Spicy Chicken Wings and Roasted Mediterranean Style Vegetables

Paprika spiced roast chicken wings with assorted vegetables and garlic dip

This incredibly simple but equally tasty idea for serving chicken wings came to me just a few days ago when I was putting the finishing touches to a zucchini/courgette recipes page I was creating online. I had cooked the wings this way and served them simply with a (different) dip but determined to give this idea a try as soon as possible. It worked really well but I found it perhaps a little bit too much for one person so suggest you may want to make it a sharing platter for two.

Chopping chicken wings for roasting

Ingredients

12 chicken wings
Rapeseed or sunflower oil
Salt
White pepper
Paprika
14 ounce tray of mixed Mediterranean style roasting vegetables
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
6 ounce tub natural yoghurt
1 garlic clove, peeled and grated
4 basil leaves, rolled and shredded
Small basil sprig to garnish

Chicken wings are oiled and seasoned

Directions

Put your oven on to preheat to 210C/425F/Gas Mark 7.

Cut the bony tips off the wings and discard. Cut the main bodies of the wings in half at the joint.

Chicken wings ready to be roasted

Put the wings in to a large roasting tray and pour over a couple of tablespoons or so of oil. Season with salt, white pepper and paprika. Use your hands to mix all the oil and seasonings through the wings and be sure to arrange the wings thereafter in a single layer, skin sides up. Put the tray in to the hot oven for thirty minutes.

Mixed Mediterranean style vegetables are oiled and seasoned for roasting

 

Drizzle the vegetable with more oil and season with salt, pepper and the dried herbs. Again, use your hands to mix and ensure even coating. Put in to the oven also for half an hour.

Garlic and basil are added to plain yoghurt to make dip

Pour the yoghurt in to a mixing bowl and add the garlic and shredded basil. Stir well before adding to the centre of a serving platter like the one below or a separate dipping vessel.

Basil and garlic dip is plated

Take the wings from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes.

Roasted vegetables removed from the oven

Plate the chicken wings, take the vegetables from the oven and serve with the wings. You may wish to provide forks for dipping and eating the vegetables.

Chicken wings are plated around garlic and basil dip

Mexican Chicken Wings Fajitas Recipe

Fajita spiced chicken wings, peppers and salsa in tortilla wraps

Chicken fajitas is another popular chicken dish which is rarely made (if ever) with the meat from chicken wings. I'm not really sure where I got this idea from but it worked really well and like so many other chicken wings recipes, can easily be tweaked and adapted in any number of ways, perhaps simply by varying the spice mixture.

Fajita seasoning spice and chicken wings

Ingredients Per Serving of 2 Wraps

4 whole chicken wings
2 teaspoons Mexican fajita seasoning mix
Vegetable oil for roasting tray plus two tablespoons for stir frying
1 medium tomato
2 inch piece of cucumber
1 garlic clove
4 basil leaves, rolled and finely sliced
Generous pinch chilli powder
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Handful mixed sliced bell peppers
2 10 inch tortilla wraps
Soured cream

Fajita spice is scattered over and rubbed in to chicken wings

Directions

Sit the chicken wings on a large plate and scatter with the spice powder. Carefully rub it in to the meat, ensuring every bit is coated. Cover and leave to marinade for a couple of hours - remembering of course to wash your hands very thoroughly after having touched the raw chicken meat.

Principal ingredients for simple salsa

Seed and finely dice the tomato and cucumber. Add to a bowl with the basil, chilli powder, peeled and grated garlic clove and the extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, stir well, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until required.

Combining salsa ingredients

When the wings have marinated, preheat your oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6. Lightly oil a roasting tray and lay the wings on it, skin sides up. Cook for thirty to thrity-five minutes until done.

Fajita spiced chicken wings ready for roasting

Sit the wings on a suitable clean plate and let them cool and rest for ten minutes.

Fajita spiced roast chicken wings

When the wings are cool enough to handle, carefully pick the meat and skin from the bones. Whether you use or discard the skin is entirely up to you.

Fajita spiced meat is removed from bones of chicken wings

Pour some vegetable oil in to a small non-stick frying pan. Stir fry the bell pepper slices for a minute or two until well heated and slightly softened.

Starting to fry mixed bell peppers for fajitas

Add the chicken wings meat to the frying pan and (carefully) stir fry for a further minute until the meat is fully reheated.

Spicy chicken wings meat is added to bell peppers

You may wish to season further with salt and pepper but I find the spices sufficient.

Chicken wings fajitas mix

Heat your wraps as per the instructions on the pack. These ones required ten seconds each side in a hot, dry frying pan. Arrange some pepper/chicken combination on the first wrap as shown.

Chicken wings fajitas added to tortilla wrap

Spoon some salsa on top of the chicken.

Salsa is spooned on to chicken wings fajitas

If desired, squeeze/spoon some soured cream on the wrap before folding over the back flap and rolling to serve. You could if you wish also include guacamole in the wrap or even serve some alongside for dipping purposes.

Soured cream is added to chicken wings fajitas and salsa

Hot Wings for Packed Lunches, Picnics or Fishing Trips

Chicken wings can be kept hot in a food flask for several hours

This post definitely has to count as a serving suggestion rather than a recipe but hopefully you will think it a good idea and benefit from the technique. The good news is that this tip can also be made to apply to a great many foodstuffs other than chicken wings, from chicken drumsticks or thighs to meat pies to meat stews to root vegetable selections.

It is based on the premise of using a food flask to keep the chicken wings warm. A food flask is based on exactly the same principal as the more popular vacuum flasks designed to contain liquids. You can pick them up pretty cheaply (especially on Amazon) and if you look after them properly, they can often last for a lifetime. I have had the one used here since I was a very young child (about forty years!) and it still works as well as it did the day I got it. I couldn't even begin to guess how many fishing trips my flask has been on.



One thing I would suggest, however, re putting wings (or anything else) in a flask like this: don't put things in it that are required to be eaten by hand and are covered in sticky sauces. Especially if you're going fishing or going on a picnic, you may not have ideal hand cleaning facilities available. There is also of course the possibility that the sauce would forever stain the inside of your flask!

Tips are cut from whole chicken wings

I'll show you now how to prepare and store basic roast chicken wings in your food flask that they should keep warm for easily four hours and perhaps even slightly longer.

While my oven was preheating to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6, I chopped the tips off some whole wings. The tips were discarded.

Tipped chicken wings are halved

I then cut the main parts of the wings in two.

Chicken wings are turned in seasoned oil

In to a large bowl went a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (vary as required depending upon number of wings). I seasoned the oil with salt and pepper before stirring the wings through it to evenly coat.

Chicken wings ready for roasting

The wings were arranged skin sides up in a single layer on a roasting tray. They then went in to the oven for thirty minutes.

Heating food flask

A few minutes before the wings were ready, I opened up my food flask, poured in enough boiling water to nearly but not quite fill it and put the seal and lid in place. I left it for a few minutes.

Drying heated food flask

Open the flask and very carefully pour the water out at your sink. Use a clean tea towel to quickly dry the flask. Lift the wings in to the flask with cooking tongs, put the seal and lid in place and you're ready to go.

Food flask of hot chicken wings is ready to go

Roast Chicken Wings and Salad Appetizer or Starter

Oven roasted chicken wings are served with a simple salad as a starter/appetizer

Chicken wings can be made in to a wide variety of tasty starters or appetizers - and the dishes prepared need not be complex, allowing you that little bit of extra, valuable time to concentrate on your main course. This recipe is (I think) attractive in terms of presentation and ultra tasty, yet can be prepared with very little hands on cooking time required.

Ingredients per Person

2 whole chicken wings, tips removed
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
2 generous handfuls of mixed salad of choice (this is sliced radish, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and lettuce)
2 rolled and shredded basil leaves to garnish

Chicken wings are coated in seasoned vegetable oil for roasting

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6. Pour the vegetable oil in to a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Turn the wings in the oil to evenly coat. Lay on an oven tray and roast for thirty minutes. Take them from the oven and rest for ten minutes.

Mixed salad is carefully washed under running cold water

Wash the salad in a colander under running cold water. Shake dry.

Salad is laid as a bed in a serving dish ready for chicken wings

Season the salad and lay it in the base of an appropriate dish. Sit the chicken wings on top and garnish with the shredded basil.

Roasted and rested wings are laid on salad bed

Rogan Josh Roasted Wings with Homemade Chips

Chicken wings roasted in rogan josh sauce and served with homemade chips

Chicken rogan josh is a popular Indian dish but it's probably fair to say that the dish is not often prepared using chicken wings. Chicken breast is probably the most favoured option. In this instance, however, I used a supermarket jar of rogan josh sauce to flavour chicken wings before they were roasted with what I think were delicious results. I hope you'll give it a try.

By the way, I've included a short video at the very end of this post showing a slightly different way in which I have served rogan josh chicken wings - in the form of a naan bread sandwich. I hope you'll watch it and that this is also an idea which you will find appealing.

Ingredients (Serves One)

1 large baking potato
Salt
2 tablespoons rogan josh cooking sauce
4 whole chicken wings
Vegetable oil for greasing baking tray

Parboiled chipped potatoes ready for chilling

Directions

The chips/fries which are served with this dish can be prepared in any way you choose - you could, of course, even simply use frozen ones ready for frying if you prefer. I like to prepare them from scratch however and do so in the now well established three step fashion.

The baked potato is firstly peeled and sliced/chopped in to chips. The chips are then steeped in cold water for ten minutes to get rid of the excess starch before being put in a pot of cold, slightly salted water, which is brought to a simmer for five minutes or so. The chips are drained at this stage, allowed to steam off and added to a plastic dish and the fridge for a minimum half hour. This dries them off as well as chills them.

Rogan josh cooking sauce

It's not essential to marinate the chicken wings in the sauce before cooking but it really does help intensify the flavours. When you have your parboiled chips in the fridge, add the rogan josh sauce to a large bowl. Make sure it is a glass or stone bowl, as the sauce will permanently stain plastic.

Chicken wings are added to rogan josh sauce

Add the wings to the bowl and carefully fold them through the sauce to evenly coat. Cover with clingfilm and leave for an hour or so to marinate. Don't, however, put them in the fridge. Like any type of meat, chicken wings should be cooked from room temperature and never from chilled.

Chips are drained after first deep frying

Take the chilled, parboiled chips from the fridge and deep fry them at a medium to high temperature for four or five minutes.They should after this frying only just have started to colour and crisp. Drain them on kitchen paper and return them to the fridge as before for at least a further half hour.

Chicken wings marinated in rogan josh sauce

Preheat your oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6 before laying the marinated wings skin sides up on a roasting tray and baking for half an hour. Sit aside to rest while you finish cooking the chips.

Chips are drained on kitchen paper

Fry the chips again at a fairly high temperature this time until crisp and golden. Drain again on kitchen paper before plating up your meal to serve.

Roast Wings, Bruschetta and Salsa Appetizer or Starter

Roast wings served with simple bruschetta and salsa as an appetizer

Do you ever serve chicken wings as an appetizer or starter? If you do - or are thinking of doing so - and you are looking for some new ideas, you may wish to give this simple but delicious option a go.

Ingredients per Person

3 whole chicken wings, tips removed
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
1 medium tomato, seeded and moderately finely diced
2 inch piece of cucumber, seeded and moderately finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, 1 peeled and grated for salsa, 1 peeled and lightly crushed for bruschetta
2 basil leaves, finely shredded, plus extra to garnish
Black pepper
1 bread roll

Seeded tomato and cucumber

Directions

Start your oven preheating to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6 while you prepare your salsa.

The easiest way to seed the tomato and cucumber is to cut them in half as shown above and scoop/scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon.

Diced tomato and cucumber

When you have diced the tomato and cucumber, add to a small glass or stone bowl. Grate in the garlic clove, spoon in about a tablespoon of olive oil, season with the basil, salt and pepper and stir well to combine with a spoon. Cover with clingfilm and set aside for the flavours to infuse while the wings are cooking.

Salsa ingredients are combined in a bowl

Rub the wings with olive oil, season with salt and lay them skin sides up on a roasting tray. Roast in the oven for half an hour before taking them out and setting them aside to rest for five or ten minutes.

Soft bread roll for making bruschetta

When the wings are resting, cut the bread roll in half horizontally and lightly toast the cut sides under your overhead grill/broiler.

Toasted bread roll for bruschetta

Rub the toasted sides of the roll with the crushed garlic clove, drizzle with a little oilve oil and season with salt and pepper.

Bruschetta and salsa

You will find it easier to avoid splashes on your plate if you spoon the salsa on to the bruschetta before plating. Afterwards, carefully lift the creations on to opposite corners of a square plate. The chicken wings can then be laid across the centre of the plate and garnished with the remaining basil.

Roast wings are plated with bruschetta and salsa