The Whole Foods near my house sells pre-spiced, uncooked chicken.
Matt has adopted this as his favorite non-bacon meat to purchase lately. At least once a week, I come home to scent of heavily seasoned drum sticks or chicken wings.
I enjoy the taste and appreciate the convenience of the pre-spiced poultry (and I want to give a shout out to Matt for cooking for us!) but in the back of my mind, I don’t feel great about eating them because I suspect that Whole Foods uses canola oil in the marinade. I haven’t verified this but I have read enough ingredients labels to know the supermarket tends to use canola oil as the default oil in their prepared foods. I try to avoid canola oil, which, according to respected paleo experts, is a highly processed corn oil that easily becomes rancid.
Last week, as I finished up my 4pm snack of spicy wings and cabbage/carrot stir fry, it occurred to me that paleo spiced chicken would be very easy to make. Spices, chicken and a paleo-friendly oil was all I needed.
I wasn’t sure how to cook them so I pulled out my grandma’s cookbook did a little Googleing and found this link to a site that provided guidance.
The whole project was ridiculously easy. When I asked Matt to try them, he pronounced them “better than the Whole Foods ones.” I tasted them and agreed – and felt happier knowing they were made without canola oil.
On a side note: You could make this same recipe with regular drumsticks but I used the smaller type of wing/drumstick combo that you get when you order chicken wings in a bar. My Whole Foods had them labeled as “party wings”, which was sort of fun. I sort of wish they sold other party foods, like “party kale” or “party eggs” but I didn’t see any of those.
Spicy Chicken Wings
Chicken wings, 1 pound
Cumin, 1 teaspoon
Garlic powder, 1 teaspoon
Coriander, 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
Paprika, 1 teaspoon
Crushed red pepper, ½ teaspoon
Pepper, ½ teaspoon
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Coconut oil, 2 tablespoons total
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Measure all spices into a small bowl. Melt 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and add to spices to form a rub.
- Coat chicken with spices. (This was the hardest part by far. The rub stuck easily to the meat but it was hard to get the skin coated with spices. I ended up having to use my hands and really press it on there as best I could.)
- Melt remaining tablespoon of coconut oil in cast iron skillet or other oven-proof pan.
- When oil is super hot, place chicken wings and any remaining spices to skillet.
- Cook wings for 2 minutes of each side. Then stir around and cook for 1 more minute, just in case you missed anything.
- Remove pan from heat. Cover with tin foil and place in oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and enjoy hot or cold.