These devilishly delicious Diablo Chicken Lollipops are spicy, smoky and are incredibly crunchy. Serve these spooktacular chicken wings at any Halloween party and you will surely impress all of your victims…I mean… guests!
This recipe features TIME Winery’s Chronos Riesling and was developed in collaboration with Town Hall Brands.
Hot as Hell Hot Sauce
This recipe was inspired by my garden and all of the hot peppers that I grew this year. I grew both jalapeno and habanero peppers from seed and I actually had so many peppers that I could test out making my own homemade hot sauce!
The first few batches of hot sauce were delicious, although they were almost too spicy to eat as I had left all of the seeds and membranes inside of the peppers. The seeds and the membrane holds most of the spice, and knowing this, you can adjust the overall heat level of your hot sauce my keeping or removing those. To make a medium-hot hot sauce as I did for this recipe, I went ahead and removed the seeds and membrane from the habanero and half of the jalapeno peppers. I found that this gave the hot sauce a good flavour with a nice kick of spice that will definitely wake up your tastebuds!
If you like a mild sauce, remove all the seeds and membrane from the peppers, or if you like things really spicy, keep them all in…and maybe toss in another habanero pepper, or two! 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
Adjusting Heat Levels (if needed!)
The overall heat of the hot sauce will vary depending on the peppers you are using. My jalapenos and habaneros were grown in the garden and were very small (and spicy!) compared to store bought jalapenos and habaneros that are larger and a bit milder… so taste as you go!
To Tone Down the Heat: If your hot sauce to too spicy, add in a chopped roma tomato to add volume to the sauce and dilute the heat. You can also add in some more acid (e.g. vinegar) or a bit more brown sugar to tone down the heat.
To Add Heat: Alternatively, if the sauce isn’t spicy enough, add in some more jalapenos or a habanero to do the trick!
Safety Tips for Making your Own Hot Sauce
Making hot sauce can be a bit of a dangerous process for a few reasons. Here are my tips for keeping you safe during the process:
- Wear plastic gloves when chopping and handling hot peppers to keep your hands (and rest of your body) safe. You don’t want to touch your eyes or your skin, especially if you are processing habanero peppers! I even wash my hands afterwords (even though they were in the gloves) and make sure to throughly clean my knife and cutting board too.
- Turn on hood fan/open windows. There are many spicy vapours that are released from the peppers during the cooking process. If you breathe this in, it will not be a pleasant experience. Keep the hood fan running to easily remove the vapours from the kitchen as you cook the sauce. Opening windows helps too, but the hood fan works best.
- Remove pets from the kitchen. If you have a furry friend, keep their sensitive noses safe from the spicy vapours from the hot sauce. If you can, put them in a separate room while you cook the hot sauce or ask a friend or family member to take them outside for a bit. Some pets can be very sensitive to hot peppers, but luckily, the cooking process isn’t too long!
The Perfect Wine Pairing
To cut through the spicy hot sauce and the crispy fried chicken, I have paired this with TIME Winery’s Chronos Riesling. Not only is the name and branding perfect for Halloween, but the sweetness of the wine really help cuts through the spice and oil in this dish and really refreshes your palate.
This Chronos Rielsing is light bodied, dry and has notes of crisp apple, jasmine and lime. It is truly a stunning wine and one of my new favourites to pair with spicy dishes!
Happy Halloween 🎃👻🕷
I hope that you enjoy this recipe this Halloween! Scroll on down below to watch my YouTube video where I make this entire recipe from scratch! Happy Halloween, friends!
Get the Recipe!
Diablo Chicken Lollipops
Ingredients
For the Hot Sauce:
- 18 small ripe jalapeno peppers 220 g, seeds and membrane removed from half the peppers
- 1 habanero pepper 10g, seeds and membrane removed
- ¾ cup white vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic 10 g, sliced in half
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar packed
- 1 large chipotle pepper in adobo sauce 15 g
- 1-2 Roma tomatoes optional
For the Fried Chicken Wings:
- 2 pounds chicken drumettes
- ½ cup potato starch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6-8 cups vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
To Make the Hot Sauce:
- Put on plastic gloves to protect your hands from the oils in the chili peppers.
- Remove the stem from the jalapeno and habanero peppers then slice each pepper in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and membrane from 9 of the jalapeno peppers and from the habanero pepper and discard the seeds and membrane. Keep the seeds and membrane intact for the remaining 9 jalapeno peppers. *This makes a medium-hot sauce. See recipe notes for other heat level variations.
- Roughly chop the peppers and add them to a food processor and pulse until the peppers are finely diced.
- Turn on your hood fan or open all your windows to remove the fumes from cooking the peppers.
- Transfer the chopped peppers to a small pot and place on the stove over high heat. Add the vinegar, garlic, salt and brown sugar and mix to combine. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, or until the peppers have softened. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Once cooled, return the cooked peppers to the food processor and the chipotle in adobo. Blend until a smooth hot sauce forms. You can also use a high-power blender to achieve a smooth sauce.
- Taste the sauce to see if it is too spicy. If you find it is, add in 1-2 chopped roma tomatoes and blend again to combine into a smooth sauce.
- Return the hot sauce to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the sauce until it is the consistency of a loose ketchup and will easily coat all the chicken wings. Set aside and let cool.
For the Chicken Wings:
- To trim the chicken drumettes into chicken lollipops, use a sharp knife to cut all the way around the bone, just beneath the joint.
- Place the chicken wing vertically on the board and hold onto the top of the joint. Scrape your knife downwards along the bone to push the meat and skin down. Work all the way around the bone, scraping as you go, to expose the bone.
- Use your knife to cut off any loose skin or meat from the top part of the joint. Continue this process for the rest of the chicken drumettes.
- Place the chicken wings in a large bowl and set aside.
- Add the potato starch, salt and pepper to a small bowl and mix to combine.
- Add the potato starch mixture to the chicken wings and toss until each chicken wing is coated in the potato starch. Set aside.
To Cook & Dress the Chicken Wings:
- Heat a large pot of oil to 350 degrees F. Be sure to use a large pot and only fill it halfway up to avoid the oil from bubbling over.
- Dust off the excess potato starch on each chicken wing and use tongs to carefully drop it into the hot oil. Add 6-7 chicken wings into the pot at a time to reduce the chance of them sticking together and so that the oil temperature does not drop too much. Fry for 10 minutes, turning halfway through cooking.
- Drain the chicken wings on a rack (or paper towel) and repeat the process until all the chicken wings are fried.
- After all the chicken wings are fried, heat the oil up to 375 degrees and add the chicken wings back to the oil. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp. Drain again on a rack and continue the process until all the chicken wings have been double-fried.
- Use a pastry brush to coat each of the chicken wings in the hot sauce before arranging on a platter and serving warm.
- Enjoy with a glass of Chronos Riesling to cut through the spiciness of the wings!
Video
Notes
- 🌶 To achieve a mild hot sauce, remove the seeds and membrane from all of the chili peppers before chopping and processing.
- 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶 To achieve a very hot sauce, do not remove the seeds or membrane from any of the chili peppers and simply chop and process.
- The overall heat of the hot sauce will vary depending on the peppers you are using. My jalapenos and habaneros were grown in the garden and were very small (and spicy!) compared to store bought jalapenos and habaneros that are larger and a bit milder… so taste as you go!
- If your hot sauce to too spicy, add in a chopped roma tomato add volume to the sauce and dilute the heat. Alternatively, add in some more acid (e.g. lime juice or vinegar) or a bit more brown sugar.
- If your hot sauce it too thick after cooking, add in a splash of vinegar to loosen it out a bit more.
- You can substitute potato starch with cornstarch when frying the chicken wings.
