Grilled buffalo wings

Before you start

• a barbecue or a griddle you can run at two different heats

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 400gchicken wings — about 10, split at the joint
• 3 tbsphot pepper sauce — the thin vinegary kind, not a thick chilli jam
• 25gbutter
• 1 tbspoil
• 100ggreek yoghurt
• 40gblue cheese
• 3celery sticks
• 1 tspwhite vinegar
• 2 tsppaprika, garlic powder and cayenne

Method

6 steps

1. finish · 5m

   Wings patted dry, tossed with the oil, the spice mix and plenty of salt. Damp skin never crisps, however long it cooks.

2. fold · 4m

   The dip: blue cheese crumbled into the yoghurt with the vinegar and mashed only half smooth, so there are still lumps to find.

3. grill · 20m

   Onto the cooler side of the grill, skin up, lid down, and left to render. This is the part everybody skips and it is the part that decides the texture.

4. grill · 10m

   Then over the hot side, turned often, until the skin is blistered and dark in patches and the meat at the thickest part is white right through to the bone with no pink and clear juices.

5. finish · 3m

   Butter melted into the hot pepper sauce off the heat — heat it hard and it splits — then the wings turned through it in a bowl.

6. finish · 2m

   Straight out with the celery and the dip. Sauced wings go soft within about ten minutes, which is why nobody sauces them early.