Who doesn’t love chicken wings?
I love, love, love chicken wings. Put a bone in it and I like it. Pork chop bones; great to try and get all the meat off it, chicken necks (yes, fried chicken necks; that’s the best part of the chicken.), and those crispy little wings. My favorite part of the wing is actually the flat part and not the little drummy part.
Seems like years ago when people made buffalo wings they put a flour coating on them kind of like KFC and then I started seeing “naked” wings advertised. I don’t like the wings tossed with the sauce; too messy and sticky to eat. So, when we go to our favorite place, I ask for extra crispy wings with sauce on the side. One reason I ask for extra crispy besides that is the way I like them is that you are getting fresher wings and not something that’s been sitting back in the kitchen soaking up all that hot sauce.
I have a confession and this is hard to admit. I love celery with either blue cheese or ranch dressing but when I order it at our wing place, they give you a container of dressing and like 5 short pieces of celery. I eat as much celery with my wings as I do the wings. So now when I know we are going there, I take a bag of celery sticks (a lot), I order one dressing/celery and when I finish their celery, I take out my own and put on the plate. I know, that is pretty cheap of me but I’m not spending six bucks to get as much celery as I want. Ok, I guess I am cheap.
When we make these wings at home, I can have them exactly the way I want them with as much celery as I want. These wings start with my husband seasoning them with Tony’s and Strawberry’s BBQ Seasoning, then he smokes them for about 2 hours on our Kamoto Jo smoker OR he will cook them on the grill, indirect medium heat, with some wood chips in the smoker box for 1 1/2 hours. Now, this is the key part. After he smokes or grills them until they are done (but don’t get too brown), he drops them into some hot oil and fries them until nice and crisp. These are the best wings I have ever had and the hot sauce is my nephew, Todd’s, recipe that I added a couple of tablespoons of butter to.
If you have a favorite sauce recipe, please leave me a note in the comment section below.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: You may need something to cool you off after eating these wings, try my Strawberry Goat Milk Ice Cream.
Dry the wings and coat on both sides with the Tony Chachere’s and the Strawberry’s Shake On Bar-B-Que Seasoning.
My chef doing his thing.
These were for the superbowl along with some thighs he cut in to and smoked/fried.
Here’s what they look like when they come off the smoker, and look at my pan that he forget to cover.
Into the hot 375° oil just long enough to crispy up.
Drain on paper towels.
He cooked them another night that week because I didn’t get all the pictures I needed. This night I made a corn, cucumber and avocado salad to go along with some crusty French bread and those wings again.
- 3-4 lbs. chicken wings
- Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or other cajun seasoning
- Strawberry's Shake-On Bar-B-Que seasoning*
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 small clove garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon milk or buttermilk
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 6 oz. bottle Frank's hot sauce
- 3 oz. brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp. vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- Make the blue cheese dip: Pulse the sour cream, blue cheese, mayonnaise, garlic, milk and lemon juice in a food processor until combined but still chunky. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Hot Sauce: Put all hot sauce ingredients in a pan except for the butter. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-6 minutes, whisk in the butter and stir until butter has melted.
- For the chicken: rinse and dry the chicken wings. Cut into pieces if you have not bought them cut. Rub the chicken with a little oil so it does not stick to the grill. Season them with salt, pepper and Strawberry's seasoning and Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning.
- Put the wings on a smoker or a grill and cook until done. 2 hours on the smoker or about 1 1/2 hours on the grill. When they are done, flash fry these in oil that is heated to 375°. These will be the crispiest wings you have ever eaten.
- Serve with some cut up celery along with the hot sauce and the blue cheese sauce.
- You can buy the Strawberry's at http://www.strawsbbq.com
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