#GIFTED

If the title to a blog post called BEER GLAZED CHICKEN WINGS doesn’t lure you, then you’re in the wrong place. Those words alone bring me so much joy. And they can bring you joy too!

I was sent a gift of this amazing beer box from Flavourly. It contained a selection of beers from Ubrew, whose packaging and beer names are amazing!

I’m not a beer drinker (yet), so I decided to do a little series of beer based recipes! I consulted my beer-coordinator for help.

To kick start, my beer-coordinator and I decided to try the IPA with some chicken wings, as our research lead us to the conclusion that the flavour of IPA was ideal because it’s very fruity – think of pineapple and lime! The finished sauce is very much like a rich sweet ‘n’ sour sauce!

For the chicken:

16 chicken wings

2 tsp olive oil

1½ tbsp paprika

1½ tbsp chilli

1 tbsp sea salt

For the glaze:

I doubled this so that the spare glaze could be a dip. I’m smart that way.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic (crushed)

1 cup of Ubrew Kitten Surprise IPA

¼ cup sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp brown sugar

The accompanying fries were just a bit of nostalgic indulgence for us as we’d been talking about our old favourite burger haunt. By popular request, here is how we made them!

For the fries…

Skinny fries (I bought Aldi’s frozen ones – they’re great!)

3 spring onions

A red and a green chilli

Grated mozzarella

Grated cheddar

Sriracha

These are based on my favourite side order from Burger Meats Bun in Glasgow which is sadly no longer with us.

Method

1. Set your oven to 180°C.
2. Mix the oil with the spices and fully coat your chicken wings. Chill in the fridge for as long as you can.
3. Place the chicken wings into a roasting tray and bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of your wings) until fully cooked.
4. Add your glaze ingredients to a pan and bring to the boil.
5. Boil for as long as it takes to reduce it by about 75% – it took a good 5 or so minutes as I was making double the amount.
6. Then simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture has reduced to a sticky-textured glaze.
7. Pop your fries into the oven so that they’re ready about 5 minutes before the chicken.
8. Finely slice your spring onion and chillies and set aside. Make sure your grated mozzarella and cheddar are mixed together.
9. When the fries are cooked you want to place them into a skillet and then top with the other ingredients. This is my recommended order: chillies and spring onion, cheese, sriracha, cheese.
10. Put it back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt and brown the cheese.
11. Everything should be coming out the oven now. Brush the glaze over the chicken, and top everything with your finely sliced chillies and spring onions (and an extra zig zag of sriracha on the fries for good measure). I put my left over glaze into a dish for dippin’.
12. Enjoy! I totally recommend having wet wipes and/or kitchen roll handy! It’s a sticky one!

Stay tuned to see what else we cook with the beer!

PS. We ordered a Chinese and used the spare glaze with it. Oh my.