crock-pot chicken wings

3 more sleeps until Santa!

If you’re anything like me you woke up this morning, stumbled to the coffee maker and then realized there are only 3 more sleeps until Santa comes.  Followed immediately by realizing that you still haven’t finished (or started) your Christmas shopping.  Not to mention there are a million other little things you need to do, including work (for those of us not on vacation)... and catching up on some blog posts!  And of course there’s grocery shopping & planning for what you’re going to be making Christmas Day & Eve!

Instead of wishing for a clone of yourself to get everything done, I’d suggest you pull out your crock-pot.  Or as Liv likes to call it “the marriage saver”.  While chicken wings might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking of the holidays, you’ll love how easy this recipe is.  And while it’s cooking it frees you up to get things done!

ingredients:

• 5 lbs chicken wings, spit & trimmed (I get mine at Costco usually)
• 1 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup honey (I use Trader Joe’s Desert Mesquite honey)
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice, no sugar added
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

First up, making the teriyaki sauce.  Add your soy sauce, honey, pineapple juice, garlic & ginger in a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Using a whisk mix everything together.  Continue to stir constantly while the sauce comes to a boil.  Don’t leave it unattended because it can boil over & burn really easily.  When it comes to a boil reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove it from the heat at this point. (sidenote: this teriyaki sauce is great on tons of things & I often use it in stir-frys)

Next you’ll need to grill the chicken wings.  If you’re lucky enough to have a BBQ (and someone to operate it), grill the wings so that they’re cooked on the outside.  You don’t need to cook them through, you’re just looking to crisp up the outsides and make them brown.  If you don’t own a BBQ you can also do this with your oven broiler.  Remember, don’t over cook them, they’re going to finish cooking in the crock-pot.

Once your wings are done blot them with paper towels to remove any extra grease and toss them in the crock-pot (I used a 5qt one).  Pour your teriyaki sauce over top.  The sauce should have made about 500ml worth, but it probably won’t cover all the way to the top of the wings, which is okay.  Cover and turn the crock-pot to low for 4 hours.  After that, you're free to enjoy them.

Now go get things done!