Buffalo Garlic Chicken Wings

First things first: anything related to buffalo sauce is my favorite - I absolutely love it, especially when you get creative with the sauce and it's not just straight hot sauce and butter (not that there's anything wrong with that!). The flavor of this sauce was great because you had the heat, but also the garlic flavor. Last Sunday, the hubby and I had a nice, relaxing Sunday at home watching football (which is very rare these days). It was amazing. We thought some homemade buffalo wings would be perfect for the cold weather! Just a tip - this sauce is also delicious with baked, panko crusted chicken tenders which I made from scratch (in another post). You can save the sauce in a Mason jar for future use as well. Enjoy!

NOTE: I halved the below recipe for the chicken since there were only 2 of us.

Ingredients:

Chicken

2 pounds chicken wings and drumsticks

2 tb olive oil

1 tb smoked paprika (you can use regular)

1/2 tb onion powder

salt and pepper, to taste

Sauce

1 cup Cholula Chili Garlic Hot Sauce

3 tb unsalted butter

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the baking sheet, on top of the foil. Spray the rack with non-stick cooking spray. Rinse the chicken and dry with a paper towel. Add the chicken to a large bowl. Combine the remaining ingredients for the chicken and toss with the chicken so that they're evenly covered. Lay on the wire rack with some space between the pieces of chicken. Bake for 45 minutes, turning once halfway through.

While the chicken is cooking, melt the butter for the sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk so that it's combined. Once the sides start to bubble, cover and remove from the heat. When the chicken is done, add to a clean bowl and pour the sauce over the chicken so that it's evenly distributed to coat the chicken. Serve with celery sticks and ranch, if preferred.