Weeknight Lemon Chicken Wings: Add this recipe from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook to your 'forever files'

Deb Perelman is making the case for weeknight chicken wings. If they aren't already your thing, theselemony ones from her latest cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics For Your Forever Files might change that. We reached out to Perelman to find out what she likes to serve them with. We often have them with a crunchy salad and/or roasted potatoes, she told us. Her recommended pairings from the new cookbook are the Deli Pickle Potato Salad and the Cucumber Salad With Garlicky Dill Yogurt. Read on for all the reasons why these wings will work their way into your weeknight rotation.

Weeknight Lemon Chicken Wings

By Deb Perelman

These are not bar chicken wings. Theyre not fried until crisp, bathed in butter and hot sauce, and served with blue-cheese dressing, although you can deliver those here any day and we will not leave a single one behind. These are weeknight wings, which, if theyre not a thing yet, I think should be, because, at some point after having kids, I discovered that oven-roasted wings deserved more credit in the Weeknight Greatness category. Theyre perfectly sized for small hands. They take on the flavor of whatever you pour over them without requiring brining or an overnight marinade. Theyre often done in 35 minutes, but they have enough natural fat in them so theyre forgiving if you distractedly leave them in almost twice as longthey just get more browned and crisp. I love them as lemony as possible, and here, I add the lemon in three ways: in zest, in slices that caramelize in the pan (even the almost black, crispy lemon slices are wildly good here), and in juice at the end. Dijon mustard adds more punch, as do garlic and a lot of black pepper. The sticky juices that collect on the foil are my favorite part. We find these inhalable.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp (45 g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp smooth Dijon mustard
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp (6 g) kosher salt, plus more to finish
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons (1 whole, for zesting, and 1 thinly sliced)
• 2 lbs (905 g) chicken wings, cut in half at the joint (wing tips saved for stock), or 1 lbs (680 g) wingettes, already jointed and wing-tip-free (sometimes sold as party wings)

Preparation

Heat the oven to 450F (230C). Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking sheet with nonstick spray. Combine the butter, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Finely grate the zest of the whole lemon, and add it to the butter mixture. Add the chicken and lemon slices and toss to coat; then spread them evenly in the prepared pan. Season with additional salt and pepper, and roast for 35 minutes, flipping the wings and lemon slices once, at the 20-minute mark, and then back to the first side for the last 5 minutes, or until the wings are a deep golden brown and some of the lemon slices look worrisomely dark. (Do not worry. They are not burned.) You can move the pieces around a bit as you flip them if the edge pieces are picking up color much faster than those in the center.

To serve: Slice the zested lemon in half, and squeeze the juice of one half over the tray; cut the second half into wedges for serving. Eat right away.

Serves 3 or 4.

From Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files by Deb Perelman. Copyright 2022 by Deb Perelman. Excerpted bypermissionof Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted withoutpermissionin writing from the publisher.