The secret is not in the sauce, it is in the skin. Get the wings as dry as you can before they go anywhere near the fire: paper towels, a light coat of baking powder (not soda) and an hour uncovered in the fridge. Then cook them on the cool side of a two-zone grill, crisp the edges over the coals, and only then toss them in the sauce and give them a few more minutes with the lid down so it sets tacky instead of sliding off.
Knock Your Sauce Off
What you need
- 4 lb chicken wings, split into flats and drums
- 4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse black pepper
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 3/4 cup Knock Your Sauce Off
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- Celery and carrot sticks, and ranch or blue cheese, to serve
How it goes
- Pat the wings completely dry with paper towels, then toss them in a bowl with the baking powder, pepper and garlic until every piece has a light, even coat. The baking powder draws moisture to the surface and helps the skin blister and crisp.
- Lay them skin side up on a wire rack over a sheet pan and refrigerate uncovered for at least an hour, overnight if you can. The drier the skin goes onto the grill, the crisper it comes off.
- Set the grill up for two zones and bring the indirect side to 375 to 400F with the lid closed.
- Set the wings on the cool side with the thick ends toward the fire, close the lid and cook 35 to 40 minutes, turning once halfway, until the skin is golden and the thickest drum reads 175 to 185F. Wings are dark meat and get better past 165F, because that is where the connective tissue lets go.
- While they cook, warm the Knock Your Sauce Off with the butter in a small pan over low heat until the butter melts in. Warm it, do not boil it.
- Move the wings over the hot side for 1 to 2 minutes a side to crisp and char the edges. Stay with them, this part goes fast.
- Toss the hot wings in a big bowl with the warm sauce until every one is coated, then put them back on the cool side for 3 to 4 minutes with the lid closed so the sauce sets and turns tacky.
- Pile them on a platter with the lime wedges, celery and carrots, and a little more sauce in a cup for whoever wants it.
Worth knowing
- Baking powder, not baking soda. Soda tastes soapy at this amount, powder does not taste of anything.
- Cooking a big batch? Sauce the wings in two rounds so the bowl is never crowded and every wing gets a full coat.
- The oven works too: 425F on a rack for 45 to 50 minutes, flipped halfway, then sauced and back in for 5 minutes.
Pit note. Sauce goes on at the end, and the wings go back over the heat after. Sauced wings that never see the fire again stay wet.
