I found a recipe on a box of Hungry Jack instant mashed
potato flakes for crispy oven baked chicken wings and decided to adapt the
technique for the grill.
I started by brining a batch of chicken drumsticks overnight
(2 quarts water, half cup salt, full cup sugar).
The next day I rinsed the chicken, patted dry
then coated it liberally with hot sauce.
I rolled the wings in potato flakes then grilled with indirect high heat
for about an hour.
It was a struggle to brown the flaky potato crust with
indirect heat. When the chicken was
almost done cooking I moved it to direct heat and got the crispy, golden skin I
was looking for. I had to turn the
chicken often when I was using direct heat as the potato crust really wanted to
burn.
The crust was delicious and the chicken was extremely
juicy. The brine worked wonders! We
really didn’t notice much flavor from the hot sauce which was surprising.
I really like the idea of a potato coating and it worked
reasonably well. I will be adapting this
for future cooks and see how to get the most out of the concept.
