Chicken Wings w Mole Sauce and Air Fried Cheese Curds

About

This insanely delicious Keto meal is great for the dinner table OR your meal prepping. Whole chicken wings are cut into “wings” and “dings” and marinate in a handful of seasonings. They’re baked smothered in a rich and creamy Mexican mole sauce. Mole sauce is a traditional sauce that normally can take an entire day to make, but this Keto version is made in less than an hour. The mole sauce in this recipe is made with chiles, onion, cacao, and Keto tahini and butter. Served on the side are fried cheese curds made in your air fryer. After coated in a pork rind breading, the cheese curds are fried for just a few minutes before they’re ready to eat. At your discretion, you can eat your cheese curds with ketchup, ranch, or mayonnaise for dipping. Keep the finished chicken wings and cheese curds in your meal prep containers and reheat them in your microwave throughout the week.

How Spicy Are The Chicken Wings?

Any spicy flavors you’ll taste are in the mole sauce and not on the actual chicken wings. The mole sauce is made with dried guajillo pepper, which is a Mexican chile. Guajillo chiles rate from 2,500-5000 units on the Scoville heat scale. That’s just a little bit less spicy than the average jalapeno but about twice as spicy as a poblano pepper. Make sure you wash your hands when working with any spicy ingredients in your cooking.

I Don’t Own An Air Fryer

If you don’t own an air fryer, don’t worry! You can still make fried cheese curds. However, you won’t be able to use the cheese curd recipe used here. Head over to the Carb Manager Keto Fried Cheese Curds recipe to learn how to make them on your stovetop. Instead of breading your cheese curds in pork rinds, you’ll be frying them in a Keto egg white batter.

Ingredients

1 ½ lb raw chicken wings
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
½ oz fried pork rinds
6 oz cheese curds
¼ oz chile guajillo dried
2 oz yellow onion
½ cup beef broth
½ tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon tahini
10 drops liquid stevia
½ tablespoon cocoa powder dry unsweetened
1 tablespoon butter, unsalted

Instructions

Prepare the chicken wings at least 6 hours before you cook them so they can marinate. You can choose to leave chicken wings whole or cut them into the smaller “wings” and “dings”. Add raw chicken wings to a large mixing bowl, and toss them with salt, pepper, lemon pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Fold the chicken wings over until they’re evenly coated in spices. Add the seasoned chicken wings to a large Ziploc bag and marinate them in your refrigerator for 6 hours or more, at your discretion.
You’ll also need to prepare the cheese curds in advance, but you can do this step either directly after Step 1 or wait until it’s time to do Step 3. Break up large cheese curds and place them in a large Ziploc bag. Spray pan spray on the cheese curds and spoon some ground pork rinds into the bag. Seal the bag and shake the cheese curds around until the pork rinds stick. Continue the process of lightly spraying the cheese curds with pan spray and coating them in pork rinds until the cheese curds are mostly covered. Carefully arrange the coated cheese curds on a plate or tray, and set them in your freezer. Let the cheese curds and pork rind breading freeze for at least 30 minutes, but you can keep them frozen for up to 24 hours.
When it’s closer to cooking time, you can begin making the mole sauce. Slice the top off of a large dried guajillo chile and shake the seeds out. Discard the stem and seeds, and add the dried chile to a small pot. Add whole, raw onion to the pot, and fill the pot with water until the ingredients are covered. Heat the pot on your stove until the chile and onion are simmering and rehydrating in the water.
Once you see the chile is rehydrated and the onion is tender, take the pot off the heat. Transfer the chile and onion to a food processor and add 1 or 2 spoonfuls of the liquid from the pot. Pulse the ingredients until the chile and onion break up in the food processor. At your discretion, you can add more cooking water to the food processor and pulse until you have a loose chile paste.
In a new pot, bring the beef broth to a simmer. Once it’s simmering, stir tomato paste and tahini into the broth until the oils break up in the liquid and the ingredients emulsify. Stir the liquid stevia, cocoa powder, and all the chili paste from your food processor into the pot. Once the sauce comes together, melt the butter into the pot. Place a lid over the pot and let the mole sauce simmer down for approximately 15-20 minutes. Watch the heat so your mole sauce doesn’t bubble too much and make a mess!
While the mole sauce is cooking down, turn on your oven to preheat to 400 degrees. Spray a baking rack with pan spray, and set it over a sheet tray to catch any drippings in the oven. Arrange your marinated chicken wings on the baking rack, and send them straight into your preheated oven. Bake the chicken wings for 20 minutes.
When your mole sauce has finished simmering down, remove the lid from the pot and stir the sauce together. If there is still some fat separated from the sauce, continue simmering the sauce without a lid until the sauce can be stirred together into a thick, creamy sauce. If you need to, you can use a hand immersion blender or a standing blender to bring the sauce together off the heat. Pull the chicken wings out of the oven, and brush some of the mole sauce liberally over the top of each chicken wing. Bake the chicken wings for another 20 minutes.
While the chicken wings are baking for this second round, return your focus to the cheese curds. Turn on your air fryer to preheat to 400 degrees. Arrange the frozen cheese curds on your air fryer tray and place them in the air fryer. You will need to watch the cheese curds fry so they don’t overcook and melt on your tray. Fry the cheese curds for approximately 3-5 minutes. When you see the cheese just start to darken as if they will begin melting, remove them from the air fryer for serving.
Now, you can go back to the chicken wings. After the second round of baking, use a pair of tongs to flip each chicken wing over on the baking rack. Brush more mole sauce over the wings, and return them to the oven for a third and final round. Bake the chicken wings for just 10 minutes this time. Let the chicken wings cool for 5 minutes before continuing to the last step.
After cooling, place all the chicken wings in a large, clean mixing bowl. Pour all the remaining mole sauce from your pot over the chicken wings. Fold or toss the wings until they’re completely coated in mole sauce. Serve approximately 3 pieces of “wings” and “dings” with about 4 ounces of fried cheese curds.