Mango Habanero Wings
Posted: 06/29/23
Updated: 04/03/25
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Get game-day ready with a tray of incredible mango habanero chicken wings! Flats and drumettes are coated in a simple spice mixture, then oven-baked until crispy and tossed in the sweet heat of a homemade mango habanero sauce. With layers of mango, lime, habanero, and maple flavors, these delicious wings are the ultimate barbecue or party food.
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- These mango habanero wings pack in SO MUCH FLAVOR in just a few basic ingredients. The chicken wings themselves are seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, giving them a crispy, delicious skin. After they’re baked, they’re tossed in a sauce made from mango, habanero peppers, lime juice, and maple syrup, combining the savory “breading” with a rich sweet heat.
- Wings are a quintessential game day, party, barbecue, summertime, tailgate food. I mean, it makes sense. They’re fairly cost effective. You can easily cook enough to feed a group. If you cook too many, they make good leftovers. You can season and sauce them any way you like. It’s no wonder Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop have such a following! If you ask me, though, these wings are even better than any you’d get from a restaurant.
Chef’s Tips
- Make sure you pat the chicken wings completely dry with paper towels before you coat them in your spice mixture. This is super important if you want wings with a crisp skin! It’ll also help the spice mixture coat the wings more evenly.
- If you’re heat-shy, the “habanero” part of these mango habanero wings may be stressing you out a little. Don’t worry. You totally control the heat here! The mango and maple syrup naturally offset the peppers a little, but you can take it a step further by adjusting how much of the peppers’ seeds you use in the sauce. I personally like to use the seeds from 2 of the 3 peppers. You might cut it back to just 1 pepper’s seeds, or maybe you skip the seeds altogether!
- You can cook your wings in the air fryer instead of the oven! This is especially great if you’re making just a few wings, otherwise you might need to work in too many batches for the air fryer to be worth it. It just depends on the size of your air fryer, the size of the chicken wings, and the number of wings you need to cook!
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Mango Habanero Wings
Flats and drumettes are coated in a simple spice mixture, then oven-baked until crispy and tossed in the sweet heat of a homemade mango habanero sauce.
servings
Ingredients
For the Mango Habanero Sauce
- 1 large mango peeled, pit removed, diced
- 3 medium habanero peppers see Notes
- 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon paprika plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
For the Chicken Wings
- 1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon paprika plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 10 whole bone-in chicken wings cut into 10 flats and 10 drumettes
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
- medium bowl or airtight container
- Oven
- large baking sheet
- Aluminum foil
- Wire baking rack
- neutral-flavored cooking spray
- Paper towels
- 2 large mixing bowls or 1 large mixing bowl, cleaned after first use
- Tongs
- Internal meat thermometer
Instructions
For the Mango Habanero Sauce
- Add 1 large mango, 3 medium habanero peppers, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup, ½ teaspoon paprika, and 1 teaspoon salt to food processor or blender.
- Pulse ingredients until mixture is completely smooth, pausing to scrape down sides of bowl or blender as needed.
- Once mixture is completely smooth, transfer sauce to bowl if using immediately, or to airtight container if using later. Refrigerate sauce in airtight container until ready to use. Bring chilled sauce to room temperature before using.
For the Chicken Wings
- Preheat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil, then place wire baking rack on top of foil layer. Spray wire rack with cooking spray and set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon paprika, ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, and ½ teaspoon salt to large mixing bowl. Stir until dry ingredients are well blended.
- Pat chicken flats and drumettes completely dry on all sides with paper towels, then place chicken in mixing bowl with dry ingredients. Gently toss chicken wings in spice mixture until wings are coated on all sides. Work in batches as needed depending on size of bowl.
- Place "breaded" wings on wire baking rack with skin-side of wings facing up. Be careful not to overcrowd rack – work in batches as needed depending on size of baking sheet or baking rack.
- Once all chicken wings have been "breaded" and arranged on baking rack, place baking sheet in preheated oven. Bake wings 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, carefully remove baking sheet from oven and flip wings over so skin-side of wings faces down. Return baking sheet to oven and bake 10 minutes, then begin checking doneness. Continue baking wings as needed until chicken wings reach internal temperature of 160° Fahrenheit.
- Once chicken wings reach 160° Fahrenheit internally, careful remove baking sheet from oven and set aside. Allow wings to rest 5 minutes.
- Place rested wings in large bowl and add ⅓ cup of prepared mango habanero sauce. Gently toss wings to fully coat in sauce, then transfer wings to serving platter. Serve immediately with remaining sauce.
Notes
- Habanero Peppers: I recommend using the seeds from 2 of the 3 peppers in the sauce, for a nice heat that’s not too strong. For a mild sauce, use the seeds from just 1 pepper, or omit the seeds completely. For a hot sauce, use the seeds from all 3 peppers.
- Whole Wings: Whole wings typically have more meat to them than pre-packaged party wings, and splitting them into flats and drumettes really isn’t difficult. Just cut off the wing tips right at the joint, then discard the tips or use them to make a stock. Separate the flat and the drumette by starting at the high ridge on the joint and cutting straight down. You may run into a little resistance, but a little back-and-forth motion should help push the knife through.
- Frozen Wings: If you’re using frozen chicken wings, make sure to defrost them completely before starting this recipe.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 587kcal | Protein: 41g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 0g | Total Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 17g | Net Carbs: 21g | Vitamin C: 34mg | Cholesterol: 163mg | Sodium: 1513mg | Potassium: 185mg | Calcium: 303mg | Iron: 2mg
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
The heat in peppers comes from the white ribbing that has capsaicin in it, not from the seeds, which only have a little heat. That said, will your recipe work with Jalapeño peppers? It looks amazing!
Yes, both the ribs and the seeds contribute to the heat, as you said.
As for jalapeños, it likely will work, but the flavor profile would obviously be different. We didn’t test this with jalapeños so we can’t say for sure how it might turn out or what adjustments you may need to make. If you try it, please let us know how it goes!