If you’re anything like me, then you probably get to the day before you’re entertaining and decide that you haven’t prepared enough food. I am guilty of doing this over and over, and it’s got nothing to do with being prepared, it’s just got to do with my genetic predisposition to overcook.
If you are looking for a last minute, easy item for your Yom Ha’atzmaut BBQ, try these barbecued chicken wings. I basically make the sauce by throwing in some of my favorite sauces.
Wings on the BBQ
There are some rules of thumb, though, and this recipe highlights them. You will need a tomato base – I use tomato paste, but you can also use ketchup. I add sweetness with either chutney, brown sugar or silan date honey, so I prefer not to use ketchup. You can make the sauce as spicy as you want. Simply increase the quantities I have here for the cayenne pepper and chili or tobasco sauce. I like mine to have a spicy kick, but I don’t like to overwhelm the sauce with heat. I also recommend always adding some kind of meat sauce, like HP or Hunt’s. Play with this recipe and have fun. As long as you have enough sauce to coat all the pieces of chicken, you will be OK. Please note that my quantities are approximate. You really don’t have to be accurate with this recipe.
I also highly recommend letting the chicken sit in the sauce overnight to get the flavor deeply into the meat.
BBQ CHICKEN WINGS
Ingredients
3kg (6½ lbs) chicken wings
BBQ sauce in progress
250g (8 oz) tomato paste
¼ cup chutney or silan or brown sugar (or all three or any two!)
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
2-3 tablespoons BBQ sauce (such as HP or Hunt’s – but do not use hickory flavored sauces.)
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes
A few drops of Tobasco sauce or 1 small chili finely chopped (optional but recommended)
¼ teaspoon meat spice
Salt and pepper
How to do it
Cover the wings thoroughly with the sauce
1. In a large bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredients. Add the chicken wings, tossing them through the sauce thoroughly so that all the wings are coated with sauce.
2. Transfer to an airtight container or cover with cling film and leave the wings to marinade overnight, or for at least 4 hours if you are in a rush. You can also freeze the wings in the sauce, but make sure you then defrost the wings so they are not frozen when you cook them.
3. Barbecue the wings until they are ready – this varies depending on how plump the wings are. Make sure they are properly cooked through – if the meat just starts to come away from the bone, they are probably ready.
