Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways

 

Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways
From Ribs, Chops, Steaks & Wings by Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe

 

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a lazy Sunday barbecue at our friends' house in the suburbs.  We were there to watch the Bears game, but since they let us down (as usual), the focus turned towards food.  Our chorizo bean dip was a hit, but the real star of the show was the grilled chicken wings made by our lovely hosts.

 

The next weekend we stayed home for the game, but we just had to have more of those wings!  We found a recipe for wing rub in a grilling cookbook we got as a wedding gift.  Then we saw that the book had a whole chapter dedicated to wing sauces, so we decided to take it up a notch.

 

All three of these versions turn out amazing and prove that deep frying ala your favorite sports bar is totally unnecessary for a crispy skin.  They all start with the same rub and grilling process.  Then one third is served as is, just rubbed and grilled.  Another third is tossed in a buffalo sauce, and the remaining third gets honey-BBQ sauce.  Of course, you can make all the wings to have one or two of these sauces, but we thought having all three was more fun.

 

Ingredients

 

Ribs

• about 20 whole, fresh chicken wings (they're weird looking if you're expecting what you see at the bar - see step 1 for cutting them down)

Rub

• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Hot Wing Sauce

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (other brands would do, I guess, but Frank's really has that classic hot wing flavor)

Barbeque Wing Sauce

• 1 cup barbecue sauce (we're partial to Sweet Baby Ray's, but use what you like)
• 1/4 cup honey 

Preparation

1. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut each wing into three parts.  One end turns into the little drumstick, the middle turns into the rectangle shaped one, and the pointy tip end is garbage (we accidentally left it on, so you may notice it in the pic - we just ate around it).  I recommend You Tube if that made no sense, but if you order wings at bars a lot just take a second to look at the wing and I think you'll see the familiar parts.
2. Mix salt, sugar, and next 8 ingredients (through cayenne pepper) together in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture over each wing.  Allow wings to rest for at least 15 minutes, and up to 4 hours.
4. Heat grill to medium.
5. Grill wings for about 25 minutes, turning often.  They are done when they are nicely browned and the juices run clear.
6. For dry-rubbed wings, serve as is.
7. For hot wings, melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Stir in hot sauce.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.
8. For barbecue wings, warm barbecue sauce and honey in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.

Serves 40 wing pieces.

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Pulled Pork Sandwiches

 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
From Food.com 

 

My husband is a Man.  And as of 4 weeks ago, he's a Man with a CostCo card.  And on Labor Day weekend this resulted in me being a woman with 15 pounds of pork shoulder to deal with.  So naturally we whipped out our brand new, extra-large (thank God) crock pot and let it do most of the work for us.  We were able to cram about 9 pounds of meat into the thing, so you can expect the 6 remaining pounds currently in our freezer to make a blog appearance sooner or later.  Maybe later, since we're going to be eating leftover pulled pork for the next month.  (FYI, it makes a darn good breakfast sandwich meat!!)

 

Ingredients

• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4-6 lbs boneless pork shoulder
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• your favorite BBQ sauce
• buns
• coleslaw (optional)

Preparation

1. Place quartered onions on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Combine brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper.  Rub over the meat
3. Place meat on top of onions, in crock pot.
4. Combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper, sugar, mustard, garlic powder, and cayenne.  Whisk to mix well.
5. Drizzle 1/2 of the vinegar mixture over the roast.  Refrigerate the remaining mixture.
6. Cook on low for 8-16 hours.  It really depends on your crock pot.  Ours is like a super turbo model or something, because we checked on it after 8 hours, and low and behold it was totally tender and cooked through (which resulted in a pork pulling frenzy at midnight...)
7. Remove meat from crock pot and allow to stand for 15 minutes or more.
8. Remove onions and finely chop.
9. Use to forks to pull meat apart.
10. Mix onions back into shredded meat, along with some of the juice from the crock pot, to moisten it.
11. Add just enough BBQ sauce to give it distinct BBQ flavor.  Provide additional sauce at the table or in the buffet line.
12. Serve on buns, topped with coleslaw!

Serves a bajillion people.  (Online recipe says 18-20).

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