We absolutely love wings. But I’ve admittedly grown weary of Buffalo-style sauce and am always looking for an alternative. This Peruvian Aji Verde Sauce is bright, fresh, and all of the ingredients can be easily sourced at most small, rural grocery stores—making this an easy, upland recipe. It pairs traditionally with roasted chicken, so it’s a natural, fun pairing with wings. Feel free to scale up for a crown, too, because this recipe is completely adaptable.
We paired these fabulous little bites with roasted mini peppers, also available at most rural stores. We simply placed them in a small, oven-safe serving dish, added about 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil, 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar, cracked salt & pepper, and threw them in a hot oven (450°) for about 25 min. or until nicely blistered. Like the wings, you can eat them with your fingers!
Finally? Adjust the spice level to your liking. We really enjoy a nice level of heat. But if you prefer your food with less burn? Simply remove the seeds from the jalapeño pepper and/or cut back on the amount used. The hubs prefers red wine, so we served this with a Tempranillo, but I think it would be nice with a Grüner Veltliner or a Sauvignon Blanc too, which may be easier to source from a country store.
Chicken Wings with Aji Verde Sauce (Serves 2)
Ingredients
Chicken + Marinade (You can really use anything here. If you’re feeling casual, dressing from the fridge? Just give it 1-2 hours or overnight if possible. We keep it simple to allow the sauce to be the star.)
12 chicken wings (we prefer to buy ours pre-separated into “flats” and “drummettes.”)
Juice + zest from 1/2 lime (Tip: Zest the whole lime first, before cutting in half; use 1/2 for marinade, reserve the rest for the sauce.)
3-4 Tbs. c. avocado oil (use whatever oil you prefer)
1 garlic clove. minced
salt/pepper
Sauce
1 small bunch cilantro (I use about a cup (pre-chopped) and include the stems. If you have extra? You can mince some and add to the marinade. Yum!)
1 jalapeno, chopped (seeds removed if you don’t like too much spice. We remove the stem and use the rest.)
1 garlic clove, minced (I actually use a microplane zester directly over the food processor. Just watch your fingers!)
Juice of 1/2 lime + zest
1/4 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
1 good pinch Kosher salt (about 1/2 tsp.)
Directions
- Place all marinade ingredients in a zip-lock bag and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- In a small food processor (see below), add all sauce ingredients and blend until quite smooth. This is not meant to be a chunky sauce. (see photo above.)
- I like to make the sauce an hour or two ahead of time to allow flavors to come together, but honestly? It’s flavorful right off the bat!
- Preheat air fryer to 380°. If you don’t have an air fryer, set oven to 425*
- Line a rimmed sheet pan with tin foil (makes cleanup easier). Place a wire cooling rack over top and spray lightly with cooking oil. The cooling rack will allow air to circulate around the wings, giving you a nice crispy finish without the mess and fat from frying.
- Place in air fryer at 380° We cook our wings for about 30 min. flipping halfway through. I’ll note, we like our wings really crispy, so we honestly just keep going until they look perfect. Sometimes with meatier wings? We go over 30 min. If yours are especially small? Keep an eye on them starting at the 20 min. mark.
- If you don’t have an air fryer? At 425° in your conventional oven, cook wings for about 40-45 min. flipping halfway through.
- We like to serve the wings hot with the aji verde at a cooler temp, so perhaps pull the sauce from fridge before you pop wings in the oven.
- Enjoy!
Helpful Tools
Owning a small food processor makes life (and cleanup) much easier—especially when cooking in smaller quantities. We love our more traditionally-sized Cuisinart, but it is large, heavy, and we store it in the pantry until needed. When it’s just the two of us? I prefer my small, 2-cup model for easy cleanup and under-counter storage. We currently own the Ninja version of this little powerhouse and find I use it far more often than my larger model.
If you don’t yet own cooling racks? I recommend them. In fact? I recommend two. One for each rimmed baking sheet you should also own. We currently only have one at our family’s upland house and I keep forgetting to snag a second! It’s been driving me nuts. They are indispensable for allowing air to circulate around items such as bacon and chicken wings. Pro-tip? Get one that fits securely inside of the baking sheet you’re using to prevent things from sliding around when you remove hot pan from the oven. I really love the largest sheets you can fit into your oven because it allows you to spread food out nicely. These are 2/3 sheet pan size, which can be tough to find. And they come with a removable rack you can use for cooking or for cooling baked goods. Toss any others (save perhaps one mini), I promise, you’ll use these for everything.
Finally, when cooking smaller amounts of food? It’s nice to own a few smaller-sized baking dishes (2 qt. or smaller) so small portions don’t appear lost and meager in your full-size cookware. And soooo much easier to clean! Sur la Table sells one as small as .5 quarts (that also comes in versions up to 4 quarts).
