The Meatwave

For our third stop on this wingtastic January journey, I'm pulling out an oldie, but goodie. Well, it's not really old as I've never made white sauce chicken previously in a wing-only variation, but it is a recipe I've cooked a number of times over the years in its more common whole bird form. For the uninitiated, slow smoked birds dunked in a mayo-based barbecue sauce is an Alabama tradition, one that I learned from Chris Lilly at Big Bob Gibson in Decatur that has some grand results that transfered exceedingly well to this smaller scale application.

I started these wings off with a two-to-one rub-to-baking powder ratio that has worked well for me in delivering good flavor and baking powder coating to help wings achieve their full crispy potential on the grill—baking powder aids in developing a textured, crunchy skin when cooked.

I used my personal rub mixture here, which is what's outline in the recipe below, but you can substitute two tablespoons of your favorite rub or whatever you have on hand if you're not about pulling almost every spice in the cupboard for what is otherwise a pretty simple recipe.

Once the rub-baking powder mixture was tossed onto the wings, I transferred them to a wire rack set in a sheet pan, then placed the entire thing in the fridge overnight to air dry.

I made good use of at least five minutes of that downtime to whip up a fresh batch of white barbecue sauce. I stuck with the tried-and-true Big Bob Gibson's recipe here, but scaled down the amounts to make just enough needed to both sauce the wings and have some leftover for additional dipping as well.

While the traditional Alabama chicken is slow smoked, that process tends to result in chewy, flabby skin, which isn't great for wings that ideally should have at least a little crunch to them. So I cooked these as I do with the majority of my wings—over indirect high heat until the skins crisped, about 45 minutes.

I then transferred those browned beauties to a bowl and tossed them with half of the barbecue sauce, admittedly making chicken that look mouthwatering into something less than with its out of place white dressing.

But the thing with white sauce is that it doesn't just sit on the chicken like your average sauce or glaze, but seeps in, enhancing the richness and flavor all the way down into the meat. And that's exactly what it did here, giving these slightly sweet and earthy rubbed wings a boost of tang and savoriness that heightened their overall flavor. The only downside was that the same quality that made white sauce work also de-crisped the skins a bit, but the loss was certainly made up for in the gains in flavor. Having the extra sauce on the side for dipping was also key since it added an extra layer of tangy, slightly sharp white sauce flavor that stood out more than what had already melded with the chicken. Bonus was that the sauce also was an excellent pairing with the celery, which I'm apt to leave for others when there isn't a dip as tasty as this white sauce alongside.

Published on Thu Jan 19, 2017 by Joshua Bousel

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