We had wings this weekend. The barbecue came out just fine, but the chipotle wasn’t what I was going for. I’ve had a cajun dry rub from a local place, and a chipoltle dry rub at Quaker Steak and Lube. They’re both yummy. I’m trying to come up with something similar but I’m obviously missing something important. I’ll describe here what I did, and if you know what I should have done different please leave a comment letting me know.
Ingredients
16 wings
2 tablespoons wheat flour
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1/4 – 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (depending on how wet you like them)
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
olive pomace oil
Directions
Pre-baking
I always start my wings — and full-size chicken, when I’m grilling — in the oven. It’s the only way I can consistently get the center fully cooked without turning the skin into ashes. So coat a baking sheet with pomace oil.
Arrange the wings skin side down and give them a coating of salt and pepper. Flip them over and coat the other side. Arrange them so they’re not covering each other.
Bake at 350° for a half-hour to 45 minutes, depending on how meaty the wings were. Check them at about 10 minutes to make sure they’re not sticking to the pan. They’re done when you can stick a knife in at the main joint and the juice runs clear.
There’s the rub
The rub they use at Quaker Steak is slightly sweet, so I’m sure it’s got some sugar in it. (Or more likely corn syrup … this is part of a chain after all.) But it’s clearly not mostly chipotle or it would be a lot hotter than it is.
I tried cutting it with flour so there would be a bit of a battered finish. This meant I’d have to cook it after applying the rub, which I’m pretty sure they don’t do. They just cook all their wings the same then toss them with the different sauces and rubs.
Mix the wheat flour and the chipotle powder.
Toss the wings a couple at a time in the rub.
Heat some more pomace oil over high heat.
Toss a couple of wings at a time, making sure all surfaces spend some time down in the oil to cook out the raw flour taste.
Transfer the finished wings to a serving plate. As long as you didn’t drown them in oil they shouldn’t need to drain first.
And that’s it for the chipotle.
You can see that the coating isn’t very even, but it was definitely tasty everywhere. If you know what they actually use in the various dry rubs at wing places, please let me know down in the comments.
Traditional barbecue
My wife prefers regular barbecue. (If you’re from the south, you don’t need to tell me, “That’s not really barbecue.” I know that. What would you like me to call this sauce?)
For hers, I just tossed all the wings in my pan with a little oil to crisp up the skin a bit before adding the sauce.
With all eight wings in there, I ended up with quite a bit of grease I had to pour out. (I also learned that the auto-focus on my camera uses infrared, so shooting across a burner on “High” kind of screws up the focus.)
Once the skins were a bit crispy, add just enough sauce to cover them all. I should mention that this sauce is made especially for my butcher, you can see the name on there if you click on the picture of the ingredients to see the larger version. The main ingredients are tomato, sugar and vinegar. No corn syrup — high fructose or otherwise — to be found.
And toss to make sure they’re coated.
Transfer carefully … no wait, let me say that again … transfer carefully to a serving dish.
This sauce is hot. And sticky. And did I mention hot? And when you’ve got a pan in one hand and a set of tongs in the other you can’t just drop everything and run for the sink to run your hands under cold water. I’m just sayin’ …
Let’s just assume you manage to get all the wings onto the plate on the first try.
That’s it for the barbecue.
Neat UK site
I got an email recently from Tracy at Easy Dinner Recipes. At first look they seem to have some really nice tips. You might want to give them a look if you prefer your ingredients measured in metric.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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15 Comments
Wish I could shed some light on the dry-rub mystery, but I am Wing Ignorant, I’m afraid. Maybe a chipotle paste instead? Regardless, the “wangs” look great. Watch that barbecue sauce, though!
Can’t help you, I’m afraid. But they do look good.
I’d have baked the wings in the oven completely, no pan frying. They come out quite tasty and you don’t have to worry about the pan rubbing off the rub as you stir it around.
Coat them in oil as before, then line them up on the pan and sprinkle half the seasoning on them. Then turn them over and sprinkle the rest of the seasonings. Bake in the oven until as crispy as you like. Coat them afterwards with bbq or buffalo sauce if you wish.
I use Paul Prudhomme’s Blackened Redfish Majic seasoning for my wings – but I dip them in Mayo first so that the spices stay on. (I buy the PP by the case from the company and then get it in 24oz cans. We use it on grilled shrimp and pork chops too)
The mayo trick works great for when you fry fish too. First dip it in mayo, then flour and the breading stays on to deep fry. (Dry the fish off with a paper towel before dipping in mayo)
Jenni, don’t worry, the roasting pan I grabbed this afternoon already made me completely forget the sauce.
Dragonpearl, these were fully cooked and the skin was still pretty soft. I considered putting them up under the broiler to crisp the skin, but there was lot of grease in the pan. I’ve had broiler fires before, and don’t want a repeat.
Carole, I’ll have to try the mayo soon. The last time I heard about doing that was before I started making my own. Now that I know I can whip some up with just a couple of egg yolks and some olive oil, that sounds perfect for dipping fried chicken.
I’ve never worked at a wing place, but I do have a mean pork roast rub that is similar to the chipotle wings. Mine includes brown sugar, chili powder and cumin.
Angela, I was already pretty sure brown sugar was going into the next attempt. I’m still trying to figure out what they used to bulk it up without getting super hot though.
I LOVE the rub from Chipotle. In fact, last time I went, I bought a container of it. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s in it. I wish someone would post the recipe!
Here you go: http://www.recipegoldmine.com/cccchi/chipotle-ancho-chile-marinade.html
And another that I plan to try: http://www.recipegoldmine.com/cccchi/chipotle-braised-pork-shoulder.html
Speaking as someone in Buffalo (and we know wings!) around here the wings are generally cut apart into two usable pieces (the mini-drumstick part and the two-bone part) with the tips discarded. They go into a deep-fryer plain (no flour, breading, etc.) and cooked until done, then tossed with the sauce immediately and served.
Does anyone cook their wings with the sauce already on?
Seems to me that you are using the wrong approach for the coating. Looking at the pictures and your recipe I can see where you were trying to go with this, but from what I see breading is absolutely necessary for the chipotle wings you're trying to make.
Breading can be tricky (to not scorch before the chicken is done) so it's sometimes useful to employ the par cooking method. do a simple 1 pass egg-wash or buttermilk followed by seasoned (no need to go crazy on this part) flour. Cook until the coating is firm and let cool. Then cook again the same way until the chicken is done. This lets the inside catch up with the outside. Have your "sauce" ready and give them a very quick spin in a small amount of a butter based sauce that has been refrigerated until it hardens back up (it's not a sauce, just a light coating which will lightly cover the outside.) The wings will still be crispy, yet imparted with flavor that seems like a spice rub.
As a sauce I would probably go with a stick of butter and 2 chipotles with adobo (maybe some brown sugar for sweetness), blend it in your food processor and park it in your fridge for a bit before you use it so it doesn't overcoat the wings. Adjust heat according to taste.
I've been working in restaurants that serve wings for years, and have seen MANY different techniques over that time.
Thank you, Sir. That's exactly what I've been looking for. It makes sense that it's a two-stage cooking method. In the restaurant, they need to have them mostly cooked so they can get an order out fast. But that process also gives a different finish than cooking straight through the way I did.
I think I know what I'm making next weekend.
No problem, you've given me a few ideas yourself, so it's nice to return the favor.
Definitely use the chipotles in adobo though, it will impart a lot more of that sweetness that you were looking for than just the powder would. It's one of my favorite ingredients.
From my experience, I have always known wings to be fried. For the dry rub part, they usually toss them in a little bit of garlic butter or plain butter then add the rub so you get that nice even coating. I can never get my wings crispy unless I fry them as well. Good luck!