Chipotle Cherry Chicken Wings

One food we seem to enjoy year round is chicken wings. We enjoy them so many different ways but most often spicy and grilled. And this version fit those requirements as well.

We've made this Chipotle Cherry Barbecue Sauce recipe found on Epicurious lots of times now over the years. Most recently we whipped up a batch on 4th of July for my sister's pool party to be used on our smoked gouda stuffed turkey burgers that I forgot to get photos of unfortunately. 

Since we have always enjoyed this sauce I actually made a triple batch to share with friends but to also have some on hand for future summer grilling escapades such as this lazy, beautiful Wednesday evening. 

On this mid week evening we were both thinking wings were sounding pretty darn good. I found our jar of the chipotle cherry bbq sauce in the fridge and decided we'd give grilled wings with the sauce a try, served with a strawberry spinach salad.

G cleaned up the wings per his usual type A way (thank goodness). We grilled them simply at first with salt & pepper. 

After they were pretty well cooked we then brushed them lightly with the chipotle cherry sauce to give them a little bit of caramelizing that we love on grilled wings.

Once the wings were done we then tossed them in a little more sauce and served them with our strawberry spinach salad and a Washington 2012 Tempranillo from our Lake Chelan vacation that paired perfectly. 

The wings and sauce were great. I think there are better ways we both enjoy our wings and the sauce separately but this worked for a mid week "Lets Eat" kind of meal. 

RECIPE:

Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce

From: Bon Appétit  | July 2010 by Steven Raichlen, Francine Maroukian, and the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup cherry preserves (We also added some canned whole cherries with juice to give a chunky texture)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
• 2 tablespoons golden brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can ( we used 3 to go spicy)
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Bring ketchup, cherry preserves, lemon juice, molasses, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon peel, chiles, adobo sauce, liquid smoke, onion powder, and cocoa powder to simmer in medium saucepan, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes, stirring often. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Sauce can be made up to 1 week ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate.

Grilled "Red Hot" Wings

Having married a truly Midwestern boy chicken wings are part of our regular menu rotation. To be honest I actually can't recall ever having had chicken wings prior to being married (I wonder if that's a fact? I think it may be so.)

Now G's real idea of "good" chicken wings are battered, deep fried with a heavy vinegar base in the sauce. We've compromised on some of those factors for the ones that we make at home over the past 13 years.

Our current wing compromises include:

1) As much fat & skin trimmed as acceptable

2) Grilled

3) Only slight vinegar taste

We've made some great versions. One of our favorites is made with siraccha and honey and is wonderfully spicy. Another version we made was a soy sauce and mustard sauce that was also very tasty.

But some nights we want to eat a little more quickly than preparing those types of sauces entail so we go to G's stand by; Frank's Red Hot sauce.

He adds a bit of melted butter at the end so it helps tame some of the vinegar for my liking.

He trims the wings

adds a bit of salt & pepper

before putting them on the grill.

It takes about 12-18 minutes on the grill depending on the size of the wings.

 I chopped some potatoes and

and jalapenos

We made some jalapeno, cheese potatoes that we've been digging lately.

We also chopped up some red leaf and made

 a salad with some local strawberries to round out our meal for the evening.

G then coated the wings with his Red Hot sauce and some butter.

We sat the patio table and we were ready with a quick "go to dinner" within 30 minutes.

The wings were saucy and delicious.

Always an easy "go to" type of dish when we're not in the full "let's cook" kind of mood.