We love chicken wings. Like the most. Ever. Of anything. We spent two years living abroad as Peace Corps volunteers. During that time, we yearned for many American foods. The one that we craved most: chicken wings. Of course, they had chickens there, and those chickens had wings. Romanian cuisine, despite its many splendors, offers nothing akin to a spicy buffalo wing.
We’ve been stateside for nine years, and we’ve eaten a ton of wings. More than our share. Far more. So, we are now rationing our intake. It’s important to us that our pants fit. We’d hate to buy new pants because pants are expensive and we prefer the ones we have.
Desperation sparks innovation. Is that a saying? It should be a saying. Anyway, we’ve begun developing healthier chicken wing recipes. Our other may quibble with how healthy these recipes are. But, hey, there’s no deep frying or buttermilk ranch dressing.
Our electric pressure cooker, an Instant Pot, serves as key to the operation. It condenses hours of work into mere minutes. It infuses the chicken to its bone with bold flavor. It develops a rich, layered sauce. If you didn’t know better, you’d think someone had toiled all day braising this chicken. But, no, it takes about 20 minutes total.
Honey Garlic Sriracha Chicken Wings in the Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- Five tablespoons of butter
- Two pounds of chicken wings
- 3/4 cup of chicken stock
Sauce
- Four tablespoons of honey
- Three cloves of garlic, pressed
- two tablespoons of sriracha
- One tablespoon of red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce
Seasoning
- Two tablespoons of garlic powder
- One tablespoon of kosher salt
- One tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon of paprika
Directions
In a small bowl, mix honey, pressed garlic, soy sauce and red flakes (“sauce”). Set aside. In a large bowl, mix garlic powder, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and paprika (“seasoning”). Toss wings in seasoning to coat.
Turn pressure cooker to saute function. Add butter. When hot, brown wings on both sides.
Turn pressure cooker off. Remove wings. Add chicken stock. Return wings. Pour sauce evenly over wings. Cook on high for 9 minutes. Release pressure. Remove wings.
If the sauce needs thickened, use the saute function to reduce it and/or add corn starch.
We served our garlic sriracha chicken wings over Royal Blend rice from Rice Select and with a wild greens and quinoa salad from Eat Smart.
