Garlic-Lime Chicken Drumettes

A pile o' wings.

I don't remember if I talked about how I like to get whole chickens and dismember them myself or not, but I do. Usually, that means I chop them up specifically for the boobs and legs, leaving me with a bunch of wings which I save in the freezer. Everytime I put them in the freezer, I would wonder what the hell I'd do with all those wings, but knew I'd figure it out sometime.

Well, the wings were starting to take over -- this isn't even all of them.

With that, it was time to make some appetizers for dinner.

Click the link to check out the original recipe, which includes a chipotle mayo that I didn't make due to Rodney's lactose-intolerance (which he's completely willing to gloss over if something tastes good, leaving us both to suffer later).

Garlic-Lime Chicken Drumettes

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp grated lime peel

2 tsp coarse salt

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted, crushed*

1/2 c lime juice

1/3 c olive oil

24 chicken drumettes and flat wings

Place garlic, grated lime peel, salt, oregano, crushed cumin seeds, lime juice and oil in nonreactive shallow pan large enough to hold chicken in one layer such as a 9x13" Pyrex baking dish.

Add chicken; turn to coat completely with marinade. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 4 hours.

Heat broiler. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Broil on preheated broiler pan, 12 to 14 minutes or until browned and juices run clear, turning once.


*Toast cumin seeds in dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, 1 minute or until slightly darkened in color and aroma is toasty. Crush with mortar and pestle or flat side of chef’s knife.

Pretty simple. I was irritated with having to toast the cumin seeds for some reason and sort of wondered if they actually got toasted. And I was worried that the cumin seed flavor would override everything else.

Rodney liked the flavor of these a lot more than I did. I can see how the chipotle mayo (that I didn't make) would compliment these well. No, they weren't too cumin-y.

The time it took to make these was longer than anticipated because I used way more wings than the recipe called for. We had more than 30! Not including marinating time, I think this took just under an hour to make, the majority of it being broiling time.

Since these were actually chicken left-over pieces, it was essentially free. I looked at the prices of wings and they go for $1.99 a pound at Stater Bros -- on sale! Crazy!

If we wind up with another surplus of wings, I'll do this again, but I'll be sure to prepare the mayo as well, though just a half-batch.  Rodney is lactose-intolerant, you know.

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