Spicy Chicken Wings

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

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Measure all spices into a small bowl. Melt 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and add to spices to form a rub.
  3. 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.)
  4. Melt remaining tablespoon of coconut oil in cast iron skillet or other oven-proof  pan.
  5. When oil is super hot, place chicken wings and any remaining spices to skillet.
  6. Cook wings for 2 minutes of each side. Then stir around and cook for 1 more minute, just in case you missed anything.
  7. Remove pan from heat. Cover with tin foil and place in oven for 20 minutes.
  8. Remove from oven and enjoy hot or cold.