With a son in college, I'm trying to up my game with chicken. Tonight, with 12 wings, I did 4 un-sauced, 4 with Orange Marmalade Sriracha (OMS) sauce (with a little more Sriracha than my first try), and 4 with a pepper jelly sauce (that is really probably more intended for ribs, I just wanted to experiment with pepper jelly). I also tried a new recipe for German potato salad, and did an easy, tried-&-true side of roasted broccoli.
The wings after drying overnight in the fridge, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Weber Kickin Chicken. I probably prefer Dizzy Pig Swamp Venom or Tony Cachere's.
Cooked at 360 indirect for 42 minutes, before saucing. The skin was crisp but wasn't quite as golden brown as I was hoping for. I probably could have gone a few more minutes before saucing. At those heats and with so much sugar in the sauces, I didn't want to burn the sugars, so I basically basted the wings, closed the lid for 1 minute, and took the wings off.
Plated with roasted broccoli, German potato salad, and two wings each of OMS, dry, and pepper jelly glaze.
The OMS version was by far my favorite. In my first attempt at the OMS sauce long ago, I used equal parts honey, brown sugar, and Sriracha as called for in the original recipe. It didn't have enough heat for my taste, so this time I tried a ratio of 1:1:2 of honey, brown sugar, and Sriracha, and the heat was just about perfect. You can find the HIGHLY recommended OMS sauce here:
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?5949-Orange-Marmalade-Sriracha-Wings. The pepper jelly glaze was 1 part pepper jelly, 1 part apple juice, and 1 part apple cider vinegar. I thought I might want to try this as a glaze on ribs next weekend, so I just wanted to tinker with it tonight, using wings as a cheap carrier. It lacked much kick as I warmed it, so I added 1 ts of Sriracha to add a little more spice to it. It may do ok for ribs, but it added pretty much nothing to the wings.
I had never tried the German potato salad before. It was basically roasted Yukon potatoes & onion, mixed with bacon bits, parsley, and a liquid comprised of 1/4 cup white vinegar, 3 TBS sugar, and 2 TBS water. It was good, but I think I prefer just plain roasted potatoes more, although I might try it again with everything except the liquid.
Roasted broccoli has become one of my favorite sides, especially now that most groceries stores sell broccoli crowns so that you can get two servings for around $0.40. It is SO easy and still tastes pretty good: break them up, pour a little EVOO over them, add salt and pepper, and bake for around 15 minutes at 400. You can do other things to take them up a notch, like lime zest, lime juice, and shredded parmesan, but they are good without the extras. Also, for a dipping sauce, combine a couple of ts of sour cream, a dash of lemon juice, and a little Tony Cachere's seasoning. Very easy, but good.