Asian-Style Chicken Wings

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I think my favorite charcoal grilled snack or appetizer would have to be chicken wings. I enjoy them fried, but I really love them cooked over the coals for two reasons. First is the grilled flavor – charcoal grilled chicken is probably my favorite meat behind a perfectly cooked ribeye steak. Second is the endless amount of sauces or spice rubs that can be applied to take their flavor to a different level. I rarely make my wings the traditional way, or buffalo style, and douse them in a hot sauce and butter mixture. I like to get creative with the sauce.

For this recipe, the wing coating features the fruity and sweet hoisin sauce, spice from sriracha and the aromatic ginger and garlic that all together provides an Asian-style flavor.       Like most chicken wing recipes, they’re messy! I ate them by myself for lunch, and I’m glad I was alone because the site of it would have given small children nightmares for years to come. I practically needed a fire hose to clean up the delicious mess.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Asian-Style Chicken Wings

It seems that boneless wings are becoming more and more popular at restaurants. They’re easy to devour with no worries of a bone getting in the way and they're just as tasty as traditional bone-in wings with the same type of white meat. For some reason though, I still lean toward the traditional bone-in style wings.

There is something much more interactive about having to pick all the meat from the bones rather than just tossing them back like popcorn. The effort to eat them seems to create a more enjoyable culinary experience for me. I could be crazy, well, in fact, I know I’m crazy – but that is just how I like my wings. Also, when cooking them it’s easy to tell when the wings are finished because the meat will recede a little from the bone making for a nice visual cue announcing the wings are ready to scarf down.

Now, I’m not gonna kick someone out of the kitchen for making boneless wings, I just have a slight preference for the traditional variety.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Asian-Style Chicken Wings

Appetizer for 4, main course for 2; 35 minutes
1 1/2 to 2 lbs Chicken wings
2 tsp Ginger minced
2 tsp Garlic minced
2 Tbs Hoisin sauce
1 Tbs Honey
1 Tbs Sriracha sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Rice vinegar

Grill wings
Prepare grill for cooking.
Season wings with salt and pepper to taste, then grill wings until cooked through, turning two or three times during cooking, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove wings from grill and let rest 5 to 10 minutes.

Make sauce, toss wings
While wings rest, in a sauce pan over medium heat, saute garlic and ginger in a little olive oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in hoisin sauce, honey, sriracha, sesame oil and rice vinegar, heat to a simmer then remove. In a bowl, toss the wings and sauce together. Pile on a plate and serve.

Spicy Molasses Barbecue Wings

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I recently made sauce for ribs and one of the featured ingredients was molasses. I thought it provided a great flavor and decided to incorporate it into a sauce for chicken wings.

Here, I take a traditional wing sauce and fold it into a basic barbecue sauce. It starts by sauteing onion and garlic in a
quarter cup of butter. I use butter because that is what I use to thin out Frank’s Redhot when I make traditional wings. Next, I add all the barbecue sauce elements plus the Frank’s Redhot. The molasses is the sweet that cuts the heat and balances the vinegar. It also has a distinct flavor that is really the signature here. The Redhot is present in the flavor, but the molasses adds depth and really brings the whole thing together.

The sauce is delicious but if I were to make it again I would add either two tablespoons of honey or brown sugar. The molasses has a slightly bitter aftertaste and I think an extra sweetener would eliminate that. That is just me being really critical of my work though, this sauce works and will be a hit at the dinner table.

BEHIND THIS BITE
This is my second wing recipe in a row. I have been grilling like a madman lately and really enjoying some summer cuisine. Last year we had record heat in March and by April summer was in full swing. By this time a year ago I was already burned out on summer grilling. This year, it seemed as though summer would never get here. I got a late start, but I’m in full-swing now.

I’m going grill crazy because it won’t be long and all the home gardens in our area will be churning out fresh veggies. Then I'll have enough tomatoes and cucumbers to feed a small city and grill crazy will turn to garden crazy.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4 to 6; 45 minutes
1/4 C Butter
1/4 C Red onion diced
1 Tbs Garlic minced
1 C Ketchup
1 C Frank’s Redhot sauce
1/2 C Molasses
1/4 C Cider vinegar
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

Make sauce
In a sauce pan over medium heat melt butter. Add onion and cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Stir in ketchup, hot sauce, molasses, vinegar, worcestershire and dijon mustard. Bring to a simmer and let cook for 6 to 8 minutes, remove from heat.

Make wings
Prepare charcoal grill. Season wings with salt and pepper to taste. When coals are ready grill wings over medium-high heat for 7 to 8 minutes per side. Baste with sauce and grill 10 to 12 minutes more or until cooked through turning 2 or 3 more times. After each turn, baste with more sauce. Remove from grill and let rest 5 minutes, then serve.

Caribbean Spiced Chicken Wings

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When I first moved to New York in the fall of 1997 my new neighbors from the apartment above me invited me over for dinner with their family and friends. They were from the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, a small republic off the northern coast of South America.

They made a spicy curried chicken with a number of sides inspired by their native country for the meal. At one point, I was asked to sample a peppery paste that went with the chicken. I took a small taste which made me cough and my eyes water. The entire group let out a big chuckle, because right before I sampled it I was bragging about how I could handle spicy food.

For this recipe, I make a dry rub for chicken wings with Caribbean flavors. It features ginger, coriander, allspice and cayenne pepper for some heat. It’s nothing like the pepper paste I tried at that dinner in New York, but it has many of the tropical island flavors I tasted for the first time as my new neighbors welcomed the “white boy from Indiana” into their community.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I lived in my first apartment in New York for five years. The couple who invited me to dinner moved out after the third year and I ended up getting to take-over the backyard, which I landscaped and turned into a small paradise in the middle of Queens. As soon as I moved in they let me put a charcoal grill back there, so getting to take it over for myself was the icing on the cake. It was a real luxury to have a backyard in the city and it was there that I discovered my passion for cooking.

I would make entire meals over charcoal and way more food than I could possible eat in one sitting. It was nothing for me to buy three or four cuts of meat on a warm Saturday night and grill all of it for later in the week. I loved hanging out in my backyard with the grill blazing and the beer chilling.

That's where my culinary journey really took off - on a little patio in the middle of Long Island City, Queens.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4; 1 hour
3 Tbs Salt
2 Tbs Brown sugar
2 Tbs Ground ginger
2 Tbs Ground coriander
2 Tbs Black pepper
1 Tbs Onion powder
1 Tbs Garlic powder
1 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
4 to 5 lbs Chicken wings

Make rub
In a bowl mix together salt, brown sugar, ginger, coriander, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, allspice and cayenne pepper.

Marinate wings
Sprinkle seasoning over both sides of wings and rub in with hands. Let marinate for 30 minutes in refrigerator. While wings marinate, prepare charcoal for grill.

Cook wings
Over medium high heat cook wings on grill until cooked through and juices run clear, 20 to 25 minutes, turning every 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and let rest at least 5 minutes, then serve

Spice Rubbed Wings

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These spice rubbed chicken wings are the second of two recipes intended for the same snack.

Find a complimentary sauce to these savory spiced wings here.

Clove is a spice native to Indonesia and used all over the world in cooking. It’s difficult to harvest, making it more expensive than other spices. The Chinese used it as early as the 3rd century B.C. and Marco Polo mentioned clove plantations in his travels through the East Indies in 13th century.

In the United States it has many culinary purposes including use as a pickling spice or an ingredient in mulled wine and apple pie. Clove can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. Its distinctive aroma comes from eugenol which is also present in cinnamon and makes the two a natural pair that work well together.

Here, I incorporate clove into a rub for chicken wings. I add a tiny amount along with cinnamon for just a hint of flavor – too much will overpower the recipe and therefore must be used judiciously. The two impart an aromatic and fragrant taste to the wings and are just noticeable along with the flavor of smoky charcoal, making this recipe a must-try gourmet treat.

BEHIND THIS BITE
After destroying a couple of chilis and a steak or two I have finally gotten the clove thing right!

The secret - use just a tiny amount.

Although there is only a quarter teaspoon in this recipe it still makes its presence known in the rub - in the best of ways. It provides an aroma and a hint of flavor (along with the cinnamon) and it’s just enough to be noticed – but hard to identify. Both of the testers I served it to ended up asking what the secret flavor was.

This is the first time I had accomplished this with clove. Like I said, I have destroyed a couple of other recipes with it. (One was a chili that was ruined with a full teaspoon of the stuff, which is really enough for about two gallons of chilli – not 2 quarts.) I can’t wait to use my smoker this summer at the family campground - just to use a rub like this one on a couple of whole chickens I plan to smoke!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 6; 1 hour
2 Tbs Salt
2 Tbs Chili powder
1 Tbs Cumin
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Clove
4 to 5 lbs Chicken wings

Make rub
In a bowl mix together salt, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and clove. Season wings on each side, first sprinkle on then rub in with hands. Let chicken marinate 30 minutes.

Grill wings
Prepare charcoal grill, let brickets burn until mostly covered with ash, 20 to 25 minutes, then spread evenly on bottom of grill. Place wings on grate, put cover on grill and cook 15 to 20 minutes, turning once half way. Remove when cooked through. Let rest 8 to 10 minutes then serve.