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Smoked Chicken Wings 3 Ways

‘Great with a beer!’

Lenny Kravitz once said ‘I want to fly away’. Frank Sinatra once said ‘come fly with me’. The Foo Fighters once said they wanted to ‘learn to fly’.

All we’re seeing are three different ways of advocating for wings.

So finally, Cam took the hint – taking the flighty, low-flying chicken and turning it into a campsite feed that hits serious heights in spice, flavour, and its place on the snack table.

For a dish that combines a lowkey smoky kick with a spritely bite and a tease of sweet heat, rounded off by creamy blue cheese – watch here, plus more on our YouTube channel every Sunday from 6pm.

A plate of chicken wings, carrot, celery, and blue cheese sauce.

Cam has taken the flightless bird and turned it into a campsite feed that hits some serious heights.

Ingredients:

Chicken Wings

Chicken wings, cut at the joint with tips removed

Meat Church Honey Bacon BBQ dry rub

Kosmos Q Dirty Bird dry rub

Meat Mitch WHOMP! Competition BBQ sauce

Blue Cheese Sauce

200g of Blue Castello cheese

100mL of thickened cream

350mL of sour cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

To Serve

Celery batons

Carrot batons

Cam’s Kit:

Wildtrak Leisure Australia Deluxe 2 Burner Smoker

Popup Colander and 2-Bowl Set

Campfire Nonstick Pans

A selection of ingredients: dry seasonings, a bottle of marinade, carrots, celery, raw chicken wings, sour cream, thickened cream, blue cheese, pepper, and salt.

Cam’s ingredients for smoked chicken wings, 3 ways.

Method:

1. Prepare the Vegetables (00:33)

Roughly slice the celery and carrot. This isn’t necessarily crucial, but carrot and celery batons are a nice, crisp way to cut through the intense flavours of the spices in the wings.

Plus, if you’ve ever met a vegetable, you’ll agree that they should really get out more.

Sit in a bowl of water to keep crisp (not you, the vegetables).

Slicing celery into batons

Roughly slice the celery into batons.

Slicing carrots into batons

Roughly slice the carrot into batons.

Carrots and celery in a bowl of water

Sit the vegetables in a bowl of water to keep crisp.

2. Prepare the Wings (01:58)

While these can also remain whole, Cam portions the chicken wings for this cook. Do so by cutting straight through the joint and removing the tip.

Assemble three bowls, and divide the wings evenly across each.

Cutting, portioning, and preparing raw chicken wings

Cut straight through the joint of the wing and remove the tip.

Cutting, portioning, and preparing raw chicken wings

Cut straight through the joint of the wing and remove the tip.

Three blue bowls of raw chicken wings

Assemble three bowls, and divide the wings evenly across each.

3. Season the Wings (02:57)

Add the spice or marinade to its own bowl of wings.

Don’t chicken out – be generous, rubbing the flavour thoroughly into the meat.

Note: both the Meat Church Honey Bacon BBQ dry rub and Meat Mitch WHOMP! Competition BBQ sauce are gluten-free.

Leave in the fridge or cooler for half an hour. If time allows, marinating overnight is even better.

Dry rub poured onto a bowl of raw chicken wings

Add each spice or marinade to its own bowl of wings.

A hand marinating raw chicken wings with dry rub

Rub the spice thoroughly into the wings.

Dry rub poured onto a bowl of raw chicken wings

Be generous!

A hand marinating raw chicken wings with dry rub

The Meat Church Honey Bacon BBQ dry rub is gluten-free.

BBQ sauce poured onto a bowl of raw chicken wings

The Meat Mitch WHOMP! Competition BBQ sauce is gluten-free.

A hand marinating chicken wings in a blue bowl

Be thorough!

Marinated chicken wings in blue bowls, in a cooler

Leave in the fridge or cooler for half an hour.

4. Clean Your Cooking Station (04:04)

‘Surprise,’ said Salmonella, in our nightmares.

Take a warm bath, meditate, read a book, whatever – but the best way to prevent this kind of nightmare at camp is to soak a cloth in hot water and wipe down the surfaces where you’ve prepared raw chicken.

5. Prepare the Blue Cheese Sauce (04:35)

When your station is clean, pour the thickened cream into a saucepan, place onto the heat, and bring to the boil. Add the blue cheese, and remove from the heat immediately (the heat in the cream simply aids in melting the cheese).

Danish or stilton blue cheese works, but Cam recommends Castello. Given its creamier texture, it combines better with the cream.

Stir into a paste, and allow to cool completely before mixing in the sour cream. If the sour cream is added too soon, or mixed using a whisk, it will split.

Crack in some pepper – salt isn’t necessary, given the brackish flavour of the blue cheese.

Pour the sauce into a bowl, and transfer to the fridge or cooler to thicken up (but stay smart).

Cream poured into a saucepan

Pour the thickened cream into a saucepan, and place onto the heat.

Cream on the boil

Bring the cream to the boil.

A chunk of blue cheese in a saucepan of cream

The heated cream aids in melting the cheese.

Sour cream added to blue cream sauce

Allow the cream and cheese to cool completely before adding the sour cream.

Blue cheese sauce with pepper on top

Crack in some pepper – salt isn’t necessary.

Blue cheese sauce poured into a blue bowl

Pour the sauce into a bowl.

Blue cheese sauce in a blue bowl, sitting in a cooler

Transfer the sauce to the fridge or cooler.

6. Prepare the Smoker (06:23)

Cam’s smoker runs on methylated spirits.

Add the hickory wood chips, and cover with the drip tray. Position the lid on top until it begins to smoke.

Methylated spirits for the smoker

Cam’s smoker runs on methylated spirits.

A smoker filling with hickory wood chips

Add the hickory wood chips.

A smoker with its lid on

Position the lid on top until it begins to smoke.

7. Smoke the Chicken (07:04)

Place the chicken wings on the rack, and lower into the smoker. Replace the lid, and check the wings after 5-10 minutes.

Marinated chicken wings in blue bowls

Place the chicken wings on the rack.

8. Check the Wings (07:48)

Turn the wings, and replace the lid for another 10 minutes.

When your wings have been cooking for 15-20 minutes in total, they’re ready to serve.

Chicken wings in a smoker

Turn the wings after 5-10 minutes.

10. Time to spread your wings and fly away, champion (08:48)

If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.

Place your wings close, cosy, and snug around your blue cheese sauce bowl, and scatter the gaps with batons of crunchy carrot and celery.

Chicken wings next to a bowl of blue cheese sauce

Place your wings snug around your blue cheese sauce bowl.

11. The Finished Product (09:18)

Perfect for those finger-licking, sticky-dish dinners in the outdoors – Cam’s Smoked Chicken Wings 3 Ways is smoky succulence rounded out by the boldly creamy but brackish explosion of blue cheese sauce.

A plate of chicken wings, carrot, celery, and blue cheese sauce

Perfect for those finger-licking, sticky-dish dinners in the outdoors!