Friday, January 27, 2012

Fire Roasted Chili Lime Wings

Can you remember the first chicken wing you had?

I don't mean a fried chicken wing left over because it was the last piece from a Sunday fried chicken dinner or a bucket from KFC.  I am talking about a real wing.  A chicken wing cooked for the purpose of being a wing, not an "also ran".  Like buffalo wings or hot wings.  My first ones were at Stadium Club where my friend Carson worked as a cook. 

It is the Third Annual Week of Wings over at Hot Sauce Daily, a celebration of wings.  Brian and Marilyn will be grilling up wings, reviewing wing sauces, and checking out all things wing related. Hop over there and check their wing-centricity all week.  

Here is my tribute to Week of Wings.


Traditional "buffalo sauces" have hot sauce, butter, spices and an acid, such as vinegar and/or Worcestershire sauce.  For this one, I relied on the lime juice in the Cholula Chili Lime sauce as the acid.

Fire Roasted Chili Lime Wings
servings: 4

  • 12 chicken wings, cut into drummettes and wingettes, tips reserved for stock

For the dry rub
  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 tsp turbinado sugar
  • 3/4 tsp garlic salt
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flake
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper 
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
For the sauce
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 1 clove garlic, very finely minced
  • 1/4 cup lime flavored hot sauce*
  • 1/2 tsp of the dry rub
Instructions
  1. Preheat a charcoal grill to 350-375f set up for indirect heat*.
  2. Season the 24 wing pieces with the dry rub (reserve 1/2 tsp of the rub for the sauce).
  3. Roast the wings on a covered grill for 30 minutes.
  4. Flip the wing pieces and roast for 20 minutes.  
  5. Meanwhile, melt 1 Tbsp butter over medium heat in a saute pan and saute the garlic for 2-3 minutes.
  6. Add the remaining butter and dry rub, whisking continuously until well blended (another 2-3 minutes).  
  7. Once the wings have roasted a total of 50 minutes, remove them to a large bowl, pour the sauce over them, and toss to coat thoroughly.
  8. Roast the wings another 7-10 minutes, or until the sauce bakes on and the wings reach an internal temp of at least 170f.  
Notes
  • I used Cholula Chile Lime Hot Sauce. 
  • You can use your oven for this instead....if you insist.  Just remember, it doesn't taste as good and every time you use an oven instead of a grill, an angel loses it's wings.   Mmmmmmm fire roasted angel wings, heavenly! 

[Standard Disclaimer]  I received no compensation from Hot Sauce Daily for this post but Brian did threaten to boil ribs if I didn't post something wing related this week.