Wings, Four Ways
Who doesn’t love wings? I have a friend that judges an entire establishment just by their wings, regardless of the quality and deliciousness of the other dishes on the menu. Wings are a serious business and impossible to eat without covering yourself, your clothes and your dining companions in sauce, regardless of how many napkins you employ.
It is generally acknowledged that the original Buffalo Wing was invented back in 1964 by Teressa Bellissimo, proprietor of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. There are two versions of why she invented them – one that she received a shipment of wings rather than other chicken parts by accident and had no choice but to cook them. The other, more plausible reason in my view, is her hungry son, Dominic, and friends returned back from a night on the tiles in need of a late night snack. All that remained in the kitchen was a pile of chicken wings that were destined for the overnight stock-pot. She fried them up then slathered them with a spicy hot sauce then served them with a side of blue cheese sauce and celery because that’s all she had. They’ve been on the menu there ever since.
As well as the original classic ‘Buffalo’ wing recipe, I have included a few other versions that we like to cook at home. The method for making the wings on the grill stays the same – cook the wings first, then slather in sauce and serve.
Ingredients
Chicken wings, cut in half at the ‘elbow’ to give two straight bones
A little rapeseed oil
Sauce of your choosing
300ml Frank’s red hot sauce
250g block unsalted butter
3 tbsp white vinegar
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp teaspoon paprika
Pinch of salt
Heat all the ingredients and whisk together until combined. Allow to cool.
You may need to give it a little whisk again before covering your wings.
250g Sriracha
250g honey
Juice of ½ lime
25ml sherry vinegar
10g fine salt
5g black pepper
Simply mix together.
1 medium onion, very finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
500ml ketchup
100ml yellow ‘American’ mustard
75ml cider vinegar
75ml Worcestershire sauce
75ml honey
180g soft brown sugar
Gently fry the onions and garlic until soft.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes to thicken; add water if the sauce becomes too thick.
75ml cup soy sauce
4 tbsp gochujang chilli paste
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp honey
Sesame seeds
Spring onions, finely sliced
Mix all the ingredients apart from the sesame seeds and spring onions together in a bowl.
Once your wings are sauced and in a serving dish, garnish with the sesame seeds and spring onions.
Method
There are lots of ways to cook wings – hot and fast directly, low and slow smoked etc – but, in my opinion, this method gives the best of both worlds.
Set your grill up with a full chimney of coals dumped in the middle of the charcoal grate using either char-baskets or a vortex to keep them in place.
Fan the wings around the outer part of the cooking grate, furthest from the heat, turning regularly until the outside gets crispy and the internal temperature hits around 90°C, which will take around 45 minutes to an hour.
While chicken is safe to eat at anything over 74°C, this higher temperature gives crispy skin, fall-off-the-bone tender, juicy meat.
More Recipes Ideas from Jon Finch
Method
There are lots of ways to cook wings – hot and fast directly, low and slow smoked etc – but, in my opinion, this method gives the best of both worlds.
Set your grill up with a full chimney of coals dumped in the middle of the charcoal grate using either char-baskets or a vortex to keep them in place.
Fan the wings around the outer part of the cooking grate, furthest from the heat, turning regularly until the outside gets crispy and the internal temperature hits around 90°C, which will take around 45 minutes to an hour.
While chicken is safe to eat at anything over 74°C, this higher temperature gives crispy skin, fall-off-the-bone tender, juicy meat.
