If you’re wondering how to make honey gold wings, then you’re in the right place! When you’re new to cooking chicken wings, it can be intimidating to get started – after all, how to you get that perfect crispy exterior without drying out the meat? It can be difficult to balance these things out.
Don’t fret though! I’ll be addressing all that and more in this article, being sure to answer all your questions about this wonderful dish. So, lets get started!
Table of Contents
- All About Honey Gold Wings
- Honey Gold Wings Nutritional Info
- How To Make Homemade Honey Gold Wings
- More About Our Memphis Honey Gold Wings Recipe
- Vegan Alternative Honey Gold Wings
- Honey Gold Wings – The Verdict
All About Honey Gold Wings
What Flavor Are Golden Wings?
Honey gold wings typically have a zesty, buffalo-inspired flavor.
Because of the honey (and, sometimes, barbecue sauce) they have a sweet chili tang to them. Gold wings also tend to come with some considerable heat, though this isn’t always the case.
The recipe I’ve added at the end of this article is completely adjustable to your preference!
In the event that you’re asking this about 24-karat edible gold (yeah, GOLD gold) wings, it depends on restaurant to restaurant!
However, from what I’ve gathered most of them seem to be based on sweet n’ sour barbecue sauce.
What Is Honey Gold Wing Sauce Made Of?
Usually, honey gold wing sauce consists of – you guessed it – honey!
Recipes often use a mix of honey and barbecue or buffalo sauce as a base, though some people make the sauce from scratch with just vinegar, butter, honey, and powdered seasonings.
However, even recipes that use pre-made or bottled sauce tend to have all these ingredients – just to a lesser extent. The dry seasonings used are usually a mix of cumin, chili flakes, chili powders, onion powder or granulated onion and garlic or garlic salt. Lemon juice is also commonly used to give the sauce a zesty citrus taste to accompany the chicken.
What Do Honey Gold Wings Taste Like?
Honey gold wings have a subtle mixture of that pleasant, sweet honey taste mixed with the deeper, smokier sweetness of the hot sauce or barbecue sauce used. This perfectly accompanies the heat of the dish, when present, as it balances and offsets some of the spice.
Texture-wise, honey gold wings should have tender, juicy chicken, with the skin and exterior being crispy and coated in sauce.
Honey Gold Wings Nutritional Info
How Many Calories Are There In Honey Gold Wings?
Generally, you can expect there to be around 420kcal in honey gold wings.
This can change between recipes and restaurants as the calorie count depends on the ingredients used and the method of cooking.
How Many Carbs Are In Honey Gold Wings?
| Calories | 420.4 |
|---|---|
| Saturated Fat | 3.1 g |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 6.5 g |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 3.5 g |
| Cholesterol | 142.9 mg |
| Sodium | 2,405.2 mg |
| Potassium | 530.5 mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 12.0 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.2 g |
| Sugars | 8.8 g |
| Protein | 56.0 g |
How To Make Homemade Honey Gold Wings
Serves: roughly 2 people
| Prep Time: | Cook Time: |
| 10 – 20 mins | 35 – 45 mins |
Honey Gold Wings Ingredients:
| – 1 – 2 pounds of chicken wings, cut into segments |
| – ⅔ a cup of a hot sauce of your choice (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s) |
| – 4 tbsp of butter (1 ½ sticks) |
| – 1 tbsp chili powder (or chipotle powder for a hotter sauce) |
| – 1 tsp cayenne pepper powder (optional, for a hotter sauce) |
| – ½ a cup of brown sugar |
| – ½ a cup of honey |
| – 3 ½ tbsp turmeric |
| – 1 tbsp chili flakes |
| – 2 tbsps white vinegar (swap with a light mead if interested in cooking with mead) |
| – Salt and black pepper to taste |
| – Spring onion for garnishing |
| – 1 tbsp of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and cumin each (FOR DRY RUB) |
| – A light drizzle of lemon juice |
| – ½ a tsp finely zested lemon (mince with knife after grating for best texture) |
How To Make Honey Gold Sauce For Chicken Wings:
- Place a small to medium-sized pot on your burner at a low-medium heat. Be sure to quickly add in your butter, so that it melts slowly and without burning. Pour in the hot sauce as the butter melts, making sure to stir until both are well-combined. Do not let the sauce boil.
- Once combined, add in the honey and stir. Then, pour your white vinegar in as well as ¼ of the ‘dry rub’ seasonings and all of the other powdered seasonings. If using mead in place of vinegar, use half mead/half vinegar and make sure to cook out the carbonation before adding it to the sauce. Leave the mixture cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally to keep your sauce from scorching.
- After cooking your sauce, add in the brown sugar last. Stir well and until completely combined, and leave your sauce to reduce for 2 – 5 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on your sauce, stirring every now and then to keep it from burning.
- Once finished reducing (it should still be thinnish), take it off the heat and scroll to the next step to work on the chicken portion of this recipe. When your chicken is ready, just spoon the sauce over it! I like to do this in a plastic Tupperware with a lid – this way, you can shake the chicken until the sauce coats it.
Recipe For Honey Gold Wings:
- In a large mixing bowl, take the remainder of the ’dry rub’ seasonings to season the wings. Stir all the ingredients well to get an even flavored rub on your wings – I like to use a fork or a small sauce whisk to get the job done.
- After gently washing your wings, take them and place them in the prepared mixing bowl. With your hands, carefully massage the wings with the hot seasoning. If you can, try and get under the skin. If this is too difficult, leave it as having unbroken skin is more important than getting the seasoning beneath it. Make sure that all the chicken pieces get an even coating.
- After this, evenly spread the wings across a grill rack over a baking pan to catch the drippings. Pre-heat your oven to just under 400 degrees , then leave your wings in there for 5 minutes so they can get that golden, crispy texture.
- At this point, you can opt to add in squeeze some lemon juice over the wings or throw some roughly chopped garlic and onion over and garlic over your chicken. This will intensify the smokiness of the wings, and give them just that extra bit more flavor.
- Now, leave the wings in the oven for a little while longer, making sure to flip them every now and then. It’s very important to keep an eye on them during this time. Only take the wings out once their outside turns golden and crispy – unlike baking chicken breasts at 400 °F, this takes around 45 minutes.
- It’s good practice to double check whether they have cooked internally with a food thermometer – if this isn’t available to you, open up a wing to see if it’s still pink inside. If it is, put them back in the oven and lower the temperature slightly until cooked. Once your wings are ready, follow the final step on the sauce instructions!
More About Our Memphis Honey Gold Wings Recipe
If you’re curious about this repurposing this recipe, rest assured that you can use it in cooking all manners of things – even boneless chicken thighs in an air fryer! All it takes are some minor adjustments.
However, this isn’t always best.
For example, while boiling chicken before frying or cooking it can improve flavor, boiling wings for this recipe would only serve to ruin the crispy exterior we want to achieve.
Luckily, the same isn’t true of reheating chicken in the oven. In fact, this can even serve to crisp up your wings all over again!
Just be sure to save some sauce and add a little extra when you pop them back in the oven, as your wings can dry out otherwise.
Tips And Tricks For Honey Gold Wing Sauce
Probably the most important tip to take note of is to add the dark brown sugar last when making your sauce. Dark brown sugar is used to develop and enhance the other smokey flavors of your sauce – if it is added beforehand, it will dissolve into your sauce before it has the chance to meet the other flavors. It also works to thicken the sauce, so adding it in just before reducing your sauce will help you accurately determine when to turn down the heat.
Vegan Alternative Honey Gold Wings
Whether you’re missing honey gold wings or have never tried them before, it can be hard to let go of old foods. Luckily, with this vegan alternative, you don’t have to! This excellent, quick n’ easy recipe by YouTube channel Rabbit And Wolves is a great way to get started with vegan comfort-food cooking.
Although consuming honey isn’t strictly vegan, it can be beneficial for your local bee population as beekeepers help keep colonies alive – something very important considering the prevalence of colony collapse disorder. I’d encourage you to do some research in order to form your own opinion, and stick to local, small-scale beekeepers if you decide to use genuine honey.
If you live in an urban area, it may be best to avoid honey and accommodate other wild pollinating species.
Honey Gold Wings – The Verdict
So, honey gold wings. While they’re not hard to make, they can be a little time consuming. By no means is it comparable to any 4 hour long slow-cooking recipe, but it can take a little extra prep work. Especially if you decide to mess with over-night marination. However, in my opinion, these wings are totally worth it!
They’re so charmingly different from other wings because the honey just brings an extra layer of nuance to the flavor. PLUS, if you freeze those wings…. You have perfect, Memphis honey wings for whenever you want! You can even freeze any leftover sauce for next time. If you make these wings in bulk and store them for a rainy day, they’re doubly worth it.
So, get cooking!
How To Make Homemade Honey Gold Wings
While making honey gold wings can be a little long-winded, the method isn‘t difficult and the results are well worth the effort expended.
Type: main
Cuisine: American
Recipe Yield: 2 servings
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 45 mins
Total Time: approx 1 hr
Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 – 2 pounds of chicken wings, cut into segments
- ⅔ a cup of a hot sauce of your choice
- 4 tbsp of butter (1 ½ sticks)
- 1 tbsp chili powder (or chipotle powder for a hotter sauce)
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper powder (optional, for a hotter sauce)
- ½ a cup of brown sugar
- ½ a cup of honey
- 3 ½ tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp chili flakes
- 2 tbsps white vinegar
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Spring onion for garnishing
- 1 tbsp of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and cumin each
- A light drizzle of lemon juice
- A light drizzle of lemon juice
Recipe Instructions:
Melt Butter and Hot Sauce:
Add Vinegar, Honey, and Dry Rub:
Once combined, add in the honey and stir. Then, pour your white vinegar in as well as ¼ of the ‘dry rub’ seasonings and all of the other powdered seasonings. If using mead in place of vinegar, use half mead/half vinegar and make sure to cook out the carbonation before adding it to the sauce. Leave the mixture cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally to keep your sauce from scorching.
Add Sugar:
Remove Sauce from Fire:
Once finished reducing (it should still be thinnish), take it off the heat and scroll to the next step to work on the chicken portion of this recipe. When your chicken is ready, just spoon the sauce over it! I like to do this in a plastic Tupperware with a lid – this way, you can shake the chicken until the sauce coats it.
Stir Remaining Seasoning:
Coat Wings:
After gently washing your wings, take them and place them in the prepared mixing bowl. With your hands, carefully massage the wings with the hot seasoning. If you can, try and get under the skin. If this is too difficult, leave it as having unbroken skin is more important than getting the seasoning beneath it. Make sure that all the chicken pieces get an even coating.
Bake Wings:
Flavor Chicken:
Bake More:
Now, leave the wings in the oven for a little while longer, making sure to flip them every now and then. It’s very important to keep an eye on them during this time. Only take the wings out once their outside turns golden and crispy – unlike baking chicken breasts at 400 °F, this takes around 45 minutes.
