Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers Perfect For Halloween

Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers for Halloween!
Begin a memorable Halloween meal with these creepy frenched chicken wings.

These spooOOooky chicken wings are frenched for a bone-chilling Halloween look. And bonus, frenched chicken wings are super tender and easy to eat (as if I needed another reason to eat chicken wings!) To keep the skin crispy under a slathering of sweet, spicy, and sticky orange marmalade-based sauce, these wings are air dried in the refrigerator overnight, giving them the texture of a fried wing without the extra effort. Aside from bringing shock and awe to your Halloween table, this appetizer is just straight all around up good eats!

Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers for Halloween!
Oh, baby. Crispy. Saucy. Chicken-y.

Recipe Notes

Talk Frenchy To Me
Why Frenched? Well, other than the fact that it looks really cool, frenched chicken is moist, tender, and very easy to eat as it is virtually de-boned.
Frenched chicken wings (you can also use this technique on chicken legs) aren’t nearly as difficult to master as they may appear, though, be warned, this technique is rather time consuming.

How To French
First, you will need to separate the wing (the part with two bones) from the drumette (the part that looks like a chicken leg) if they aren’t all detached already. You can have your butcher do this bit for you if you like. If you’d like to do it yourself, locate the joint between the wing and the drumette and use a sharp knife to cut between them. It isn’t that easy to get right between the bones accurately, so I like to slice the meat between drumette and wing up to where it meets the joint, then I use my hands to bend the joint backward, (it should pop) and then continue cutting between the joint to separate the two pieces.

Apparently both the wing and the drumette can be frenched, which is new news to me, so I did only the drumettes and froze the wings to eat later! (I believe to french the wing the smaller bone is removed, but unfortunately thats as much information as I can offer on that at this time!) To french the drumettes, use a small, sharp knife (be careful please!) to slice along the meat beneath the joint. When sliced all the way around, use the knife to scrape the meat down away from the bone. Any meat that is left on the joint can stay there, but I removed it for the halloween-y visual effect.

Crisp, Crisp, Baby
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, its dipping a perfectly crisp bit of chicken into a luscious sauce only to have it go limp and sticky. So sad. So, I turned to my old friend, dry refrigerator air to help me out with that one!
Storing meat (whole chickens, steaks, pork chops, fish) in the refrigerator uncovered for several hours will dry the surface of the meat (especially effective for poultry skin and fish skin) and help it brown and crisp better during cooking.

Upon further investigation, I came upon Kenji Lopez’s deep dive into the search for the perfect baked buffalo wing , and decided to try his salt, baking powder, and baking soda approach for crispy chicken skin. Having used baking soda in several other recipes for effective browning, this totally clicked with me! I love this approach and incorporated it into this recipe. If you don’t have a wire rack for refrigeration or cooking, parchment paper will work!

You’re Very Saucyyy!
Ye be warned, this sauce is hot! Equipped with three heats, sambal oelek (chile paste), white pepper, and Chinese mustard, it’s coming at you from all angles. Luckily sweet orange marmalade helps balance things out. If you want to be really extra (and get a head start on homemade holiday gifts), check out my recipe for Orange Marmalade here!

Keep scrolling for the recipe! (I promise it’s down there)

Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers for Halloween!
This guy’s into it.

Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wings Recipe

Skeleton Snacks

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish, Snack
Servings: 12 drumettes (approximately)

Ingredients

For the Wings:

  • 2.5 lbs chicken wing drumettes the part of the wing that looks like a drumstick. See recipe notes for more information!
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt

For The Sauce:

  • 6 tbsp minced shallot from about 2 large shallots
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1/2 cup orange marmalade
  • 2 tbsp chile paste such as sambal oelek
  • 1/8 tsp white pepper
  • 2.5 tsp hot chinese mustard
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • salt

Instructions

French The Wings:

  • To create the exposed bone look of these wings, use a sharp paring knife to slice through the meat around the bone just below the joint at the thin end of the drumette. Then, slice a slit down to the bone through the bit still attached to the joint and remove.
  • Use the knife to scrape the remaining meat down away from the bone to expose the bone further.

Dry The Wings For Crispy Skin:

  • Pat the trimmed drumettes dry with paper towels and toss with baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
  • Shape the meat around the bone nicely and place the drumettes on a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate uncovered 8-24 hours to dry out. The dry refrigerator air and the baking powder will help the skin to brown and to stay crispy even when covered with sauce.

Bake The Wings:

  • Heat the oven to 450F with the rack in the upper middle position. Cook the wings for 20 minutes, then flip and cook 10 minutes. Flip one last time and cook 15 minutes more. The wings are done when the skins are golden brown and bubbly, and the internal temperature reads at least 165F.

While The Wings Bake, Make The Sauce:

  • In a small saucepan over low heat, cook the shallot in the oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the marmalade, chile paste, white pepper, and hot chinese mustard to the pot and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Simmer 12-15 minutes, or until sticky and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and a pinch of salt. Keep warm until ready to use.

Serve The Wings:

  • After removing the wings from the oven, allow to cool 5 minutes so that the chicken skin stays as crisp as possible. Dip and coat the meaty part of each chicken drumette in the sauce, and serve hot!
Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers for Halloween!
Skeleton Snacks: Frenched Chicken Wing Appetizers for Halloween!
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