Recipes: Sweet heat wing sauces

Jake Laxen, jlaxen@stcloudtimes.com   –   SC Times

Sweet and heat. Those are flavors familiar to almost every eater.

And if you are planning to make chicken wings for upcoming NFL playoff games — Skol Vikings, by the way — I suggest pairing sweet with heat to make your own wing sauces.

If you have a milder palate, the raspberry jalapeno sauce is the flavor pairing for you. Raspberries are a complex fruit with both sweet and sour subtle flavors.

The jalapeno adds mild spiciness for another flavor layer. The modest pepper typically measures between 1,000 and 20,000 Scoville units — the official scale of spiciness.

If you can handle a stronger spice level, try mango habanero. This recipe isn’t overbearing but rather has subtle spiciness. Still, be careful when handling habanero peppers.

Mango habanero is a common wing sauce pairing as the tropical flavor of mangoes is a natural pairing with the pepper that typically registers above 100,000 on the Scoville scale.

If you want more or less heat, adjust the amount of peppers used. For the hot pepper sauce in both recipes, the Frank’s RedHot brand is a popular version among many others.

Also remember not to cook the chicken wings in the sauce. You only want to apply the sauce after the wings are cooked to make sure you don’t cook out the sweetness.

raspberry jalapeno wing sauce

1 package (6-8 ounces) raspberries

2 jalapenos

⅓ cup melted butter

2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

one In a blender, add raspberries, jalapenos, melted butter, hot pepper sauce, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and Dijon mustard. Blend until liquefied. Toss cooked wings in sauce and serve.

Source: Based on a Driscoll’s recipe.

mango habanero wing sauce

1 can (15 ounces) diced mangoes, undrained

2 habanero peppers

⅓ cup melted butter

¼ cup hot pepper sauce

one In a blender, add can of diced mangoes, habanero peppers, melted butter and hot pepper sauce. Blend until liquefied. Toss cooked wings in sauce and serve.