Cheech Marin Makes Valentina Citrus Glazed Wings

Valentina Citrus Glazed Wings

Serves 6

2 hours + 24 hour dry brine time

Wings are a delicious art. There are so many ways you can approach making wings but this one really resonates with us. It’s a mixture of hands off time with short bursts of attention. The dry brine does a lot of the heavy lifting in this recipe in terms of texture and the cool thing about these wings is that you can roast the heck out of them and they’ll still be juicy and amazing.

Dry Brine:
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of black pepper
3 lbs of chicken wings, separated into wings and flats

Glaze:
The juice of 1 orange (about ½ cup)
The juice of 2 limes (about ⅓ cup)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of valentina hot sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch, made into slurry with equal parts water
1 teaspoon of salt

Equipment:
1 large bowl
1 large baking sheet with a wire rack
Saucepan
Tongs

Instructions:
Dry Brine: This step works best if done 24 hours in advance, but 12 will work too. Essentially, you combine all of the dry brine ingredients, salt sugar, baking powder and pepper. This draws the moisture out of the skin of the wing and allows the fat to render while making the skin crispy. We don’t know what kind of sorcery this is but it works.
Season both sides of the wings with a generous pinch of the dry brine mixture, place the wings on a baking sheet with a wire rack and leave uncovered in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Low and slow roast: Preheat the oven to 350 F and transfer the wings from the refrigerator to the oven. You’ll want to keep these roasting at a fairly low heat for about an hour. The skin should be dry and crispy and the meat should be a little looser on the bone.

Make the sauce: While the wings are roasting, this is a perfect time to make the sauce. In a saucepan on low-medium heat, combine the orange juice, lime juice, brown sugar, butter, valentina hot sauce and salt. All of the ingredients can go in at the same time, the butter will emulsify the rest of the sauce as it heats up. When the sauce comes together, add a slurry of cornstarch to slightly thicken it. You should come away with a sauce texture that coats the back of the spoon. Transfer the sauce to a large bowl.

Sauce the Wings Round 1: With a pair of tongs, dip each wing in the sauce and make sure it is completely coated.

Crank the heat: Put the wings back onto the wire rack and bake for 30 minutes at 375

Sauce the wings round 2: Repeat step 4 and return the wings to the oven for an additional 20 minutes. At this point the wings should be deeply caramelized from the sugar in the sauce, tangy from the valentina, and a little funky from the citrus and salt. The skin should be crispy and slightly charred.

Add texture: There is something so satisfying about biting into a wing with varied texture. This wing recipe makes a beautifully crisp wing that is glassy on the outside and juicy on the inside. But to take it one step further, we top these wings with crushed pepitas, cilantro and orange zest. It adds an extra element of surprise, which we love.
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I’m Jasmine. This is Cheeks. And today we’re making Valentina citrus glazed wings. Yum. M. Sounds good, huh? Mhm. Yeah. Glazed. So, this is a baked wing. And uh we start by dry brining it. These are already dry brined, but you know. How does dry brining work? Um, well, it’s a mixture of salt, sugar, baking powder, and then I added a little black pepper just for some flavor. And we sprinkle it on the chicken wings and like 12, 24 hours in advance. And then just keep them in the fridge uncovered. And then this uh dry brine kind of draws the moisture out of the skin. Okay. But like 12 to 24 hours before before cooking it. Before cooking. Okay. Yeah. Right. And so, yeah, it just makes it crispy. And that’s the only way to make a baked wing crispy. That’s why we call them crispy glazed wings. Exactly. All right. These have been in the fridge for 24 hours. Sure. Yeah. 16. But it it’s working. It’s working. So, you put this in the oven 350 for an hour. No, nothing else. Just the dry brine. We’re just going to crisp them for an hour. Mhm. 350. Okay. Yeah. Ooh. Watch out, they’re hot. All right, so they’re baked. Okay. Yay. Okay, that’s cool. And see how crispy. Oh, and they’re so hot. So, we’re going to make the glaze now. Okay. And we’re going to start with some orange juice. This has the juice of one orange and the juice of two limes. And just into the pan. Oh. Then we’re going to put Valentina hot sauce. Valentina hot. What is that? It’s hot sauce. Oh, it’s called It’s the brand name. It’s a brand name. Oh, that looks nice. I didn’t I’ve never make a glaze. That’s good. Yeah. So, we’re going to put in two tablespoons of brown sugar. And we’re just going to melt that in there. Wow. All right. Now, we’re going to add the butter. Yeah. When in doubt, add a lot of butter. Totally. This is four. This is four tablespoons of butter. It’s at like room temp, but it’s going to emulsify real nice. Yeah. Emuls. Emulsifi. Yeah. Yeah. Will that make it emulsify? Yeah. Wow. You notice the gradual emulsification process? Mhm. Oh, that looks good. We want the sauce to be like a little bit thicker. So, we’re just going to put this cornstarch slurry, which is 2 tsp of cornstarch and 2 tsps of water. Okay. It just makes the sauce a little thicker. It’s a slurry with a fringe on top. Huh. It’s a slurry. Okay. Mix that in. All right. Oh, it’s thicker already. I see it. Oh, that’s cool. I’m going to turn the heat way down. This is looking pretty good. You don’t want to clumpsify it. Okay, I’m just going to like turn the heat off cuz we don’t really need all that heat. Almost. Stand back. Damn, fireballs. So, we take our chicken wings. Mhm. Put the wings in there. Dip them in the glaze. Glaze to put your weed in. Yeah. And then just put them back on the rack. Oh, a wire rack works best for this because, you know, it drip through. It drips the drip through. Yeah. Which everyone needs. Yeah, they do. This is good. Okay, we’re going to do a couple at a time now. Uh-oh. I know. We’re going for it big time. Yeah. So, we’re going to do this process twice. Second time. Second time is the charm. Yeah. It sticks more. Huh. Yeah. And it because there’s sugar in the sauce, it caramelizes really well. Uhhuh. And it just like gives it this nice deep caramelly glaze. Oh yeah. You like flats or drumsticks? Uh, I like flats actually. Wings are a really interesting part of the chicken because it’s white meat and dark meat. Yeah. Imagine it’s 1:30 in the morning in Toledo, Ohio, and you just finished your gig and watched TV, maybe smoked some weed. And what’s good on this menu? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Wings. Ah, I know. You and Tommy are always like chicken wing pled. Yeah. Well, that’s the only thing. It’s good at 1:30 in the morning at the Maren in Toledo, you know. So this is like first coat. First coat down. Okay. See? One coat. One coat. One coat. Wonder. Just kidding. It’s not. It’s a two coat. And you’re going to And you’re going to do And back in there. Check. Check back in half an hour. Check back in half an hour and do the same damn thing. Yeah, we’re going to do it again because that gives a nice big double coat. And then when you go Makes it It makes it two times as good. two times as good at 1:30 in the morning in Toledo, Ohio. Yeah. Okay. Well, we What are we doing now? This is the uh second dip. Double dip. Double dip. And double dip the wings. And look at this. It’s just great, man. Golden crispy. Golden crispy. Let’s make them even golden and crispier. Okay, so we’re going to double dunk much crispier. Much mos crispier. Okay, second dip. Get ready. Oh. Oh, I’d definitely order these. Yeah. And a little chiloso in there. Yeah, too. It’s sweet and spicy and like h we’re going to have so much fun. This is going to be good. You can eat them on the bed, you know? Yeah, you can eat them on the bed. If you’re in the hotel room, plop them on the bed, watch whatever’s on. Okay. Well, this is like it’s like if a hotel makes it, but you’re going to be making this at home. Yeah, cuz it’s a recipe. This is a recipe for home cooking. Home cooking. Oh, these are going to be good. These are going to be really good. And these are pretty simple. Yeah, it’s very simple. You know, like it takes a minute to figure out how to bake a wing, but once you’re there, you’re there. It’s all about the dry brine. Yeah. It’s crazy how much the dry brine really does the heavy lifting cuz like you need the texture of the skin. You need to be crispy. Yeah. And if it’s not crispy, you don’t have a good wing. There we go. All right. Okay. Open the oven, please. Why yes, gorgeous. Oh, it’s hot in there. Be sure to use your gloves when you take them off, kids. Okay. Half an hour or more. I like the way the light hits it. Okay. Okay. Chicken wings. Ooh, they look good, don’t they? Oh, man. They do look good. Yes. Should we put them on a plate or something? Yeah, totally. Yeah. This would be the first thing I order at 1:30 in the morning. Exactly. M coming in from a a gig. You’ve been traveling or been driving all night. Bentto a ramada. Order these chicken wings. M. This one’s little. This one’s big. This one’s medium. All right, let’s eat one. Okay, I’m going to eat that one. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you. Yeah, that’s good. That’s so good. M. It’s like glassy this guy. Wow. It’s almost like it’s 1:30 already. Mhm. I’m transported to a hotel in Duth. Duth is even better cuz it’s Bob Dylan’s hometown. Exactly.