Maple-Wasabi Wings

All right, you wingnuts, it’s football season, which means it’s really chicken wing season. These oven-baked wings get a blast of sweet-salty flavor from a blend of maple syrup and soy sauce and a one-two punch of heat from ginger, wasabi, and ra-yu sesame chili oil (sometimes labeled “la-yu”). Rather than just combine ingredients and toss with wings, we reduce the sauce to a caramel consistency so it really clings to the wings and provides plenty of umami.

Wasabi, despite its all-powerful sinus-clearing abilities, is actually quite a delicate thing, losing its potency over time, especially if exposed to heat. When making these wings, be sure wait until the last minute to stir the wasabi paste into the sauce for maximum flavor and kick.

If your chicken wing flats and drumettes do not come separated, you can do it yourself. Use a chef’s knife to cut the wings apart right at the joints—you may need to search a bit, but once you find them, your knife will easily slice through. Cut off the wing tips (the slim cartilage-y piece at one end) from the end of each wing and discard or save them for stock, then slice through the joints between the drumette (once cut the piece will look like a small chicken leg) and the flat or wingette (once cut the piece will look like a small chicken thigh).