off the chicken wings, rinse and pat dry ( You can separate the drumette from the wing if desired - I left these together). Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the baking powder, rice flour, salt, pepper and togarachi spice. Toss well to combine. Set onto the baking sheet, making sure they’re not touching, sprinkle a little more togarachi spice on top of the wings if desired. Lightly spray with olive oil spray and bake for 60 minutes. At the 30 min mark, turn the wings over and lightly spray with oil again. At the 50 min mark turn the wings over again. At 60 minutes they should be golden brown and super crispy. Remove from oven and let cool for 2 minutes before coating in sauce.
Make the sauce.
- While the chicken wings are baking, make the sauce. Combine all the sauce ingredients except for the corn starch and water and bring to a simmer. Taste and add more honey if sweeter is desired, chili garlic sauce if spicier is desired or soy sauce if you want to go more salty. Let simmer until reduced and starting to thicken. Combine the corn starch and water and stir well. Add to the sauce and stir until the sauce is thickened. Keep on low heat, stirring occasionally until the wings are ready.
- Place the baked wings in a large bowl, pour sauce over the top and toss well to coat evenly. You want lots of sauce. Place on a serving dish and top with sesame seeds, sliced green onion and drizzle the wasabi sauce over the top. Serve immediately.
- Notes: You can buy packs of wings that are already butchered into wings and drumettes or you can buy the whole wing. Trimming off the wing tip is optional - I prefer to since there is no edible meat in it and it tends to burn when baked.
Notes
YUM!
Bri says
Hi Shanna,
Do you think bone-in chicken thighs could be used in this recipe?
Shanna says
I think they can be but the cooking time will be longer and not sure what that would be since I have only made these as wings. Let me know if you make them with the thighs and how they come out!
Ryan says
Yum these look excellent and love the photos! I love spicy wings so I will definitely have to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing!