Beer-Brined Wings-Post 3 of 3 for the 4th.

jfm0830

I was finally able to get back out to my grill for the 4th of July weekend. I haven't been posting (or cooking) much lately. And since I can never guess which items are going to interest people, I figured I'd post all 3 and let folks decide what interests them. Besides this dish I also made:

Duck & Mango Quesadilla
Stuffed Pizza Pie

The last thing I made was some Beer-Brined Wings for Chris Grove's The Kamado Smoker & Grill Cookbook. This book is as much science as art. This recipe was intended to illustrate raised indirect cooking. I must admit though I have had at least one AR for  1 1/2 years now I hadn't made any wings in that time period. I was dying to have some wings in general and curious to see what cooking them up in the dome would do. In this case I used the top level (Level 6) to cook the wings. I tried something different too in terms of cooking the wings. Rather than keep the lid open while I was placing, turning and saucing the wings, I took advantage of the easy access to the raised grid I had because I was using the AR. I set up a raised sheet pan set over a large piece of foil placed over my Corian cooling pad. When it was time to add, turn or remove the wings for saucing, I removed the grill grid from the Egg and set it on the pan. This way I could get the lid closed quickly and not loose heat. I also didn't feel rushed because I was trying to work as fast as possible so I could get the lid back down. This idea worked like a charm and I suffered very little heat loss, 25 degrees max, followed by a quick recovery.




The brine used beer, granulated garlic, red pepper flakes, sugar, water & Kosher salt. Everything but the beer was brought to a boil and then was cooled for 10 minutes. The beer was then added and after the brine cooled the wings were added and went into the fridge for the next 3 hours.






After coming out of the brine, the wings were air dried for an hour in the fridge to help make for a crispy skin.







The Buffalo style sauce used melt butter, Frank's Hot Sauce & Worcestershire Sauce. It was kept on a low simmer while the wings were being cooked.



 




The wings are ready to go on the grill. Instead of doing this with the lid open, I remove the grill grid using welders gloves and set it on a sheet pan over foil over my Corian cooling pad. This allowed me to get the wings on the grid without rushing because I was worried about heat loss. In the second picture they are on the grill grid and have been seasoned with garlic-pepper. In the third picture the wings and the grill grid are back on the Egg. I only lost 25 degrees doing this and it was back to temp in two minutes.








The wings cooked on the first side for 20 minutes. In the first picture they are ready to turn. Just like before I removed the grill grid from the Egg to turn them. In the second picture they are off the Egg and ready to turn. In the third picture the wings have been turned, seasoned with garlic pepper and are back on the Egg for 15 minutes on the second side. Once again 25 degree temperature loss, two minute recovery.






The wings are done. They (and the grid) were removed and the wings were tossed in Buffalo sauce. They went back on the grill grid and back onto the Egg for a final 3 minutes.







These wings were excellent. They had great flavor inside (beer brine) and out. The brine had help keep them moist and the skin was more crispy cooking them raised direct. Plus removing the grill grid to work with the wings worked well and minced lid open time. These were  great finish to  great 4th of July weekend. I have missed using my Eggs, and it was great to start using the again.

Jim

Dyal_SC

Nice color on those tots!    Wings aren't so bad either.  

RollTideRob

Those look delicious. Great job.

Gman2

They look great, great idea taking the grate out

jfm0830

Thanks guys!

Dyal I take that as high praise coming from the wing king.

@Gman2 I am not so sure why it took me this long to figure that out One of the things I liked about the AR right after I started using it, was the way you could take the entire rig out, food and all to avoid losing temps. With a grill grate at Level 6, this is even easier and  yet it never occurred to me.