GRILLED WINGS WITH A STICKY SWEET PEACH BOURBON BBQ SAUCE

American, Dinner by Cafe Christina

Grilled wings have been in my life since I was a little girl. This was one of the meals I remember most about my childhood. I grew up in south Texas so bbq chicken always sounded good. Plus, grilled chicken is fairly cheap. I feel like a homemade meal that doesn’t break the bank, is every parents dream. These wings are the perfect thing to add to your weeknight rotation.

If it was a weekday, my dad would get home from work and throw a couple dozen wings on the grill for all of us. He would use this Stubbs “wicked wing sauce”…which is quite possibly the yummiest and spiciest sauces out there. Seriously it’s so good. If you love super spicy things, you need to try this sauce on your grilled wings. You’ll be sweating by the end of dinner but totally worth it. I’m pretty sure I was eating the stuff by the time I was 10. I grew up with spicy food and my love for it has just grown over the years. Unfortunately, the wicked wing sauce is pretty hard/somewhat impossible to find in stores. In corpus, my hometown, there were only a few stores that carried it. In Atlanta, you cannot find it anywhere. So sometimes I’ll get my parents to ship me some, or I’ll buy it online. I’ll link it below.

I took one of my childhood meals and made a few changes to make it my own. Starting with this peach bourbon bbq sauce. I was scrolling through Pinterest one day and came across a bbq sauce that I knew would pair well with chicken. A little bit of peach and bourbon..what could be wrong about that? Bourbon pairs so well with fruit and sugar so I knew it would be a keeper. I jotted down the recipe and tweaked it a bit here and there to make it more personal. And omg…I was in love. If you don’t love peaches, apricot preserves also work well in this recipe. The peach flavor is not overpowering whatsoever. It’s subtle yet adds so much depth to the sauce. The bourbon slowly cooks down also…adding a subtle deep rich whisky flavor. It’s so good.

The first thing you’ll do is put the wings on the grill. No salt or pepper or marinade…just plain chicken. Once you flip them twice, you’ll begin by layering the sauce on. Sauce, flip, sauce, flip, sauce. You’ll do three layers and with each layer the heat from the grill with char and caramelize that sweet sugary sauce. You might think you’ve burned it, but you didn’t. You want this charred skins, it adds depths of flavor. I remember as a kid… that my mom would always want her wings extra charred. So I promise you, burning them a little takes the wings to the next level. Once they’ve been cooked and sauced, remove from the grill and eat while hot. Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing or just by themselves.

My favorite wing sauce from my childhood:

*CAUTION: very spicy and not for the weak*

STUBBS WICKED WING SAUCE

PRODUCTS I LOVE:

GRILLED WINGS WITH PEACH BOURBON BBQ SAUCE

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes

Serves: 24 wings

INGREDIENTS:

  • 24 bone in/ skin on chicken wings, flats and drums

Sauce:

  • 1 cup ketchup, like Heinz
  • 2/3 peach preserves
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup bourbon, like Woodford Reserve
  • 2 tbsp molasses
  • 2/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne (or to taste for spiciness) can omit
  • 2 tbsp favorite bbq rub, or homemade (see recipe below)

Rub:

  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp ground mustard
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp chili powder

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat a grill to medium high heat, about 350/400 degrees F.
  2. In a large pan, place all the ingredients for the bbq sauce. Turn the heat up to medium and cook till it comes to a soft boil. Turn heat down to low and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes. Whisk occasionally. Turn off heat and set aside.
  3. Place the chicken on the grill skin side down. Close the lid and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 3-4 minutes.
  4. Flip and brush on a layer of the bbq sauce. Close the lid. Cook for about 2-3 minutes and flip again. Brush on more sauce and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Flip once more and brush on more sauce. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. At this point the chicken should be cooked all the way through, the sauce should be caramelized and each piece should be charred slightly.
  5. Remove from the grill and serve hot with a side of ranch or blue cheese.

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