Grilled Chicken Wings

Name: Grilled Chicken Wings
Prep time: 22 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Yield: 2-3
Cuisine: Grilling & Barbeque
Ingredients: pounds chicken wings; drizzle extra virgin olive oil; teaspoons WATC Poultry & Pork Rub; cup WATC Original or Spicy BBQ Sauce; teaspoon kosher salt; teaspoon black pepper

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken wings
drizzle extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons WATC Poultry & Pork Rub
½ cup WATC Original or Spicy BBQ Sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Takes 22 Minutes, serves 2-3.

Instructions

Pat chicken wings dry with paper towel and place in a medium bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning mix, salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
Ignite the gas grill or stoke the coals only on the left side of the BBQ or charcoal grill.
Preheat grill to 500℉ (260°C).
Place a small bowl with BBQ sauce next to the grill along with a basting brush.
Place the seasoned wings onto the lit, direct heat side of the grill grates and immediately close lid. Cook for 3 minutes.
Using tongs, turn wings over, close lid and cook for 3 minutes more.
Transfer wings to the unlit side of grill. Brush with sauce then close the lid, cook for 3 minutes.
Flip wings brush with sauce, close the lid and cook for 3 minutes more.
Remove wings from grill and finish with final brush of sauce. Serve immediately.

Wait! Did someone say tender, juicy GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS? Yeah we did, and here is the perfect recipe to make them.

We’re firm believers that there’s a time and place for everything. Applying that adage to food, certain dishes have their moment when their ingredients are in season; hearty SOUPS AND STEWS in the fall and winter, glorious fresh FRUIT PIES in the warm weather months. And then there’s food that should be enjoyed the whole year through, like these GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS (yup we’re the type who grills right through the winter).

Here’s why our GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS recipe works:

For best results, we’re suggesting an equal number of big, meaty drumettes and wingettes.
The chicken wings get the simplest pre-grill treatment: a toss with olive oil and a favourite POULTRY SEASONING.
We grill our wings in two steps, first searing them over direct heat, and then finishing them over indirect, radiant heat.
The flavour of the wings is further enhanced with a superior BBQ SAUCE.

Here are a few more tips on making the best GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS:

INGREDIENTS

No surprises here as we review the ingredients needed to make this wonderful grilled chicken recipe at home. We’ll go through details about the wings themselves, plus our use of a rub and sauce in the next few paragraphs, but for now, here’s your takeaway: easy. Grilling up chicken wings at home isn’t complicated. Following our tried-and-true method will up your wing game to rival those at pubs and sports bars.

CHICKEN WINGS

The first thing you want to consider before heading out to buy wings is how many people you’ll be serving and how many wings people will eat in one sitting, on average. Most people usually enjoy around a pound of wings. Here’s the deal: 1 pound of wings is about 5 to 6 whole wings, or 10-12 wingettes and drumettes. Estimate less for kids and light eaters or if you’re serving them as an appetizer or light lunch. Estimate more if you’re serving big eaters.

A drumette and a wingette on a piece of butcher paper.

Here’s a suggestion – purchase your chicken wings from a butcher shop or a grocery store with a butcher on the premises. Doing so ensures the wings are butchered to order. They will remove the tips and the remaining parts, the drumettes and wingettes, will be separated. This keeps your prep time to a minimum.

SEASONING

Lemme just say here, we’ve tried lots and lots of different methods and techniques for grilling wings. In our experience, giving the wings a toss with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of a superior POULTRY SEASONING is the way to go. For best results, give the wings a quick pat with paper towel to remove excess moisture. Then, place them into a medium bowl, add the oil, seasoning and a sprinkle of kosher salt and pepper. Toss by hand to coat thoroughly. Yes, you can do this a few hours in advance to heighten the flavours of the seasoning.

Weekend at the Cottage BBQ Sauces and the Poultry and Pork Spice Blend.

SPICE BLEND AND BBQ SAUCE

I’m biased in my recommendation of the absolute best spice blend and bbq sauce for these chicken wings. There’s a good reason: I simply couldn’t find seasoning and sauce on the market that made my taste buds jump with joy. So, I developed our own all-natural, gluten-free products instead. Although I acknowledge my seriously unabashed self-promotion, if there are other rubs, spice blends and sauces you just can’t get enough of, use them in this recipe. Just be careful that they’re not loaded with sugars, honey, maple syrup or sweetening agents. Those tend to burn and flare up on the grill. Let’s face it, nobody wants a burnt wing!

POULTRY & PORK SEASONING

Before I share some of the secret ingredients we blended into this dry rub, how about some good news? Yes, you can use our POULTRY & PORK RUB on chicken breasts, turkey, poultry, pork chops, ribs (super yummy!), pork tenderloin and larger cuts of pork too. It’s made with tomato, paprika, garlic, onion powder, cumin, cayenne and just a bit of brown sugar. We suggest adding two teaspoons of this seasoning per pound of chicken or pork. If a teaspoon or two isn’t enough to your taste, by all means, add a tablespoon!

ORIGINAL AND SPICY BBQ SAUCE

We often say our ORIGINAL BBQ SAUCE has a tiny bit of sweet and just the right amount of heat. Unlike other sauces with a gummy, thickened consistency and lingering smoke flavour, this sauce is tangy with notes of tomato and mustard. And our SPICY BBQ SAUCE isn’t a hot sauce, so it won’t blow your head off, but it does have more kick than the original. Tough thing will be deciding which one to use, and if you can’t decide… why not use both?

A thermostat on a gar BBQ registering 500℉ (260°C).

HOW TO GRILL CHICKEN WINGS

True story: standing at the grill, an entire rack of wings engulfed in flames, and me with a little spritz bottle trying to douse them. Never again. Our instructions for grilling wings in two stages is the only way to go and the results are tender, juicy wings that get rave reviews all the time.

The key is cooking on direct heat for the first half, then moving the wings to finish on indirect heat, for a total time of 12 minutes. This is important: your wings are perfectly done after 12 minutes of grilling in this fashion, or until the internal temperature of a probe meat thermometer reads 175℉ (79°C).

Pro tip: Brushing the wings with even more sauce when you first bring them off the grill adds even more flavour. As if we couldn’t guess that!

SERVE

Serving wings is always an event, right? Because this might very well be the #1 casual meal of all time, we say keep sides simple but put out lots of extra napkins. We love pairing these wings with a dipping sauce, similar to the buffalo sauce served with buffalo wings. Try this CREAMY BLUE CHEESE DIP. Wings also love being served with CREAMY COLESLAW, our famous CAESAR SALAD or THIS IS NOT POTATO SALAD. Truth be told, you’d be fine sending these to table with some dip and potato chips.

This grill idea is so tasty, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite light meal or BBQ board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make them too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious dishes you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!

Consider us your wingman for the best GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS – now get to it!

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