This is the time of year when many people are looking for game day food. I have to admit, I don’t follow professional sports, but regardless, I still like thinking about game day food and I know chicken wings are a tradition. I found this great recipe for Asian BBQ Chicken Wings made in a crockpot. The description had me at “Asian and BBQ”. Here’s why….

….my family loves both. When I met my husband, he asked me to come to his house for dinner. On our first date, when we were both trying to make good first impressions, he made me BBQ chicken pizza. It was great! The next dinner he made me BBQ grilled shrimp and then BBQ chicken. You don’t have to be a mental giant to see the common thread here. BBQ sauce went on everything!  I quickly took over in the kitchen so as to expand our dinner repertoire, but good for him for trying.  And his love of BBQ sauce has not abated over the past 20 years.  As for the Asian part of the sauce, well, no more need be said, Asian flavoring is always a winner.

Now that you have a little background on why I picked this recipe, I have one more note before we get started…. When I saw this listed as a crockpot recipe, I thought, easy peasy. Then I read the details and realized that you have to brown the wings after cooking them in the crockpot and make the sauce. Now, don’t get me wrong, this recipe is not complicated, but there are a couple steps after the crockpot. I just wanted to provide fair warning, and the extra steps are well worth it.  Have plenty of napkins on hand!

Ingredients

4 lbs chicken wings
8 medium scallions, thinly sliced
1 cup hoisin sauce
3 Tbsp Asian sesame oil
1 1/2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp sambal oelek
2 1/2 Tbsp cider vinegar
Asian chile oil (optional)

Method

In a 5-6 quart slow cooker, stir the chicken wings, all but 2 Tbsp of the scallions, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and sambal oelek until the wings are evenly coated. Cover and cook until the wings are cooked through but not falling off the bone, 2 1/2 hours on high or 4 hours on low (the wings can stay in the crock pot on warm for up to 1 hour).

Use tongs to transfer the chicken wings to a large foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Strain the sauce inot a fat separator and set aside for a few minutes. Pour the defatted sauce into a 2-quart saucepan, add the vinegar and boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, about 15 minutes.

Position a rack 4 inches from broiler element and heat the broiler on high. Brush the wings with the sauce and broil until browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the wings over, brush them again, and broil until brown and crisp, about 3 minutes more. Brush with the sauce once more before serving and top with remaining scallions. Drizzle with chile oil if using. Serve any remaining sauce on the side for dipping.

Bring It

Place back in crock pot to bring or leave on rimmed baking sheet and cover with foil. It really depends where you are going and timing on when they will be devoured.