Grillin' With Wolf: Parrot Wings

East Carolina University situated in Greenville, North Carolina is home to this week's opponent, the Pirates. Notable former students include Chris Johnson, Sandra Bullock, the guy who founded Golden Corral, James Maynard, wrestling owner Vince McMahon, and one of my favorite authors, Rick Atkinson. For our swashbuckling neighbors, we are going to make some "Parrot Wings". They pair great with 20-yard gains by David Wilson. I will be making mine in the true Buffalo style with 1/2 Frank's RedHot, 1/2 butter, and only served with blue cheese, but I will offer you guys some alternatives to try.

Ingredients

• Whole chicken wings
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Blue Cheese
• Butter
• Frank's RedHot

Directions

1. Cut off the wing tips. Save the tips for making your own chicken stock if you want. Split the wings into drum and wing, or leave them in one piece.
2. Let the wings dry overnight in the fridge, and add baking powder to help crisp them. The easiest way to do this is to dry them with a paper towel, put wings in a bowl, sprinkle with baking powder and salt, and put on baking sheet. If you don't want crispy wings you can marinate them overnight.
3. Following grill rules, grill wings over indirect heat for about 30 minutes to cook through. Then I like to move them right over direct heat for a little bit to get nice grill marks.
4. Toss in your favorite sauce.
5. Serve with nice chunky blue cheese.

Sauces

What sauce to use depends on how you like your wings. Again, I am a strictly Buffalo style guy. Though when the true recipe isn't followed, I sometimes order Cajun Ranch. To do Cajun Ranch the right way I make the basic Frank's and Butter, but I add about a tablespoon of Zatarain's Cajun seasoning and a half packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix. Cajun seasoning and ranch can be adjusted to your taste.

Another seasoning I like is an Asian style. Here I use this recipe (which is about a guess-to-mint on my part because I rarely write down measurements and go by taste, like my grandmother says "a little this of a little of that").

1/2 cup water or beer
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup teriyaki
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (if you are using fresh ginger instead use about teaspoon mashed in a mortar and start by taste from there)
2 pinches of brown sugar
lime juice and crushed red pepper to taste

As much as I claim to stick to the true ingredients, Frank's and Butter is just not spicy enough for me. I throw a little Tabasco, apple cider vinegar, crushed red pepper, and brown sugar into the mix. Then I start putting drops of Dave's Insanity sauce until it gets to the heat I enjoy.

For more ideas here are 101 wing recipes.

Sauces can be heated up in a bean pot and added with finished wings at the tailgate lot. If you decide to do an Asian style and don't really care if they are too crispy then marinate the hell out of them in a Ziploc on the way to the lot (I like to add green onion to the marinade).