Grilled Chicken Wings

Party Time is Here!

This is a special recipe for me. I’ve been hanging onto it but here you go. I’ll give you a few secrets for some really easy and impressive chicken wings that you can whip out by the pool or plop down in front of a ravenous group of sports fans without losing out of the action yourself slaving over appetizers in the kitchen.

These wings are smoky, sweet, tangy, and will disappear quickly, so double or even triple the batch for a crowd. The Buffalo sauce in this recipe can be used on fried wings or smoked wings too if that’s your deepest desire. (I’ve tried them both)

Grilled Chicken Wings

Prep Time 60 minutes • Total Time 2 hours
Difficulty Level:

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper and garlic powder and cayenne pepper. In a large bowl, toss the wings with the seasoning mixture to evenly coat.
  2. Preheat a gas grill to medium heat (about 350 degrees F) or get your coals started if you like. For chicken it’s a good idea to let the coals burn down for awhile so that you get a lower more even heat.
  3. Place the wings on the grill, just squeeze them all in together and grill, flipping the wings every 5 minutes, for a total of 20 minutes of cooking.
  4. In the meantime, heat the butter, hot sauce, vinegar and honey in a saucepan over low heat and stir to combine.
  5. In a clean large bowl, toss the wings with the sauce. Turn the heat up on the grill to medium high or lower your grate/add more coals if you’re over a fire, more heat is the goal. Use tongs to remove the wings from the sauce and put them back on the grill until the skins crisp, 1 to 2 minutes per side. There is honey in this sauce so be vigilant when you add them back to the heat as they will caramelize more quickly. Put the wings back in the bowl with the sauce, toss and serve.

You can do most of this work in advance and stop after step 3. Once they are grilled they can be refrigerated for up to 3 days (like the restaurants do) and brought back up to temp with the last two steps. This means that you can bring them in a cooler to the pool or friends BBQ or right out of the fridge and have delicious wings in just a few minutes.

Serve with celery, carrots, fries, ranch, blue cheese… you get the idea.

Ingredients

  • -Wing Dry Brine-
  • 1 tbsp. kosher salt
  • 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 3 lbs. chicken wings divided into drums and flats
  • -Smoked Mango Habanero Buffalo Sauce-
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup Powerful Pepper Co. Smoked Mango Habanero Hot Sauce
  • 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (Braggs is the best)
  • 1 tbsp honey