Grilled Bourbon Chicken Wings (燒烤波本鷄翼, Siu1 Haau1 Bo1 Bun2 Gai1 Jik6)

 

This recipe was updated on 17 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and the Chinese name added.

Somehow, bourbon and chicken seem to go together. Adding your favorite bourbon (e.g. Jack Daniels, Jim Beam…) to chicken wing marinade before grilling gives the wings a unique and tasty flavor. Adding a smoking wood to the grill, such as hickory, mesquite, pecan, or whatever your favorite wood is, further enhances the flavor. You can choose to remove the wing tips before marinating, but I leave them on since I don’t mind eating them. I first smoked the wings covered over indirect heat before grilling over direct heat to get the grill marks. This is a simple recipe to make and I hope you will try it.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

12	12	Chicken wings (雞翼, gai1 jik6)
4 Tbs.	60 ml.	Bourbon (波本, bo1 bun2)
1 in.	2.5 cm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
6 cloves	6 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
½ cup	125 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
		Sweet chili sauce and/or chili garlic sauce as a dipping sauce

 

Equipment

		Garlic press
4 qt.	3.8 L.	Covered bowl
		Tongs and an oil coated paper towel
22.5 in.	57 cm.	Covered charcoal or gas grill (or larger)

 

Bourbon Chicken Wing Marinade

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken wings by removing any remaining yellow skin and excess fat. Ideally all the yellow skin was removed during the vendor’s chicken cleaning process, but some always remains and this will prevent the marinade from penetrating the skin. Use your fingers and rub any remaining yellow skin from the chicken under running cold water.
2. Marinate the chicken wings in a covered container up to 48 hours, turning every 24 hours, in the refrigerator with the bourbon, ginger and garlic crushed in a garlic press, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
3. Prepare the charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking following the manufacturer’s instructions. Light the charcoal or preheat the gas grill accordingly. Soak the wood for smoking (oak, hickory, or pecan goes well with this dish) for one hour if desired. I use dry and not soaked wood.
4. If using a charcoal grill, arrange the lighted coals on one half of the grill. The side of the grill with the coals (the “hot” side) will later be used to grill the chicken and the side without the coals (the “cool” side) will be used for smoking the chicken. For a gas grill, follow the manufacturer’s instructions as to which burners to leave on for indirect cooking. Clean the grill to remove any leftover charred bits from the last use and with a folded paper towel coated in oil, use tongs to oil the grill. Put the smoking wood onto the coals or as per the instructions for the gas grill.
5. Place the chicken, wing tips down, on the cool side of the grill and cook for 10 minutes covered. Move the chicken, wing tips up, to the hot side of the grill when smoking is complete to add grill marks (about 2-5 minutes depending upon the temperature of the coals) uncovered. Turn the wings over, wing tips down, to add the grill marks to the other side of the wings (about 5 minutes depending upon the temperature of the coals). Remove the chicken from the grill and allow to rest for 2-5 minutes before serving with sweet chili sauce and/or chili garlic sauce. The temperature of your fire and previous experience with your grill will determine the total cooking time for the chicken.