Some of these classics keep coming back on your path. And yet you still didn’t took the time to subject them to a taste test. “Buffalo sauce” is one of them for me. Until last weekend I hadn’t tried to make some Buffalo Wings. I bought a bottle of “Sweet baby Ray’s Buffalo wing sauce” to give them a try, but personally was not a big fan of it. Or maybe I expected too much of this sauce based on what I had heard from it? So I tried to make my own version. Not the most traditional version, yet firmly inspired on the basic Buffalo sauce. To be honest these “BBQ Bastard’s Asian style Buffalo Wings” were awesome and well worth to share with you and even recommend them.
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Last Saturday we celebrated my youngest son’s birthday. For the occasion I had provided some snacks for the parents who came to pick up their children. In between playing laser gun wars I tried to make the best of some BBQ classics. The preparation of the party took more time than I had in mind, so I started brining much too late and used store bought rubs and sauces for the evening. Not bad but personally I think it weren’t the best wings I made so far. “Luckily” due to an unexpected drop out there were some wings left so I could start smoking again the next day in an attempt to do better. And why not with my own interpretation of the Buffalo Wings sauce?
Figuring out what makes a Buffalo sauce so special I came up with 3 properties: “Hot sauce, vinegar and butter”. Where the butter should give a creamy touch to the whole. And let that be the part what I was missing in the “Sweet baby Ray’s Buffalo wing sauce”. The acidity and mild heat of the hot sauce are certainly present in this sauce, but personally I can’t find the creamy aspect and the sauce reminds me a bit too much of an ordinary hot sauce. By the way, my “Asian style Buffalo wings” variant isn’t perfect either and actually falls off as well when it comes to a traditional approach because of the lack of vinegar in the sauce. I chose to replace the vinegar with the fresh juice of limes to bring acidity into the sauce. Moreover, I used smoked and grilled chicken wings instead of the traditional fried chicken wings.
These Asian style Buffalo wings are sweeter than traditional Buffalo wings are probably meant to be. Just try to understand my logic… Usually I find BBQ sauces too sweet, and if there’s one that doesn’t fall into this category, I’ll make a sweeter one myself. Could I be a bit contrary? In itself the reason for this is rather simple. By trying to make the sauce a bit child friendly, I decided to halve the hot sauce (here sriracha) in quantity of the original recipe and supplement it with ketchup. Since I already had some Oriental flavors I added some ginger syrup for a fuller taste. Result: “a delicious mild spicy sauce”. Small detail: “my eldest son refuses to taste sauces unless they are used as a glaze… In other words: He didn’t even want to taste…” Fortunately, my youngest son is a bit more open-minded and tastefully ate two wings before he decided it was a little too spicy for him to continue eating with pleasure.
Conclusion? More Asian style Buffalo wings for us! Some days you, as a parent, don’t mind if the kids don’t like something as much as on other days. There wasn’t much hesitation to offer them something else and sacrifice myself to eat the rest of the wings. The BBQ Bastard Asian style Buffalo Wings may not be the most traditional approach. At least they were damned tasty! Curious what you think of it! Enjoy smoking!
BBQ Bastard’s Asian style Buffalo Chicken wings
Ingredients
- 1 kg. chicken wings
- 200 gr. Asian style buffalo sauce
- lime zest for finishing
- coriander for finishing
For the brine
- 2 l water
- 160 gr salt
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds crushed
- 2 handfuls of dried kaffir lime leaves
- 2 spring onions crushed
- 2 pieces of star anise coarsely crushed
For the Asian style buffalo sauce
- 1 part sriracha e.g. 50 gr.
- 1 part Tomato Ketchup e.g. 50 gr.
- 1 part ginger syrup e.g. 50 gr.
- 1 part melted butter e.g. 50 gr.
- juice of 1 lime per 200 gr. sauce or more to taste
- 3 pieces of star anise per 200 gr. sauce
Instructions
Brining the chicken
- Dissolve the salt in the water, add the herbs and spices and place the chicken wings in this brine for 8/12 hours.
- Remove the chicken wings from the brine and pat dry. Place in the refrigerator uncovered for about 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, prepare your BBQ for an indirect session at low temperature (+-75/100°C).
BBQ time
- Smoke the chicken wings for half an hour at low temperature. This allows the fat to melt slightly and the wings remain juicy and tender. Meanwhile you can make the Asian style Buffalo sauce.
- Increase the temperature in your BBQ to 250°C and grill the chicken wings indirectly at this high temperature until they are golden brown and the skin is crispy.
Asian style Buffalo sauce
- Mix the ketchup, sriracha and ginger syrup for the sauce well in a sauce pan and heat on a low heat fire source together with the star anise for about 10 minutes.
- Season to taste with lime juice and finish with the butter.