It’s a simple but delicious barbecue chicken recipe, blending the spicy heat of fermented chilli peppers into a rich clingy sauce which just goes so well with chicken.

I remember going to Texas many years ago, being on a shoestring budget the first night I ordered pizza and Buffalo wings. Being from the UK and loving my curry, I had this crazy idea that Americans didn’t do hot food, so of course I plumbed for the “super hot” wings on the menu.

I soon found out (as I did throughout my trip to the Lone Star State) that my assumption was wrong, those wings blew my head off! Back then the Texas tourist motto was “It’s like a whole other country”, but this was more like a red hot new world to my taste buds.

There are many variations and hundreds of recipes for this dish, but I am going to give you a simple medium version which doffs its spicy cap to the original.

Ingredients for barbecue chicken wings

For the chicken

• 500g Chicken wings
• Small amount of oil
• Good pinch of salt and pepper

For the barbecue sauce

• 150 mls Hot sauce*
• 125g Butter (half a standard pat)
• Salt (if required)
• Cayenne pepper (for more heat if required, probably not!)

*I used Frank’s (148ml bottle) but try Tabasco or your favourite hot sauce. You can even use sriracha for a more exotic Asian style wing.

Take the chicken and rub all over lightly with oil (not dripping in it) then season with salt and pepper. Let the chicken come up to room temperature.

In the meantime let’s make the sauce. Take the butter and place in a pan on the hob at the lowest heat possible. This is important because we do not want the butter to split, at high heat butter solids will separate and this will ruin the sauce. So gently melt the butter while stirring until you have a pan of golden liquid.

Add the hot sauce to the pan and whisk it in so the sauce becomes uniform in colour. Turn off the heat and taste. At this point the smell of the sauce will make you think I’m crazy as it’s very powerful, but don’t worry all is fine :).  Adjust the seasoning using salt if required and the cayenne if you want it hotter!

The barbecue sauce will seem too thin but its fine, because as it cools it will thicken.

Once your BBQ has calmed down and has a good level heat with the coals looking grey, place the chicken on and keep it moving fairly regularly. Get the skin to start to go golden then move the chicken to the sides of the grill out of the main heat area. This will stop your chicken burning and let it cook thoroughly. Keep turning regularly as you will notice hot spots trying to singe your lovely wings.

Now if you have a BBQ with a lid (I guess most of you do), buy some wood chips in advance. Any of the store bought BBQ wood chips will work perfectly. If you have an open BBQ simply carry on cooking as above for around 10 more minutes.

I don’t tend to soak the chips for wings, just throw a good handful on and shut the lid. The temperature in your BBQ will drop and that wonderful smoke will fill it instantly. I would leave this for at least 10 minutes before opening,

You will see the smoke seeping from your BBQ getting less and less. When it’s almost gone open it back up and let the heat fire up again. Trust me it doesn’t take long for that smoke to flavour those little wings.

Give them a turn and a few more minutes then check to see if they are done by inserting a knife into the thickest part and ensuring juices run clear and that the meat comes easily away from the bone.

Place the chicken wings in a bowl and smother in your Buffalo sauce.

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Remember to share how you got on with this recipe in the comments below.

Michael Robinson

Author information

The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

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