Had some friends over for some college football today, and while they were kind enough to bring some snacks and beer, I decided to stretch my legs and play around with a new rub: Ancho/Brown Sugar.
Since three of the four are attempting to low carb it up, I used Splenda Brown Sugar as my base, along with more than a little ancho chile powder, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, and some of the other usual suspects. Sadly, they don't make low carb apple juice so I had a blend of water, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, and spices as an overnight brine that ran a bit longer than the intended 12 hours.
After 17 hours in the fridge, it was time to apply the Ancho-Brown Sugar rub over an even dozen pounds of chicken wing flats and drums. They went into the Blaz'n Gridiron at 180° using CookinPellets Perfect Mix for a full hour.
At the one hour mark, I cranked the temp to 365° and let them run for another 50 minutes.
Everyone raved, though the extra time in the brine made them almost too ... juicy? The flavors were quite good, but there's always room for improvement. That's something I shouldn't complain about but they were so moist that it seemed to mute some of the spice from the ancho, black pepper, and cayenne in the crispy exterior. I'll probably go with an eight-hour brine next time.
One of my guests was nice enough to bring a cutting board with some wise words by the great philosopher Ronald Ulysses Swanson ... I think it's actually going up on the wall in my BBQ prep area rather than being used in the kitchen.
