Chipotle Honey Sticky Wings

I love the spicy smokey flavor that chipotle adds to a dish. I have been using dry chipotle powder, chipotle hot sauce, chipotle in adobo, dried chipotle, basically any form of chipotle I could get my hands on in dishes for years. I am not too proud to tell you, that until I began planning my garden last January/February, I had no idea that a chipotle chili was simply just a smoke jalapeño. I thought it was a chili pepper all its own, and was searching for chipotle seeds, when I finally clicked on an article that cleared up why I kept getting jalapeño seeds in my searches. After feeling like a total idiot for about ten minutes, I moved on to growing my own jalapeños, and figuring out how I was going to smoke them. But that’s another story for another day. For this recipe, I made the sauce three times before adding it to the wings, and honestly hated the sauce, to the point where I was about to give up, and start a new recipe. Then my wife, who is generally the voice of reason in my life, said, just try one wing in the sauce before you throw it out. So, I did, and it was delicious. For some reason, the sauce was too spicy, or the honey was too overpowering and just threw off the balance. But on the salty, savory, crunchy wing, everything came together in a beautiful harmony that just worked. Oh yes, and back to the air fryer once again!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds wings, cut into flats and drums, reserve tips for stock
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder, or regular chili powder if that’s what you have on hand
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Glaze:

• 1-2 chipotles in adobo, depending on how much spice you like
• 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
• Juice from half a lime
• 1 tablespoon butter, optional

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, toss wings in olive oil, chili powder, smoked paprika, and salt.
2. Once wings are coated, add them to the air fryer basket, and cook on air fry at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes.  Flip wings, and air fry for another 10-12 minutes until crispy and golden brown. You may have to work in batches.
3. Meanwhile, finely dice the chipotles, and add to a small sauce pan along with honey, adobo, Worcestershire, soy sauce, and butter if using. Using low heat, warm the sauce until the butter melts, and it just begins to smoke and bubble slightly then remove from heat and add fresh lime juice. This step is simply to bring out the sugars of the honey, and remove that raw honey flavor that many honeys have. This is also my preference, and if you like the flavor of raw honey, you can just add everything to a mixing bowl, and whisk together, ignoring the heating process all together. It also makes sure everything is nice and hot.  
4. Once wings are done frying, in a clean large mixing bowl, combine the chipotle honey sauce, and wings tossing until wings are completely coated.
5. Enjoy immediately.