Smoked Jumbo Wings with Habanero Mash
Prep Time: 4-6 hours (not including overnight marinade)

The Wings: It all begins with the wings themselves. You really want to get the largest and highest quality wings you can find, and be sure to keep them whole. The Friar is blessed to live in the City of Brotherly Love and therefore goes to Cannuli House of Poultry in the world famous Italian Market to buy his wings. They cost more per pound than the regular sized variety but the extra meat is needed because of the smoking and to be honest, if you are going to spend this long making wings then you want as much meat as possible to savor when you are done.

The Marinade: Minced garlic – 1-2 cloves per pound of wings. Cheap hot sauce – like Franks or Durkees – 1 bottle per 5 pounds. After removing the wings for cooking make sure you reserve the marinade for use in the sauce.

The Smoking: If you have never used a smoker it would take too long to explain the process here. Anyway use good hardwood chunks (better than chips). Smoking time depends on the heat of your fire and the amount of meat you have put in.

The Crisping: Simply smoking meat can produce a leathery skin that is not unpleasant but I have found that if you throw your freshly smoked wings on the grill for 5-10 minutes the flames get the skin to crisp nicely thus simulating traditional wing crunch nicely.

The Sauce: OK – this is the tricky part to relate because The Friar is not a scientific cook. Also when working with Habaneros, one’s heat tolerance comes into play. Anyway, when I make this mash, I make a large amount and store it for future use. First thing is to Ventilate The Kitchen! Take 6 cloves of minced garlic, 1 minced small onion and 12 minced habaneras (consider wearing gloves when handling the peppers). Sautee in oil. When thoroughly cooked down add 2-4 Tbls of honey. Store in a plastic, air-tight container.

Pour the marinade into a saucepan and add 4 tsps of butter or margarine. Heat to a boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in 1-4 Tbls of the Habanero Mash.

The Finish: Pour sauce over the wings and coat thoroughly. Serve!

Quick Prep Variation: If you do not have a smoker or you do not have the time to use it you can simulate the results by cooking your wings on the grill the whole time and using a smoker box insert (a small metal box filled with wood chips that goes on the flames under the grill surface). Cook over low heat for 1 hour. Turn up heat to high and follow Crisping directions.

Enjoy!

The Friar

Note from the editor – not sure if this is the full-board recipe, but be forewarned, these suckers are melt-your-skull hot, so adjust as necessary.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tasteful Tuesday: Ultimate Wings

No, we’re not going all PC on you. We’re just introducing some beer recipes into your life… It could be dip, bread, main courses, desserts – even tasty cocktails. Stay tuned for recipes of all kinds that incorporate beer!

Post from: EveryJoe

Tasteful Tuesdays at Brew Ha-Ha

I made buffalo chicken wings** a few weeks ago – for the first time ever – and I have to say, they were mighty tasty. With the weather that we’re having on the north east coast (cool and gray), wings just may be the perfect food to enjoy over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

I later saw a recipe that incorporated beer into a wing recipe – genius! That recipe called for adding more heat (cayenne pepper) and then deep-frying the wings. I’m not a fan of deep-frying wings at home (I’m messy enough as it is) especially when the recipe that I used before just couldn’t be easier and was terrific. So, I decided to include beer in the original recipe. Let me know what you think!

Beer Wings

2-1/2 lbs. chicken wings
1/2 c. hot Sauce (I used FRANK’S REDHOT sauce since the original recipe belonged to FRANK’S)
1/3 c. melted butter
1/3 c. beer (preferably lager)

1, Preheat over to 425 degrees F.
2, Bake chicken wings for 45 minutes.
3, Combine melted butter, beer and hot sauce. Pour half of the mixture over the wings.
4, Bake chicken wings for 15 more minutes.
5, Pour remainder of beer mixture over the wings.
6, Enjoy with blue cheese dressing or more hot sauce!

** Disclaimer: Coming from the South, we don’t call them buffalo chicken wings, we call them hot wings!

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: EveryJoe

Beer Wings

These are the bratwurst beers I’d pick off the cuff:
1. Jever Pilsner (or any of a number of other hoppy Pilsner-style beers)
2. Spaten (or Augustiner Edelstoff, if you can find it)
3. Victory Hop Devil
4. Gaffel Kölsch
5. Beck’s (that one’s for sentimental reasons, but I’m sticking with it)

I almost picked the Flying Fish Extra Pale Ale, but since I didn’t I’ll add their recipe for Grilled Brats and Beer.

Post from: EveryJoe

Beers and Brats

She’s experimented with a host of different breads, but one staple of her baking has been beer bread. There, too, she’s experimented, in this instance with different beers. The last loaf was made with Harp, but she’s also used brown ale and even a pilsner.

Since yesterday’s post was about liquid bread, I figured I’d provide recipe for beer bread. Fortunately, there are others who have covered this topic before, so you can check out this interesting looking beer bread (with cheddar cheese), or about.com’s beer bread and beer pizza dough recipes.

If you try it, let us know how it is!

Post from: EveryJoe

Liquid bread meets the real thing

I haven’t done a recipe for a while, but how can you resist a brownie made with stout beer?!?

image from doriegreenspan.com, and another darn good looking recipe (albeit without beer) here

Post from: EveryJoe

Mmmm, brownies