Gluten Free Szechuan Wings

If you like spicy food and chicken wings, you will love this recipe.  I first tried this dish at our school's International Student Dinner.  I liked it so much, I asked my friend Arlene for the recipe. Thankfully, she said I could share it with you.  I added a little honey to the recipe because I like my wings to be spicy and sweet.  

I purchased this bottle of San-J Gluten Free Szechuan Hot & Spicy Marinade at Whole Foods.  The bottle suggests shaking it before using. 

When I bought wings in bulk at Costco, I had no clue what I was getting myself into.  All you could see through the packaging was what I think of when I picture chicken wings.  I detest touching raw chicken and now I was confronted with the challenge of cutting up these funky chicken wings with all of their pieces parts! I gave up after trying to cut them with a knife.  Later on, I had the idea to use my kitchen shears, which worked beautifully.  Phew!

In the end, I had nicely separated wings and drumettes, and I learned something new.  This dish was a little too spicy for my daughters, but my husband and I loved our dinner!  

Szechuan Wings

Ingredients

2 to 3 pounds of chicken wings

1/2 C gluten free Szechuan sauce

1 lemon

2 to 3 tablespoons of honey

3 cloves of garlic -- minced

Herbamare seasoning, kosher salt, and coarse ground black pepper -- to taste

Directions

Combine the Szechuan Sauce, juice of one lemon, honey, and garlic in a large glass baking dish.  Add the wings and sprinkle with herbamare, salt, and pepper.  Turn the wings around in the marinade before putting them in the refrigerator.  Marinate the wings for at least 30 minutes, but no more than 4 hours, turning them about half way through.  

Remove the wings from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cook the wings for 25 minutes, then turn them over to cook for another 20 minutes.  Switch your oven to broil, brown the top of the wings, turn them, then brown the other side.  Watch the wings closely to make sure they don't burn. They will only need to be under the broiler for about 3 minutes on each side.  

I had no clue what Herbamare was until I went shopping to make this recipe.  I found it in the herb and spice section at Whole Foods.  Herbamare is an Asian blend of sea salt, eggplant, leek, zucchini, carrots, lemon, onions, chives, parsley, curry, chili, garlic, fennel, bay leaves, and kelp!  The container I purchased says it is gluten and MSG free, non GMO, and organic.