Super Bowl LXI is at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on February 14, 2027. For sticky chicken wings that survive a game-day platter, bake dry, salted wings on a rack at 425°F until crisp, then toss them in a hot glaze. Here the glaze is mostly marmalade.
In February 2026 the National Chicken Council projected 1.48 billion wings for Super Bowl LX, about 10 million more than the year before. The good ones have crisp skin under a glaze thick enough to cling rather than pool, and that means crisping and glazing as separate jobs.
Crisp first, then sticky
Jeff Mauro's oven-fried wings for Food Network handle the first half. He tosses 4 pounds of wings with 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1½ tablespoons of kosher salt, sets them on a wire rack over a sheet pan, leaves them uncovered in the fridge overnight, and bakes them at 425°F for 45–50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway. He credits the overnight rest, which dries the skin, for the crunch.
The second half comes from Alex Guarnaschelli's baked wings with marmalade and Fresno chile. Her sauce is 1 cup of orange marmalade warmed with soy sauce, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and hot sauce, drizzled over the wings once they're out of the oven. She writes that it was inspired by her grandmother, who finished roast chicken with a brush of marmalade. Some recipes take the other route and marinate raw wings in marmalade before roasting, but a sugary marinade can scorch before the skin crisps.
This version keeps Mauro's method for the skin and Guarnaschelli's balance for the sauce, with one change: the glaze simmers a few minutes longer so it thickens and coats every wing in the bowl instead of sitting on top.
What does a jar of marmalade replace?
Sticky wing glazes usually build body from honey or brown sugar, get their brightness from orange juice and zest, and sometimes lean on a cornstarch slurry to thicken. A jar of marmalade covers all of it. The sugar is already there (cane sugar is the first ingredient on both of the jars below), the cooked peel shreds carry the citrus, and the pectin listed on each label helps the glaze set as it reduces. Use ¾ cup of marmalade where a recipe calls for about ½ cup of honey, chop any long shreds so they stick to the wings, and simmer until the glaze coats a spoon. If you want it sweeter, stir in a teaspoon of honey at the end.
Of the two jars, Mandarin is the more aromatic, with an oil-rich peel; we make it primarily from Satsuma-type mandarins grown in the Redlands area. Navel Orange is closer to straight orange flavor, with orange juice concentrate in the jar alongside the fruit. Either works. Mandarin gives the wings more perfume; Navel gives the flavor people expect from "orange wings."
Sticky chicken wings recipe
Yield: 4–6 servings, about 40 pieces · Prep: 15 minutes, plus optional overnight drying · Cook: 55 minutes · Total: 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
Wings - 4 lb (1.8 kg) chicken wings, split into drumettes and flats, tips removed - 1 tbsp baking powder (not baking soda) - 1½ tbsp kosher salt (not table salt)
Glaze - ¾ cup (180 ml) orange-family marmalade; we'd reach for Mandarin - 3 tbsp (45 ml) low-sodium soy sauce - 2 tbsp (30 ml) rice vinegar or red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp Dijon mustard - 1–2 tsp hot sauce - 1 clove garlic, grated on a Microplane
To finish - 3 scallions, thinly sliced - 1 Fresno or red jalapeño chile, thinly sliced (optional)
Steps
- Pat the wings completely dry with paper towels.
- Toss them in a large bowl with the baking powder and salt until evenly dusted.
- Set a wire rack in a rimmed sheet pan and arrange the wings on it skin side up, not touching.
- Refrigerate uncovered overnight if you have time; otherwise go straight to the oven.
- Set an oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 425°F (220°C).
- Bake the wings for 45–50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway, until deep golden and crisp.
- Check the thickest drumette with an instant-read thermometer. The CDC's safe minimum for poultry is 165°F (74°C).
- While the wings bake, stir the marmalade, soy sauce, vinegar, mustard, hot sauce and garlic together in a small saucepan.
- Bring the glaze to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 3–4 minutes, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Tip the hot wings into a large bowl, pour over the warm glaze and toss until every piece is coated.
- Pile onto a platter and scatter over the scallions and chile.
Notes
- Baking powder, not soda. The whole method is built on baking powder, which dries the skin so it blisters in the oven. Baking soda is a different, stronger leavener and isn't a drop-in swap.
- Salt. Mauro's 1½ tbsp is kosher salt for 4 pounds of wings. Table salt packs far more salt into a spoon, so don't swap it one for one, and stick with low-sodium soy in the glaze, which adds salt of its own.
- Glaze timing. Toss the wings just before serving. They stay crisp longest when the glaze goes on hot wings and hot glaze together; set out any extra glaze in a bowl for dipping.
- Sugar near a hot oven. If you want the glaze more lacquered, you can return tossed wings to the oven for a few minutes, but a glaze this sugary catches fast. Watch them the whole time.
- Make ahead. Stir the glaze together earlier in the day and keep it in the fridge, then simmer it while the wings finish.
- Short on time? The wings still crisp without the overnight rest, just less. Dry them very well with paper towels instead.
- No marmalade? Go back to honey. Tyler Florence's sticky honey-soy wings cook marinated wings in a skillet with ½ cup honey until the glaze turns sticky. For the baked wings above, simmer ⅓ cup honey with the other glaze ingredients plus the grated zest and juice of 1 orange until it coats a spoon. It will taste rounder and less bitter than the marmalade glaze, and a little thinner, since honey has no pectin.
The same jar can glaze something bigger: a whole ham gets a marmalade coat in our marmalade recipes from shortbread to glazed ham. For other flavors to try on wings, browse the marmalades.
Photo by Jim Sosengphet on Unsplash.
