These oven baked agave chili lime chicken wings are sticky, sweet, savory, and a little spicy. They make the best game day appetizer for a crowd!
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Since discovering the delicious flavor of agave nectar, we’ve been looking for more ways to incorporate it into our cooking. If you’ve never had it before, it tastes sort of like a cross between honey and maple syrup (but it’s hard to do the flavor justice with words, so go ahead and try some!). One of the first ideas we came up with was agave chili lime chicken wings, aka the best new game day recipe for this upcoming football season!
Inspired by my great-grandmother’s sweet and savory oven baked chicken wings, this recipe involves a sticky, sweet, spicy, and savory marinade made from agave nectar, lime juice, chili garlic sauce, chili oil, brown sugar, and salt. These wings are super tender and flavorful – a little spicy, but not too spicy, and just the right balance of sweet and salty.
Make sure to grab a pile of napkins before digging in – these wings will leave a sticky mess all over your fingers. But that’s usually an indicator of a good chicken wing, in our opinion! 🙂
Agave Chili Lime Chicken Wings Ingredients
You only need 8 ingredients to make these crispy oven baked chili lime chicken wings:
- Chicken wings
- Agave nectar
- Lime juice
- Chili garlic sauce
- Light brown sugar
- Hot chili oil
- Salt
- Chives (optional)
The agave nectar and brown sugar make these sweet, while the chili garlic sauce, chili oil, and salt add some savory flavors to the mix (and some heat!). Lime juice adds a bright acidity to tie everything together without cutting the heat too much, making the perfect chili lime chicken wing.
You should be able to find agave nectar in the baking section of your grocery store or near the maple syrup. Make sure to grab one that’s 100% blue agave for the best flavor.
How To Make Agave Chili Lime Chicken Wings
This oven baked chicken wings recipe can’t get any easier – all you have to do is marinate the chicken, dump everything in a dish and bake it! Just make sure to leave plenty of time to prepare this recipe – from start to finish, it will take about 5 and a half hours.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to make our agave chili lime chicken wings:
- In a large zip-top bag, combine chicken wings, agave nectar, lime juice, chili garlic sauce, light brown sugar, hot chili oil, and salt. Zip the bag and shake it around to evenly combine the ingredients and coat the chicken.
- Marinate in the fridge for 4 hours. We like to try and lay the bag flat on one side, spreading the chicken wings into a single layer, and then flip the bag halfway through marinating.
- After marinating, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Dump the entire contents of the bag into a shallow baking dish and spread the chicken wings out into a single layer.
- Bake for 1 hour, flipping the wings over halfway through.
- Next, flip the wings over again and carefully drain the excess marinade from the baking dish. Bake for another 5 minutes, then flip the wings over, and bake for another 5 minutes.
- The wings should now be lightly crisped and sticky on the outside. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
- Optionally garnish with chives and enjoy!
Make sure to get all the extra marinade into the baking dish with the wings before they go in the oven. Baking the chicken in the marinade really infuses the flavor into these wings and prevents them from drying out. Then, once they’re cooked, you’ll want to drain the marinade so the skins can caramelize against the pan. The result is a juicy, sticky chicken wing with perfectly crispy skin – simply irresistible!
Serving Suggestions
These sweet and savory chili lime chicken wings are the best recipe for game day parties and cookouts. They’re super easy to make, even easier to scale for a crowd, and so delicious. Really, they’re the perfect finger food to serve as an appetizer or snack for any occasion!
Storing & Reheating Leftovers
You can keep leftover chicken wings in the fridge for up to 4 days in an air-tight container. Reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10 to 20 minutes, or in the air fryer at 350 for about 5 to 10 minutes (flip halfway for either method).
Try our recipe for agave chili lime chicken wings and don’t forget to rate, comment, and share if you love it! Check out more of our favorite game day recipes here.
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:
- Air Fryer Buffalo Wings
- Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Taquitos
- Cheeseburger Egg Rolls with Sriracha Mayo
- 4-Ingredient Avocado Chorizo Spring Rolls
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Agave Chili Lime Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 3 tbsp agave nectar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp hot chili oil
- ½ tsp salt
- Chives sliced (optional garnish)
Instructions
- First, combine the chicken wings, agave nectar, lime juice, chili garlic sauce, brown sugar, chili oil, and salt in a large zip-top bag. Seal the bag and shake it around to evenly mix the ingredients and coat the wings.
- Marinate in the fridge for 4 hours, flipping the bag over halfway through.
- Next, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Dump the contents of the zip-top bag into a shallow baking dish, and then spread the chicken wings out into a single layer.
- Bake for 1 hour, flipping the wings halfway through.
- Flip the wings again, then carefully drain the excess marinade from the baking dish. Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes, then flip, and bake another 5 minutes.
- The wings should now be lightly crisped and sticky on the outside. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 5 minutes before serving. Optionally garnish with chives.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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