Zest Salt Finals Night Wings with Charred Lemon Butter

Difficulty: Easy | Prep: 10 min | Cook: 45 min | Total: 55 min | Serves: 4 | Dietary: Gluten-Free

Finals footy means someone has to do the wings. These ones get their crunch from the oven instead of a vat of oil, and Chooki's Zest Chicken Salt does the heavy lifting: lemony, a bit sharp, and it grabs onto hot skin. The charred lemon butter at the end is the bit people fight over.

Step 1: Dry and Dust

Pat the wings properly dry with paper towel. Wet skin steams, it does not crisp. Toss them in a big bowl with the baking powder and 2 teaspoons of the Zest Salt until every wing looks a bit chalky, then spread them skin side up on a wire rack over a lined tray. Give them room.

Step 2: Bake

Into a 200C fan-forced oven for 45 minutes, turning the tray around at the 30 minute mark. You want the skin blistered and deep gold, not pale. No basting, no fiddling.

Step 3: Char the Lemons

In the last 10 minutes, put a dry frying pan on high and press the lemon halves cut side down for 3 to 4 minutes until they blacken and smell like smoke and citrus. Pull them out, drop the butter in the same pan with the grated garlic, squeeze in the juice of one charred half and stir through the rest of the Zest Salt.

Step 4: Toss and Serve

Tip the hot wings into a big bowl, pour the lemon butter over and toss hard so it coats everything. Scatter the parsley, put the remaining charred lemon halves on the board for squeezing, and get them out while the skin is still loud.

Tip: The baking powder is not a typo. It shifts the pH of the skin so it browns and crisps faster in a home oven. Make sure it is baking powder and not bicarb, or they will taste like soap.