Crispy Mango-Habanero Wings

Name: Crispy Mango-Habanero Wings
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: Habanero peppers (seeds removed, see notes for recommendations on amount based on desired heat level); 1-inch ginger root knob (peeled); 3 garlic cloves; ½ cup mango chunks; ½ cup white wine vinegar; ½ cup water; ½ teaspoon salt; 4-5 pounds whole chicken wings (thawed); Salt; 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder; Ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing (optional); Celery and carrot sticks (optional)

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No party is complete without a big tray of these crispy mango-habanero wings! Chicken wings are baked until they’re perfectly crispy and then tossed with a homemade mango-habanero hot sauce for that sweet and spicy kick everyone loves. Whether you’re hosting game day, a casual backyard barbecue or a holiday party, these spicy wings are always a hit.

The mango-habanero wings on a wooden plate with brown parchment paper with cilantro sprinkled around them.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Serving Ideas
How to Store, Reheat and Freeze Leftover Wings
Recipe FAQs
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

That sweet and spicy wing sauce: You’ll love how this homemade mango-habanero sauce has a kick of heat, but it’s not so overwhelming that you can’t taste the sweetness of the mango. Plus, you can make a double batch and use the leftovers as your own homemade hot sauce — it’s great on my salmon tacos and Jamaican jerk pork shoulder. Who doesn’t love two recipes in one?

Perfectly crispy skin without frying: Thanks to a tried and true technique from Cook’s Illustrated, we get super crispy chicken wings in the oven that rival the deep fryer.

A guaranteed party favorite for all occasions: Obviously, this is great for tailgating and your Super Bowl party, but don’t just save them for your next game day. This is the perfect appetizer to keep in your back pocket for those times you need a crowd-pleasing, reliable recipe. In fact, I just served these wings for our annual New Year’s Eve party, and they were met with rave reviews as they flew off the appetizer platter.

Make-ahead preparation: Since we’re making a homemade hot sauce, the vinegar acts as a preservative, so the sauce should hold up for a few weeks. We also dry brine the wings, so all we have to do is toss them with our coating and pop them in the oven before guests arrive.

Related: If you love this recipe, make sure you also try my smoked turkey wings and mango-habanero salsa.

Ingredients

Chicken wings: For best results, we want to get whole wings and trim them ourselves. Those pre-packaged party wings tend to be scrawny. For plump, meaty wings, it’s worth taking a few minutes to trim them, and we’ll walk through the process to show you how easy it is.

Baking powder: Sounds weird? I promise it’s not. This is the secret ingredient that gives us that crispy skin even in the oven. The baking powder helps bring out the moisture from the skin, resulting in more browning.

Habaneros: The exact amount will depend on your desired heat level, but this recipe calls for anywhere from one to five fresh habanero peppers.

Mango: You can use fresh or frozen mango chunks. Frozen fruit goes into the freezer at peak ripeness, so it’s an especially good option if only hard, unripe mangoes are available.

Ginger: This is for the mango-habanero wing sauce, and it adds another layer of warm spice. You’ll love how it complements the fruit and peppers.

White wine vinegar: We use this to give our hot sauce that delightful acidic kick. White wine vinegar is my favorite for hot sauce, but you could substitute apple cider vinegar if need be.

Step-by-Step Instructions

How to Make Mango-Habanero Wing Sauce

Step 1: We begin by adding the fresh mango, spicy habanero peppers, ginger, garlic, water, white wine vinegar and salt to a small saucepan. Over medium-high heat, we bring the mixture to a boil (photo 1), and then cover the pan and reduce the heat to keep it at a simmer.

The hot sauce ingredients simmering in a small stainless steel saucepan on the stove.

Step 2: After simmering the sauce ingredients for 20 minutes, we pour the mixture into a blender and process until smooth (photo 2). A food processor also works. Our spicy sauce is now ready.

The mango hot sauce in a blender on a brown wooden surface after it's been blended until smooth.

How to Make Chicken Wings

Step 1: The first step is to trim the chicken wings. For this, we trim off the wing tip (photo 3).

A butcher knife slicing off the wing tip on a brown wooden cutting board.

We then locate the knob-like bone at the bottom of the drumette (photo 4) and cut right under that bone to separate the wing into two pieces (photo 5).

A finger pointing to the bone between the drumette and flat to show where to cut.

A butcher knife cutting the drummette and flat into two separate pieces on a brown wooden cutting board.

Step 2: Now we sprinkle the chicken wing skin with salt (photo 6) and let them sit in the refrigerator uncovered for about eight hours to dry brine.

The dry brining process extracts the moisture from the skin and meat. As the chicken sits, the meat reabsorbs the salt. This makes the meat juicier and more flavorful while drying out the skin to give us a crispier texture.

You can skip this step if you don’t have time, but I recommend trying to plan ahead to ensure you can fit this process into your schedule. I like to take care of this first thing in the morning, and then the wings will be perfectly dry brined by dinner time.

The chicken wings after they've been separated on a brown wooden cutting board with salt sprinkled all over them.

Step 3: After dry brining, we remove the chicken from the refrigerator and coat the wings with the baking powder (photo 7). You can simply toss the wings with the baking powder in a large bowl, or you can add the ingredients to a sealable bag or storage container with a lid and shake well.

The chicken pieces in a large glass mixing bowl after they've been coated with baking powder.

Step 4: Now we place the chicken wings in a single layer on a wire rack inside a baking sheet (photo 8). To keep the wings from sticking, I recommend greasing the rack with some cooking spray. You can even line the baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean-up if you'd like.

For the first baking phase, we cook the chicken in a 250-degree F oven for 30 minutes. This low heat helps render the fat to help us achieve that crispy texture. We then raise the heat to 425 degrees F and bake again for 40-50 minutes. This opposite blast of high heat also works to give us crispy skin. We’re all about texture here — no gummy skin for us.

The chicken pieces on a gold wire rack on top of a baking sheet before they go in the oven.

Step 5: When the wings reach an internal temperature of 175 degrees F, we’re ready to pull them from the oven. Wings are safe to eat at 165 degrees F, but they benefit from a little extra cooking to help break down that collagen.

Now we toss those crispy wings in our sauce so that they’re well-coated (photo 9). Like the baking powder, you can toss them in a mixing bowl or shake them in a bag — your choice.

The chicken pieces in a large glass mixing bowl after they've been coated with the mango-habanero wing sauce.

That’s everything! If you'd like, you can give them a quick squeeze of lime juice and sprinkling of fresh cilantro. Our mango habanero hot wings are ready to devour.

Note: I outlined the process for baking wings because it’s the most popular preparation method for home cooks. That said, you can also air fry, deep fry or grill these wings.

Serving Ideas

Of course, a side of blue cheese or ranch dressing as a dipping sauce is a must. Not only are these dressings delicious but the dairy also helps cut the heat. Celery sticks and carrots are also classic accompaniments.

But we don’t have to stop there. Here are some other snacks and side dishes to serve with these spicy chicken wings to complete your party spread.

And don’t forget to have side plates for those bones as well as plenty of napkins or wet wipes on hand. Eating wings can get a bit sticky and messy quickly.

How to Store, Reheat and Freeze Leftover Wings

While I find wings are at their best and crispiest immediately after cooking, you can certainly reheat them for a snack. Hey, we don’t want those leftovers to go to waste. Here’s how we reheat those wings.

Before storing, let them cool completely and keep them in an airtight container for up to three to four days.
When you’re ready to reheat, let the chicken wings sit at room temperature for 15-30 minutes to take off the chill.
Place the wings on that greased baking rack again.
Spritz them with water — this helps the chicken stay moist while reheating.
Bake them for about five minutes in a 350-degree F oven, flip and bake for another five minutes. They should be good to go, but you can give them another couple minutes if need be. The wings are done when they come to 165 degrees F.

For freezing, here’s how to do it.

Like above, allow the wings to cool completely. Place the wings in a freezer bag and lay flat.
Freeze for three to six months. After that, they won’t taste as fresh.
Thaw by leaving the wings in the refrigerator for 24 hours. You can speed up the process by keeping the sealed bag in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator.
Cook as directed above.

Recipe FAQs

Are habaneros spicy?

Yes, habaneros pack a spicy punch. On the Scoville scale, which measures the heat of chile peppers, habaneros fall in the extra-hot zone with a rating of 100,000-350,000 Scoville heat units. In addition to their kick, these spicy little peppers have a fruity flavor that makes them great with mango, peach, pineapple and other tropical fruits.

As such, even the mild version of this sauce has noticeable heat and a subtle burn. If you can’t stand any spicy food, this may not be the sauce for you.

Can you use other types of chicken?

Absolutely, it’s especially great on grilled chicken. Just brush it on after cooking and you have a wonderful mango grilled chicken. This hot sauce goes the distance.

Do you have to dry brine the wings?

For best results, I recommend dry brining to get that extra crispy skin and more flavorful, juicy meat. That said, if you don’t have time, you can skip this step.

How many wings do you serve per person?

This depends on how you plan to serve them. Plan on four trimmed wings per person for an appetizer and eight trimmed wings per person as a main course. That’s the equivalent of two whole wings and four whole wings, respectively. This recipe calls for 4 to 5 pounds of chicken wings, which should give you about 16-20 whole wings.

An aerial view of the plate full of the mango-habanero wings with a cup of ranch dressing and cilantro to the left.

Expert Tips

Pat the wings well with a paper towel to remove extra moisture: We want the skin to be as dry as possible to get that crispy finish.

Let the wings sit at room temperature before cooking: This ensures a more even cooking process.

Use kitchen gloves when handling the habaneros: The pepper oils can burn your skin and eyes if you touch them, so use caution and keep them protected.

Don’t overcrowd the baking sheet: They need space to crisp up, so make sure the wings don’t touch while baking.

Double check that you use baking powder, not baking soda: The two are not interchangeable. Baking soda will give your chicken a metallic flavor.

Perfect Pairing

A pilsner is a great option if you’d like a palate cleanser to counter the spice. On the opposite side, an IPA is a popular option with wings if you’d like to accentuate the heat.

If you want a great wine pairing, try a gewürztraminer. This wine offers a sweet touch to cool the heat. You’ll also love the tropical fruit backbone to complement the mango and ginger.

Of course, what’s a party without cocktails? To play up that tropical flavor, sip on my mango mojito and jalapeño-mango margarita.

You’ll want to serve these mango-habanero chicken wings at every party. With that fruity mango, spicy peppers, crispy skin and juicy meat, it doesn’t get better than these wings.

Cheers!

A hand dipping a mango-habanero wing into a white cup filled with ranch dressing and a bundle of cilantro behind it.

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