Hot Honey Chicken Wings

These delicious Hot Honey Chicken Wings are a Southern staple dish, and this recipe couldn’t be easier! The rich sweet and spicy sauce adds the perfect flavor to perfectly fried Chicken Wings, making this a thoroughly enjoyable meal. You can enjoy these Wings as an Appetizer, a Side Dish, or even as the main course. Just cook up a big batch of them and watch how quickly they’ll disappear as the hungry hordes devour them!

What exactly is Hot Honey?

Hot Honey is a relatively new player on the culinary scene and has been welcomed with open arms! It is a Honey based sauce that is flavored with spicy flavors to bring the heat! You can make lots of different variations of Hot Honey Sauce. For this recipe we’re adding a combination of Chili Flakes, Vinegar, and Franks Red Hot Sauce

The ingredients are then cooked down in a saucepan until it becomes liquid form. It is then drizzled over the perfectly Fried Chicken Wings, adding a sweet and spicy sauce that is so tasty! Give the Wings a few minutes at room temperature after they’ve been coated in the Sauce and watch that Sauce turn into a wonderful sticky and delicious glaze

The sauce completely coats the Wings but keeps them wonderful and crispy. The flavors are immense, with a big hit of sweetness and spiciness that is guaranteed to stick to the ribs! You can add some additional ingredients to the Hot Honey Chicken Wings such as Garlic and Ginger, however for our recipe we’re keeping things super-simple and classic

As a rule of thumb, try to add the same quantity of Hot Sauce as you do Vinegar

Whenever you’re making spicy food at home, the level of heat to add to the dish is always a little bit subjective. Some people love their food fiery hot, others not so much. For our Hot Honey Chicken Wings recipe, we’ve kept the heat level right in the middle. The heat is tolerable, but not overpowering. What we do recommend however, is if you do want to make the dish spicier, balance out the heat with Vinegar

So, for our recipe we’re using 2 tsp. of Hot Sauce to 2 tsp. of Vinegar. If you want to make the dish spicier by adding another tsp (or two!) of Hot Sauce, we recommend adding the same quantity of Vinegar. The Vinegar will help to balance out the heat, and give the sauce a more rounded, enjoyable flavor

You can also add a little bit more Honey if you like, as Sweet and Sour are the ultimate combination of flavors, especially when it comes to Fried Food such as these Wings! Just be careful about adding too much Honey. While this is definitely a sweet dish, too much Honey will simply overpower the dish with sweetness, leaving the flavor a little one-note

When it comes to Hot Sauce, there is no substitute for Franks Red Hot

It’s almost an institution when cooking anything spicy with a southern flair to it to use Franks Red Hot Sauce. This delicious Hot Sauce is famously used with Buffalo Chicken Wings (LINK), and is right at home in these Hot Honey Chicken Wings

It has a delicious zesty, peppery flavor to it – along with that wonderful heat that you expect from a Hot Sauce. It’s not overpowering but adds the right level of spice that really elevates these Wings. Some Hot Sauces simply bring heat, but Franks Red Hot has a pronounced flavor that truly adds body and depth to the dish

If you can’t get your hands on this sauce then there are alternatives. Just find a suitable Hot Sauce that you like, and it’ll surely still come out nice. However, if possible, stick with the classic!

Breading and Deep Frying the Hot Honey Chicken Wings yields the best result

In our opinion, the best Chicken Wings are those that are breaded and deep fried. You achieve beautiful, tender Chicken Meat with the benefits of a crispy, tasty coating. Adding breading to Chicken Wings will allow even more flavor into the dish, as you can season the Breading

We season our breading with a classic combination of Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, and Salt. Because this is a Spicy Chicken Wing dish we also add some Cayenne Pepper to the breading. This way you can’t avoid the spice, wherever you look!

Once the Chicken Wings are thoroughly breaded, they are deep fried in hot oil for about 5 minutes. They don’t take too long to cook; however we always recommend only beginning the breading and frying process once the Chicken Wings are at room temperature. This will ensure a through, even cook throughout

Cook the Wings in the Oil in batches. Adding too many Wings at once will drop the Oil temperature quickly, which you don’t want! If the Oil temp drops, the Wings will become soggy and greasy. What we’re after is crispy, juicy Chicken Wings. So, keep that temperature hovering around the 350F mark. It’s a lot easier to manage if you’re using a Candy Thermometer, which we highly recommend!

Hot Honey Chicken Wings Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs. Chicken Wings
• 12 cups of Frying Oil (eg: Canola Oil / Vegetable Oil)
• 1 tsp. Sesame Seeds
• 1 tsp. finely chopped Chives
  
  

Hot Honey Sauce Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. Honey
• 2 tsp. Franks Red Hot Sauce
• 2 tsp. White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp. Chili Flakes
  
  

Breading Ingredients

• 1 cup of All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp. Corn Starch
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
• 2 tsp. Salt
  
  

Equipment needed: Candy Thermometer and Spider Strainer

Instructions

1. Pour the Oil into a large pot or Dutch Oven and bring to 350F using the Candy Thermometer to monitor. Add the Sauce ingredients to a separate saucepan and heat slowly
2. Cook the Sauce for about 5 minutes to bring it all together, then remove from heat (re: heat again right before coating the Wings)
3. Combine the Breading ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Coat the Wings thoroughly and then carefully place in the Hot Oil and fry for 5 minutes until golden. Cook in batches of 3 – 4 to avoid overcrowding the pot
4. Once the Wings are cooked, remove them from the Oil with a Spider Strainer and place on a wire rack. Season with Salt, then place them in the Hot Honey Sauce and coat well
5. Finish the Wings by sprinkling with Sesame Seeds and Chives and enjoy!
   
   

Recipe Notes

• Always ensure the Oil temperature stays around the 350F mark. Try not to overload the Pot with Chicken as this will drastically reduce the Oil temp, resulting in oily Chicken Wings
• You can also add finely diced Garlic to the Hot Honey Sauce if you like
  
  

These delicious Hot Honey Chicken Wings are a classic Southern staple dish. However, they are welcome at any dinner table anywhere around the world, and we highly encourage you to give them a try! Also, why not try adding other fried dishes into the tasty Hot Honey Sauce and see how they turn out?

For more tasty Southern influenced recipes, you can check out our dedicated page here. Here’s a few of our favorites that we recommend you try:

• Cheesy Grits
• Southern Green Bean Casserole
• Green Apple Slaw
• Simple Southern Side Dishes
  
  

Happy Cooking!