Wednesday 1 May 2013

What We Ate Last Night : Coca Cola Bar-B-Q Chicken Wings


It's been a long while since I last posted a recipe. It was something I was meaning to do on a regular basis, but I am anything but regular.

I am a great lover of Bar-B-Q'd foods in all its guises from the sexy side salads to the slow cooked briskets and ribs. All I lack is a garden to do it. So I am left with my all purpose oven and invention of sauces and rubs.
I am quite thrifty and when I buy a whole chicken I always make use of the smaller parts that normally I'm sure people normally discard.
For example the backbone and wing tips are saved and used for stock when I have enough bones to make some. The rest of the bird is cut up into portions and popped into the freezer until needed.
As we are off to China on Thursday, I'm using up everything I have stashed around the house. There have been some interesting meals this past week.
I was thinking I had a large bag of bones in the bottom of my freezer, when I actually looked they were chicken wings. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah .....
Now if I had a garden I would have brought myself a Weber Kettle by now and those little beauties wold be grilling away to bar-b-q smoky heaven.
Sadly I don't, so I have to make do with my trusted oven. Does the job to a degree but with out that glorious smoky taste you get from cooking over burning coals. Thankfully though I did have the time to make my own bar-b-q sauce from scratch.
This is one of my favourite bar-b-q sauces and it gives a sweet and smoky spicy taste. I don't make it as often as I should, but again that's down to laziness i guess.
So with about 20 or so wings waiting to be marinated, cooked and eaten, I hastily made up my bar-b-q sauce and marinated the wings over night.
I heartily recommend you make this sauce and the ingredients are pretty simple and can be mixed and matched with whatever you have or prefer.

You will need :

  • 1 can Cola Cola
  • 50 ml of your favourite Hot Sauce
  • About 100 ml of Brown Sauce and Tomato Ketchup
  • 1 tsp or more of ground chilli pepper
  • 1/2 Tsp each of Garlic and Onion Powder
  • Some good splashes of Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 tsp of liquid smoke
  • As much ground black pepper as you want
Combine everything well together, tasting and maybe adding a little bit more of this or that. Then add to  a saucepan and gradually bring to the boil and then simmer for about 5 - 10 minutes until it has reduced by about a quarter or so. 
Let this cool to room temp. then pop in the fridge until cool. Pour over the chicken wings and leave covered in the fridge for as long as you can, up to 24 hours is best. Keep the remaining sauce to mop the wings whilst the are cooking and for your next bar-b-q adventure.
So when you are ready to cook crank up your oven to Gas Mark 6 and take your wings out of the fridge. Let them come to room temp before popping them in a tray and into the oven for about 15 minutes.
After this turn them over and mop the wings with the reserved bar-b-q sauce and then back they go for 10 minutes. 
By this time they should be cooked, so mop them once more and them pop under the grill for a few minutes to kind of char them a little. Do both sides and make sure you mop them as well. 
When you are happy with them take them out and delve in, dipping into either the bar-b-q sauce or into a hot sauce, depending on how much you like the heat. Enjoy.

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