Step 1

Preheat oven to 400 °F.

Step 2

Grind regular coffee beans for the rub. Stir rub ingredients together.

Step 3

Trim down chicken wings: using a sharp knife, find the joint between the wing tip and the middle section of the wing and slice through it. If you can slice the joint correctly you won’t have to apply much pressure. You can toss the wing tips or save them for chicken stock.

Step 4

Do a similar cut in the joint between the drumstick and the middle section. Again, it should slice pretty easily if you go through the joint. If you are chopping through the bone every time, you are making your life harder than it needs to be.

Step 5

Once all wings are cut, dunk them in rub and press it on to each side of the wings. Make sure each wing has a good even coat of the rub.

Step 6

Bake these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the 20 minutes mark, pull them out and flip them with tongs.

Step 7

Note: These wings are delicious with just the rub. If you want to stop here you’ll end up with a delicious (although not exactly sticky) final product. It will still please the masses though I promise.

Step 8

Whisk together all sticky sauce ingredients in a medium bowl while wings cook.

Step 9

Get out a large sauté pan and put it over high heat. Whisk sauce to make sure it’s all combined well and then pour it into pan.

Step 10

After just a few minutes over high heat, the sauce should be starting to bubble nicely and the sugar from the sauce will start to thicken up a bit. The sauce should still be pretty runny though, you don’t want it to thicken up too much.

Step 11

Then throw all your baked wings into the pan! When the wings hit the sauce, the sauce will stick to the wings and thicken up even more almost instantly.

Step 12

Once they are all sticky, serve them immediately with some chopped cilantro on top.