derryX Cooks: Ghost Chili Wings

Last year, I hit up one of my favorite shops in Saratoga, The Saratoga Salsa and Spice Company, who offer a wide array of hot sauces ranging from wimpy to nuclear (pronounced like George W. Bush would, because that’s how I roll). When I was there, I jokingly asked the lady if she had any sauces made with Ghost Chili, one of the hottest peppers in the world. She broke it out and made me sign a waiver before trying it. I loved it, so I bought a bottle of it. I have since to find an application in which I’ve found it suitable.

Prior to the Stupid Bowl, I picked up a huge bag of chicken wings for like 4 bucks. I was going through my freezer and pantry last week, and thought, hmm, why don’t I try to make some hot wings with that hot sauce? So here’s how that endeavor turned out.

Ingredients:

• 30-40 Chicken wings (thawed) – Mixed (Drumettes and wings)
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons Frank’s Hot Sauce
• 1/4 cup of Melinda’s Naga Jolokia Pepper Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of Fiber One Original Pancake Mix
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter
• 3 Tablespoons of Sylvia’s Sizzlin’ Hot Spice seasoning
• 1 Tablespoon of fresh Garlic (finely minced)
• Kosher or Course Sea Salt
• Black Pepper
• Olive Oil

Procedure:

Combine wings with 2 Tablespoons of Frank’s Hot Sauce, 2 tablespoons of dry seasoning, salt, pepper, and pancake mix. Give the wings a good rub and spread onto a large greased oven pan. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and coat with a good amount of olive oil. If you could afford the time to let them sit in the fridge for a few hours, do it. Bake at 400 °F for an hour. When the wings are ready, microwave the butter until melted and add remaining hot sauces, remaining dry seasoning, garlic, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of black pepper. Give it a good mix. Toss wings in sauce to taste.

Photos:

What I’d do differently:

The ghost chili was definitely distinguishable, but it was really difficult to get past the signature Frank’s taste. I doubt adding less Frank’s would help with this, so I’m on the market for a base sauce that’s more neutral. You can certainly substitute the pancake mix with regular flour, and they will probably come out a little crispier. And, yeah, you could fry them too.

Yeah, I microwaved my sauce. You could do it in a pot over flame, but why dirty another tool?

Make sure you toss the wings in the sauce in a large enough container, as in, make sure the wings and sauce only fill half of the volume of your container. I didn’t have something large enough and ended up breaking most of my wings because I had to shake vigorously to get the sauce to distribute through the wings.

My measurements were not measurements at all. I eyeballed everything to my particular tastes, and so should you. None of the amounts of ingredients are critical parameters, so have at it.