How to make Pterodactyl wings: simple, sweet and perfect for your dinosaur party
This is perhaps the ultimate dinosaur party food and the easiest way to dino-fy a dish. Try our simple, sweet and sticky barbecue Pterodactyl wings with cola barbecue sauce.
I’ll let you in on a secret: Pterodactyl wings are not made of Pterodactyls.
I understand the confusion.
I cannot guarantee they won’t elicit a discussion about how many Pterodactyls had to die for the dish.
Delicious, easy-to-make, Asian-inspired barbecue chicken wings (and legs) with a secret ingredient – cola – instantly dino-fied through a name and reference to its similarity to a prehistoric body part (dinosaur party food rule #2). This Pterodactyl wings recipe is one you need to try.
Rex’s recipe rundown
TITLE: Pterodactyl wings
FOOD: Chicken wings and drumsticks with Asian-inspired cola barbecue sauce
DINOSAUR: Pterosaurs
BEST FOR: Birthday parties, Halloween, weeknight meals with rice and veg.
EASE: 5 out of 5 – make sure you have wet wipes or paper towels for sticky fingers
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Pterodactyls are not technically dinosaurs
Dinosaur adjacent? Contemporaries, definitely.
Pterodactyls and other pterosaurs are not dinosaurs. They are an extinct group of prehistoric flying reptiles.
Pterosaurs were neither birds nor mammals. Like birds, they flapped their wings to generate lift and fly, and did not just glide. As their front limbs stretched out to the sides, they were not dinosaurs either.
There are dozens of individual Pterosaur species. Some were as large as F-16 fighter jets while others were barely bigger than a paper plane These flying carnivores lived from the late Triassic until the end of the Cretaceous and went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs.
Their wings had a tough, thin membrane stretching between their bodies, ankles and elongated fourth fingers. They had lightweight, hollow bones.
In 1784, Italian scientist Cosimo Alessandro Collini named the first pterosaur fossil – Pterodactylus (Greek for “winged finger”) – and identified it as a flying reptile. Most Pterodactyl fossils were found in the Altmühl Valley in Germany. Other Pterosaurs, including Rhamphorhynchus and Germandactylus, and the dinosaurs Archaeopteryx and Compsognathus, were also discovered there.
Pterodactylus was a relatively small Pterodactyl with a wing span of 1.04 metes. It had a long and thin skull with a bony crest about a quarter of the size of its skull and around 90 pointed teeth.
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Why you need to make this recipe
It’s delicious AND simple AND easy to dino-fy – ample reason to make these Pterodactyl wings.
But if we’re honest, you don’t need to make this recipe. For an easy dinosaur dish, make your favourite chicken wings recipe and call them Pterodactyl wings. Or Pteranodon wings. Or even Quetzocoatylus wings if they are particularly large (turkey wings?).
You don’t even have to make them: save time and buy some from your favourite supermarket or takeaway restaurant. All you have to do is give them a suitable dinosaur name. It will be one of the simplest dinosaur party dishes you can make.
But our Asian-inspired barbecue Pterodactyl wings recipe is simple. And delicious. And definitely worth trying. It works well with drumsticks, too.
Tips for making your pterodactyl wings
There are a few tips that improve this pterodactyl wings recipe.
Use regular Coca-Cola. The sugar is important for the caramelisation of the sauce and for taste. Do NOT use Coke Zero or Diet Coke, and stay away from anything flavoured. Do not use Pepsi, even if you generally prefer it.
Use original Coca-Cola – you will taste the difference (and I am not generally a fan of cola-flavoured drinks and don’t prefer one more than another).
If you can get it, use low-sodium soy sauce. If you can’t, go light on the salt when seasoning your wings.
Try and get chicken wings that are all about the same size to ensure consistent cooking. You can cook them in the oven or grill them on your barbecue, as you prefer (if you are grilling them, you might want one of these wing and drumstick stands).
When you set aside some of the sauce for dipping, put a lid or some plastic cling wrap over it. This will prevent a “skin” from forming while you finish cooking the wings.
Serve your Pterodactyl wings with your dipping sauce, preferably on a suitable plate. We found this cute dinosaur-shaped plate with an inbuilt dip bowl, or a simpler set of white serving bowls.
Can you make these cola barbecue glazed Pterodactyl wings in advance? The glaze and dipping sauce can definitely be made the day before. However, the wings are better if they are cooked fresh (also from a food poisoning perspective).
Don’t like wings? Use drumsticks!
Wings immediately conjure up images of prehistoric bat-like creatures flying through the air. But the cola barbecue glaze and sauce of this recipe work perfectly for drumsticks, too.
If you do use drumsticks, try and get some that are about the same size to ensure consistent cooking. Drumsticks will normally need about 10-15 minutes longer than wings to cook, depending on size.
Simple, sticky and sweet prehistoric deliciousness
This recipe for Pterodactyl wings is a simple and delicious example of how to dino-fy a dish and make it the perfect dinosaur party food – perhaps even the ultimate dinosaur party food. You should definitely consider making it for your next dinosaur birthday party or whenever you want an easy dinosaur-themed for lunch or dinner.
And I promise, it does not involve the killing of any Pterodactyls.
What dishes have you found simple to dino-fy?
Pterodactyl wings
This is perhaps the ultimate dinosaur party food and the easiest way to dino-fy a dish: sweet and sticky barbecue Pterodactyl wings with cola barbecue sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 large lime
- 2 spring onions
- 2 cups of cola-flavoured softdrink
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1-2 tsp water
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 12-18 chicken wings or legs
- Salt and pepper
- Spring onions and black sesame seeds to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Peel the lime zest from your lime with a potato peeler. Squeeze 2 tablespoons of lime juice into a small saucepan and add the zest.
- Slice the white and light green parts of the spring onion into ½ cm pieces and add to the saucepans. Set aside the rest.
- Finely slice the ginger and crush the garlic and add them to the saucepan. Add the cola and soy sauce to the saucepan too.
- Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce heat and simmer vigorously for about 30 minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken and has reduced by about half.
- While the sauce is reducing, preheat the oven to 200°c (fan forced) and line a baking tray. Rinse the chicken wings and pat dry with a paper towel. Prick the wings all over with the tip of a knife and spread the wings out on the tray. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until the wings are golden brown and the meat is cooked through (for about 25 minutes).
- Once the sauce has reduced, strain it through a sieve to remove all the solids.
- Stir the cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of cold water together in a small bowl and stir until smooth and all is combined. If needed, add a little more water. Return the sauce to the saucepan, stir in the cornstarch mixture and then boil for 3 minutes, stirring to remove any lumps.
- Transfer approximately half of the sauce to a small bowl to use as your dipping sauce. Cover with cling wrap and set aside.
- Stir the butter into the remaining sauce until it is melted and well combined.
- Remove the wings from the oven. Using a grill basting brush, brush the chicken wings with the cola sauce (with the butter) until covered. Return the tray to the oven and roast the wings until a glossy, golden brown approx. 10 minutes).
- Thinly slice the remainder of the spring onions and sprinkle over the wings. Sprinkle over the black sesame seeds too. Serve with the cola dipping sauce.
Notes
If you don't have a grill basting brush, put the sauce (with butter) and the pre-cooked wings in a large bowl and stir until the wings are coated. Return the wings to the tray to finish roasting.
This Asian-inspired cola Barbecue sauce is great for chicken legs too. Adjust your cooking time depending on the amount of meat on the drumsticks. Ours were cooked for about 10 minutes longer and were perfect!
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Nutrition Information
Yield 18 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 125Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 25mgSodium 318mgCarbohydrates 7gFiber 1gSugar 3gProtein 5g
Nutrition information is a guide only as it will depend on the specific products and brands you choose to use for this recipe.
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