So, I’ve somehow become wildly famous in my friends circle for making the best jerk chicken wings on earth — I didn’t give myself this title, Coco did… then Jimmy did…. and pretty much everyone else who eats these wings agrees.
All that to say, there’s an actual technique to making them the best wings on earth, and the key is… TIME. Here’s the thing about cooking food that has incredible flavour — you can’t substitute time. The longer your food marinades, the better it tastes. The longer your food cooks (low and slow) the better it tastes. You can make a beef stew in a couple of hours if you want, but IDGAF what anyone says, that 2 hour beef stew won’t come close to a two day beef stew that is slow cooked, seasoned to perfection and then re-seasoned. #SorryNotSorry
That said, I’m going to give you the secret to making your next set of wings *nearly* as delicious as mine… I say nearly, because I can’t give away the whole kit and caboodle because my Dad will murder me (it’s actually his secret recipe that he told me specifically not to share with anyone). So I’ll get you 80% of the way there, because the technique is what matters most here.
What You’ll Need
- 2-3 lbs of split chicken wings
- Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning
- Garlic Powder
- Seasoning Salt (Lowrys is best)
- Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
- White Vinegar (to clean your chicken with)
- Wood chips for your bbq
- A BBQ — this is the best way to cook wings in my opinion
- A giant bowl that has a lid
- Honey and BBQ sauce
- Latex gloves — this is important because you need to get in there with your hands and too much jerk seasoning will burn your skin
How to Begin
Take your wings out of the package and put them in a bowl with 3 tbsp of white vinegar and lukewarm water. Fill the bowl full and let them sit there for 10 minutes in the vinegar water to clean them. Dump the liquid out of the bowl, then rinse with cold water and pat your wings dry with paper towel after.
Grab your seasonings (Lowrys, Garlic Powder, Salt) and season your chicken generously. You’ll want to utilize your gloves to mix up that chicken and coat it nicely. Then, grab your Walkerswood bottle and a spoon and throw two or three heaping tablespoons into your bowl with the chicken. Obviously if you’re sensitive to heat, use MUCH LESS. One tablespoon for 2 pounds of chicken is mild. I like my chicken spicy AF, so I would do 3-4 heaping tbsp personally. Then (gloves on), mix up that Walkerswood with your chicken so it’s evenly coated. At this point I would also make my own secret jerk sauce and add it to the wings, but I can’t give away that secret, sorry kids.
Then we cover the chicken in the bowl and let that bad boy sit in the fridge marinating for up to 3 days. I promise you when I say this… WAIT THE THREE DAYS, I SWEAR TO GOD. It makes a huge difference, true story. If you can’t wait the 3 days, at minimum let them sit overnight… Trussssst me baby.
On the day you’re ready to BBQ them bad boys, low and slow is the best choice. Give yourself a minimum of 2 hours to do it, you can actually smoke them all day if you want. So, here’s what you do:
- Grab your wood chips and soak them in water
- On the left side of your bbq, put down some aluminum foil underneath the grill (this is what you can put the wood chips on so it makes for easy clean-up later), throw the water soaked wood chips on top of the foil (but underneath the grill), then turn on your bbq, on that same side on LOW heat
- Let the BBQ heat up and start smoking heavily
- Do not turn on your heat on the other side of the bbq. If this makes you super nervous you can turn the heat on 1 (the lowest it can go)
- We are doing this because we are basically creating a smoker convection on our owns the fire burns the wood chips on the left side, it pushes the smoke up, that smoke goes up to the barrel and across and down to the right side and basically goes through the chicken and smokes the shit out of it. The heat from the left side will slowly cook the chicken on the right side and keep it smoky
- You’ll have to add more wood chips every 20-30 minutes or so, depending on how quickly they char
- Turn your wings regularly. If you’re doing low and slow, you could really turn them every 45 minutes or so
- If you keep the temperature on low, you can cook these all day long if you wish. If you’re in a bit of a hurry, turn the temperature up to 4 or 5 and you can finish them faster. I don’t recommend rushing it and cooking any higher than medium heat or you might burn them
- In the last ten minutes of cooking, I make my own special jerk-bbq sauce to baste the wings in. It’s a teaspoon of jerk, a couple of squeezes of bbq sauce and a good squeeze of honey. Don’t ask me for exact measurements on this part because I honestly just eyeball it. If you like your sauce spicier, add more jerk; if you like it more sweet, add more honey — you get the picture. Just add these ingredients and taste it as you go until it’s right for you. Then take a bbq brush and slap it all over your wings at the very end, then flip them and do the other side, and you’re done
Tag us in your photos of your wings, so we can see the magic! Enjoy, Cowes.
Enjoy!
xx
Cleo