Mexican Chicken Wings

Seven days. Luis Jr. comes home in seven days. June 1. The number is so close I can taste it — and it tastes like tamales, because I have made one hundred and sixty of the two hundred, and the kitchen smells like chile colorado, and the smell is the preparation, and the preparation is the love, and the love is the tamale, and the tamale is the homecoming.

The bakery is surviving the pandemic — not thriving, not the ninety-five thousand pace we were on before COVID, but surviving. Sofia's innovations — the meal kits, the subscriptions, the delivery service — have kept us at sixty-five percent of pre-pandemic revenue, which is enough to pay everyone and keep the lights on and put food on the table. The Juírez fund has not grown — there is no extra money during a pandemic — but it has not shrunk either, and not shrinking is the pandemic's version of growth.

Camila asked me this week: "Mamí, when the virus goes away, can I have a dog?" The dog petition, year five, has been updated with pandemic-era reasoning. She said: "I've been very good during quarantine and I need a companion and a dog would help my mental health." She is seven. She just used the phrase "mental health" in a dog petition. She learned it on television, or from Isabella, or from the air, because Camila absorbs vocabulary the way sponges absorb water — completely, immediately, and with the intent to use it as leverage. I said: "We'll see." She heard the we'll-see and she smiled, because we'll-see is closer to yes than no, and she knows the distance between we'll-see and yes is approximately one more year of unrelenting persistence.

I made the final forty tamales today. Two hundred total. Sealed, frozen, ready to be reheated on June 1 when my son walks through the door. Two hundred tamales for a homecoming during a pandemic — no party, no gathering, no fifty people at the table, just the family, just us, just seven people (five children, two parents) and two hundred tamales and the sound of a door opening and a soldier coming home.

I cleaned his room. I washed his sheets. I put flowers on his nightstand — marigolds, because marigolds guide the lost home, and Luis Jr. has been lost to me for nine months, and the marigolds will guide him, and the clean sheets will hold him, and the two hundred tamales will feed him, and the feeding is the welcome, and the welcome is everything I have.

The tamales are made and frozen, the room is clean, the marigolds are on the nightstand — and I still have seven days and two hands that do not know what to do with themselves. Cooking is how I pray, so I cooked again. These Mexican Chicken Wings are not the centerpiece of June 1; the tamales are. But they are the in-between food, the we-are-almost-there food, the flavor that says our table is still set with the same love it always has been, and it will be even fuller when he sits back down at it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken wings, tips removed and split at the joint
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
Lime wedges, for serving

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top. Lightly coat the rack with cooking spray.
Mix the spice rub. In a large bowl, whisk together the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt, and black pepper.
Coat the wings. Pat the chicken wings dry with paper towels. Toss them with the olive oil, then add them to the spice mixture and toss until every piece is thoroughly coated.
Arrange and bake. Spread the wings in a single layer on the prepared rack. Bake for 40–45 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until the skin is crisp and the internal temperature reaches 165°F.
Finish with lime. Remove from the oven and immediately drizzle with fresh lime juice. Toss gently to coat.
Garnish and serve. Transfer to a platter, scatter cilantro over the top, and serve with lime wedges alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mexican Chicken Wings — A Taste of Home While We Wait for Him to Walk Through the Door