Finding ourselves in Portland one late afternoon with a few hours to spare, my daughter and I decided to pick up a few groceries at Trader Joe’s. Since the trip was unplanned, we didn’t have a shopping list so instead spent time wandering the aisles. Shopping without a list can be a dangerous activity. You never know what you’ll bring home. On a whim, I grabbed a two-pound bag of frozen organic chicken wings. I love wings, but surprisingly have never actually made them at home. This seemed like a reasonable splurge.

During checkout, the cashier commented that he’d heard great things about the wings saying “You wouldn’t think wings would be anything special, but they’re supposed to be delicious”. Interesting observation. I was feeling pretty pleased with my purchase.

Trade Joe’s didn’t have any sauce options so we headed to the nearby Whole Foods. We were actually swinging by to grab some all natural microwave popcorn. I can’t keep popcorn stocked at my house. I wish they sold it by the case although I probably couldn’t afford it if they did. We decided that while we were there we would see if they had any sauce for the wings.

I’m so glad that we did! They had a local offering, Deer Camp Black Bear Chipotle BBQ Sauce. It looked like it would have some kick but not be too hot. I love wings, but finding that perfect balance is sometimes a challenge. I always panic when they ask me which sauce I want on my wings when ordering them in a restaurant. I only choose wisely about fifty percent of the time. That’s not a good track record but I was determined to see how I did with the homemade variety.

The wings needed to be cooked at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. We lined a couple of rectangular Pyrex dishes with aluminum foil and placed the wings in rows. We cooked them for 45 minutes, and then basted them with the sauce before putting them back in for a little over five minutes. For the full bag of wings, we used about half the 12 oz bottle of the Deer Camp sauce leaving us with more sauce for another round of wings. Bonus!

The end result was perfect. The wings had a nice kick to them but were not overwhelming. Although, for those of you who like something with even more heat, Deer Camp does make some hotter alternatives too.  I think we’re going to try the Buckshot Blueberry sauce next time although I’m not sure I should mess with my recipe. I have a 100% success rate so far when it comes to homemade wings.

We garnished the finished wings with some organic celery, and Caesar dressing for dipping. It was a quick, easy and delicious dinner. Yummy!

Random Fact for those of you following me for my A to Z Challenge. This was the first post I queued up for April. 

I’m participating in a Blogging A-Z Challenge for April 2016. I will be posting new content every day except Sundays. Each post is associated with a letter of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with Z. My theme for the challenge is Life in Maine, and each post will in some way relate to Maine. There are over 1500 other bloggers participating in the challenge. Click HERE to learn more.