Chris Lilly's Spicy Apricot Wings

As a kid, we had an apricot tree in the rear yard. Relatively speaking it was a small tree with a medium size trunk and rather large canopy. Me and my buddies couldn't wait until them little suckers got ripe - picking and eating them little golden treats and then whipping the stones at one another or over the fence to the neighbors - ahhh...the good ol days. We never left mom much to use and man she used to get po'd.

When I BBQ or grill, I am often inspired by recipes or foods that remind me of my childhood. Kind of a weird connection that way, but soulful nonetheless. Anyways, seeing this recipe in Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Cook-Book for spicy apricot wings reminded me of that time and served as the inspiration for this cook.

Started with these Purdue whole wings.

(Click on photos for a close-up)

Lilly's recipe calls for a marinade of apricot preserve, Worcestershire, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, S&P, garlic powder, sweet paprika, Cayenne and ginger powder.

Here's a whole wing. I don't mind chopn' these things up. Kind of enjoy it.

So, off with the tips. I save them for use in stock.

Next, I find the knuckle to the leg and run the knife down and chop.

Pile of prepped wings....

Through them in a Ziploc, pushed the air out and into the fridge for 4 hours....

Built a two-zone fire. Got the Weber OTG to 425 degrees with a piece of hickory and cooked these suckers for about 35 minutes.

The missus made some yellow rice and a balsamic/honey/maple vinaigrette over some spring mix to boot.  I've been really digging whole charred jalapenos lately, so I threw some of them on too. I washed it all down with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, although a nice Pinot Grigio would have hit the spot as well.

Lilly's recipe is very good. It's sweet, spicy and sticky. The apricot flavor really stands out. I do think it could have used a dusting of some sort of finishing rub though. Maybe a sprinkle of Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy or something similar would have been ideal.

And just as I was finishing up this cook, my neighbor delivered unto me some savory mushroom and onion pie.  I'm a lucky guy with awesome neighbors....what a wonderful surprise!  It was extremely good and gone in seconds. After I was done, I walked on over hoping they'd offer me more, I made some small talk, dropped a few hints, but no more pie. The crust was absolutely delicious - flaky, yet crisp and full of flavor.  The mushrooms were perfectly cooked, firm and earthy. Wowser! It was fantastic.

What a  great day! 

Thanks for looking and Happy Friday!