Mark BBQ Billy's first official barbecue competition in the books: Grillin' on the Bay, 2011. My grilling compatriot and brother-in-law, Bert Cooper, represented hardcore in an all-out, 15-hr endeavor featuring sub-freezing temps, 4 hrs of sleep, and a ridiculous amount of smoke, meat, beer, and bourbon. Everyone at the competition was incredibly welcoming and informative. When the NEBS (New England Barbecue Society) people heard it was our first event, they introduced us to a few pros, and rallied throughout the day to confirm we knew when turn-in times were, how to plate an entry, and otherwise make it through the day successfully.

We placed 13th overall, out of 20 entrants. Not bad considering it was our first time. But in the Chef's Choice category Bert's brainchaild Oyster Bombs placed 8th earning us recognition at the awards ceremony. I have since learned that many of our point deductions were simply because of our lack of food plating experience. People take the presentation wikid seriously! I witnessed a few women spending 2 and 3 hours cutting parsely and lettuce to create perfectly uniform beds of green for their team's meaty entries. Its strange, but not hard to replicate now that we know the drill. I figure we could have jumped a few spots in the standings with a little more time and consideration spent on presentation. 

Here's a recap of how the whole day went: 

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I love a good buffalo chicken wing. The combination of vinegar and hot sauce on top of a super crispy wing is perhaps one of my top 10 favorite foods to eat. A few restaurants get it right, many do not, but I even love the bad ones. True love I tell you. I've been making variations at home for years, from deep fried, to baked, to grilled, to smoked. The version I made last week was a good combination of subtle smokey flavors with the traditional bang and tang of a classic buffalo wing. I made these on our gas grill down in Brooklyn a day after a snow storm, and was pleased with the results. Gas grills can really shine sometimes. A recipe is at the bottom of the post, but here is a long-winded version of what i did: 

First up was to make a smoker pack. I soaked a big handful of apple wood chips in water for about an hour. I then pulled out a 18-inch long sheet of tin foil, and piled the drained wood chips in the center. I folded the long ends of the foil over the wood and crinkled them together. Then folded up the open sides to make a sealed packet, and poked 5 penny-sized holes in the top. I removed one cooking grate from the grill, and tossed the packet directly on the "vaporizer" bars to get as close to the heat as possible:

I set the grill to high, and heated it up for a good 15-20 minutes until I saw smoke coming from the vents. While the grill was heating I rubbed the chicken with an equal part mix of smoked paprika, chili powder, salt, and fresh cracked pepper. I then cleaned and oiled the remaining cooking grate, placed my wings skin-side down, and reduced all three burners to low:  I closed the lid, and grill-smoked for 15 minutes, checking after 10 minutes to confirm I wasn't scorching anything. Afer the 15 minutes I flipped the wings over and found nice browning happening:   I then mopped the cooked side of the wings with an equal part mix of beer (Labatt's) to bottled bbq sauce (Stubb's):  I closed the lid and grill-smoked for another 10 minutes. When I checked in I found a few of the smaller wings fully cooked, and some of the larger wings still needing time. So I piled up the finished wings on a cooler part of the grill, and kept everything on for another 5 minutes:
During that last 5 minutes I heated up a sauce of 4 Tbsp Frank's hot sauce, 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp Ketchup, 1 Tbsp butter. I did this in a soup pot big enough to fit the wings inside, and only cooked long enough to melt the butter and heat the sauce through:
When I removed the wings from the grill, they looked amazing on their own. Very crisp, nice charred bits, and the meat was looking plump. But using every ounce of willpower at hand, I continued with the saucing plan. Which is simply to dump them in the pot, cover, and shake 'em up for 5 seconds. I removed the wings from the pot immediately with tongs because I didn't want them to get soggy, and served them right away. A few shots of that process, starting with the wings fresh off the grill: 

I love this sauce... its so simple, and has a great combination of salt & vinegar with a nice kick of straight hot sauce. The applewood adds a really nice subtle smokey flavor to a traditional buffalo chicken wing. Its a bit more of a sweet smokey flavor than you'd get from a basic charcoal grill setup, though making these over charcoal would be killer as well. All-in this is about a 40 minute effort... perfect timing for pre-game festivities before the big game. 

Here's the full recipe: 

Ingredients: 

• 12 chicken wings
• 1 cup apple wood chips
• 2 Tbsp canola oil for oiling the grates
• 2 Tsp Smoked Paprika (any paprika is fine if you can't find smoked)
• 2 Tsp Chili Powder
• 2 Tsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tsp Fresh Cracked Black pepper
• 1/4 cup beer (something simple, Labatt's, Pabst, Bud, etc) 
• 1/4 cup bottled bbq sauce (Stubb's is great)
• 4 Tbsp Frank's hot sauce (gotta be Frank's!)
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Ketchup
• 1 Tbsp butter

Process:

• An hour before you fire up the grill, soak the wood chips in water
• Make a foil packet for the wood chips ( Place the drained wood chips on an 18-inch long sheet of tin foil, fold the long ends of the foil over the wood and crinkle them together. Then fold up the open sides to make a sealed packet, and poke 5 penny-sized holes in the top)
• Remove a grate from your grill, place the foil pack directly on the heating element and heat the grill on high for 15-20 minutes, or until you see smoke coming from the packet. 
• Meanwhile, make the rub: mix the paprika, chili powder, kosher salt, and black pepper in a small ball (note: this will make more than you need but I love having extra rub around!) 
• Rub the chicken with 2 Tbsp of this rub
• Once the grill is producing smoke, clean the remaining grate, and oil it with the 2 Tbsp of oil using tongs and a wadded up paper towel
• Reduce the heat to low, place the wings skin side down on the oiled grate, close the lid and smoke-grill for 15 minutes, checking after 10 to confirm nothing is burning
• Meanwhile, make the mop: combine the beer and bottled bbq sauce
• After 15 minutes, turn the wings over and brush with cooked sides of the chicken with half of the mop
• Close the lid and grill-smoke for 10 more minutes
• Make the buffalo wing sauce: in a pot large enough to fit the wings heat the hot sauce, vinegar, ketchup and butter over medium heat until the botter has melted. Cover, and remove from heat. 
• After the last 10 minutes most of your wings should be cooked through, but cut into the smallest and largest to confirm the meat is no longer pink
• Remove the fully cooked wings from the grill, toss them in the pot with the sauce, shake for 5 seconds, then remove the wings individually using tongs (you don't want to keep them in too much sauce or they will become soggy quickly)
• Serve immediately! 
• Note: it's super easy to double, triple, and quadruple this recipe! 

Inspired by some korean-ish hot wings seen at more please ( http://moreplease.posterous.com/sriracha-wings-0 ), I decided to redeem my grilling mojo after all but detroying some drumsticks earlier this month.

I happened across a sixer of PBR at the corner bodega (score!), and knew I had half a bottle of some stubbs in the fridge. This equals an old standby mop that is one of my favorites:

Thats 1 can of beer to about a 1/2 of stubbs. So i use that mop throughout grilling the wings for about 30-35 minutes on a pretty mellow/low heat. I turned the wings 3 or 4 times, moving them around the grate to give the right heat to the various wing sizes.

Meanwhile I'm making the finishing buffalo type hot sauce. Here's what I use:

Rougly 2/3rds cup franks (gotta be franks) hot sauce, 1/3rd cup red wine vinegar, a heavy tablespoon of butter, and a 3 second heavy squirt of ketchup. Here it is in the pot... If you stick your nose in there for a whiff you'll start coughing immediately. It's good stuff:

Back to the grill. It was super dark outside tonight so I didn't snap any pictures while grilling, but here's what the wings (bell and evans, btw) looked like after those 30-35 minutes on the grill, moped 3-4 times. These things were awesomly crisp:

They were so crisp, I didn't want to overdo it on the sauce coating for fear of creating a soggy mess. So I tossed a moderate amount (maybe 1/3rd or at most 1/2 of the pot) of that buffalo hot sauce. Here's what it looked like after all tossed up:

These were really really great. Crispy, hot, moist and tender meat inside. I got my grilling mojo back, and I'm officially ready for BBQ season.