Jul 29 2014

Pressure Cooker Wings with Bourbon Honey BBQ Sauce

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What more can I say to you about how unbelievably AWESOME my Pressure Cooker is??? Seriously this is re-revolutionary here. You saw my immediate love of it when I made my to-die-for Pork Ragu. Wait until you see what other recipes I have planned for the website!

Now as you know by now we love wings here. I never used to like them as I have always had issues with chicken with bones in them but those crispy baked oven fried wings blew me away (and millions others actually!). Now I’m not going to say these wings replace those. I’m saying these wings are equally as AWESOME but in a bajillionth of the time it takes to make those. No longer do you have to let them set in the fridge for at least 8 hours or bake them for 20-30 minutes. Yes you can still as they rock but for those nights when you are really short on time, these wing are cluckin’ unbelievable!

Yes, I said Cluckin’ Unbelievable! I made these literally 4 nights in a row for Mr. Fantabulous as he went nuts over these (and you will too!). They are super juicy, the sauce is AMAZING and with a little help from the broiler they crisp up like nobody’s business! Like seriously this was a single pot dish with one pan for the oven. Even the bbq sauce is made in the pressure cooker!

No really, the bbq sauce is made in the pressure cooker. Well wait, let me start from the beginning of how this recipe came to be. It was about 5pm and I was on my way home. About 20 minutes before I got home it dawned on me that what I had planned to make for dinner I had none of the ingredients on hand and I really, REALLY didn’t feel like stopping at the store. All I wanted in the world was to go home, get out of my work clothes, pull my hair up and put on my yoga pants. I didn’t want to have to think and honestly putting an effort into make dinner was something I just wasn’t into.

Don’t get me wrong, being in the kitchen is truly therapeutic for me however even I need a break though it rarely lasts more than a few hours. As I racked my brain on what I had in the fridge Mr. Fantabulous called which distracted my thoughts and soon I found myself pulling into the driveway.

Like clockwork I pulled in, took my shoes off and went straight to change and use the bathroom. It’s a long commute folks… and I’m a woman. We pee like every 30 minutes I swear. LOL TMI I know but hey, I’m human… and a girl. Once I got changed I then kissed Mr. Fantabulous. Yes bathroom trumps kissing the man *wink*. And like clockwork I heard “How soon til dinner and how was your day?” Yes, in that order….everyday. I can’t complain too much as it means the world to me that he loves my cooking so much but there are days when I come home I want to be wife first, TKW second.

So when he asked about dinner I kinda himmed and hawed and responded with a CYA of “I’ll call you hon. Maybe 45 or so.” This meant I had time to figure something out to make him other than pasta though I know that’s always my fail safe when I literally have zero clue what to make. But then honestly he’d be content with Cheerios….for an hour. That would be his prequel to real food as he says.

As I stood there with the fridge door wide open staring into it like something magical was going to appear I spied a package of wings I had bought the day before from the butcher. I had every intention of making them like my traditional wings that we LOVE but time just slipped away from me. I could have deep-fried them but I really don’t like doing stuff like that – adding extra fat when it’s not necessary.

That’s when I spied my Pressure Cooker. I got to thinking “why not?” I mean the worst case is I’d ruin a dozen of wings. And when I say ruin either they would be under done (which I could fix in the oven) or they would be overcooked which I’m sure I could have pureed it up and mixed it in with some cream cheese, shallots and stuff to make a killer spread on crackers.

I took the wings out and patted them dry. The next step was the sauce. I could have gone with any of my standards (Cowboy BBQ, Sticky Honey, Sriracha Butter, Thai Peanut) but I wanted to go with a whole new sauce. I mean if I’m going to go with something new, I might as well go big and create everything brand-spankin’ new, right?

I whipped up a standard base sauce and then added in some bourbon and honey. Now the sauce was pretty thick without being cooked so I actually added a fair amount of water to it to think it out to where it was more like a thin sauce. It was thick enough to coat every so slightly. Plus I figured once the wings were done I would then reduce the sauce, like traditional BBQ sauce to thicken up.

My only real issue was determining how long to cook these. Since I knew how long ribs and other things cooked I figured these would be considerably less due to them having less size and less meat. I went with 10 minutes high pressure then did a quick release. I didn’t want to do a natural release as I didn’t want the wings to then almost ‘poach’ in the sauce.

If you’re unfamiliar to using an electric Pressure Cooker it’s pretty simple. When a recipe says “10 minutes under pressure” that doesn’t mean that it takes only 10 minutes to cook. It means once the unit gets up to pressure then it cooks for 10 minutes at pressure. Just like any item, the unit has to warm up or in this case build up pressure. Mine takes eh 5-8 minutes to build up to pressure. Still you can’t beat the time it takes to make stuff in this machine versus a stove/oven or a crock pot!

Since I knew I wanted to crisp up the wings I put the oven to broil with a rack about 6″ below it. I lined a pan with foil and placed a cooling rack on top. As always I gave it a light spray. Once I did the quick release I used my tongs to take the wings out. OMG the meat was so tender that it practically fell off of the bone… and into my mouth!

Now with my Pressure Cooker it has a browning setting where it brings stuff to a boil (or where you can brown meats). This was perfect for the sauce as once I put the wings in the oven to broil I put the unit to brown and the sauce began to bubble and thicken up in under 10 minutes. Now you need to keep in mind when you make bbq sauce that it will thicken up as it cools. I made mine thick enough to slather on the wings.

Before I continue I HAVE to tell you about the smell of this sauce! It was intoxicating! You could smell the bourbon being infused with that rich tomatoey smokey flavors. It’s like you could smell the depth of it and how rich it was. I’m having a hard time describing just how amazing it is but trust me, once you make this you’ll know then. It’s one of those scents that make you lick your lips because you just know it’s going to be amazing!

Once the sauce thickened up I pulled the wings out of the oven and slathered on some of that amazing sauce ; back under the broiler they went. The wings were already crisp but this just baked that sauce into the skin giving it an amazing coating of awesomeness!

Within what, 20 minutes I had this killer dinner made and literally only used one container ( my Pressure Cooker) and the cooling rack. Just as I placed the wings on the table and went to call for Mr. Fantabulous to come and eat he was walking out. I guess the Bourbon sauce called him as he came out saying “My God honey whatever you’re making smells AMAZING!” Then he saw the wings and gave me a huge smile.

As we both took a bite you heard nothing but silence but our faces said it all. His eyes were big as silver dollars with a huge bbq-sauce covered smile forming and I just slowly closed my eyes to get lost in that saucy goodness. He repeatedly said “My God honey these are the best wings I have ever EVER had in my life. I mean I like them better than the spicy butter ones you make. These are perfect in every single way!”

Go me! Tee Hee! Now what’s awesome about this recipe is you’ll definitely have leftover sauce but trust me, once you make these wings, you’ll go out and buy more to make another batch either the next day…..or later that night. I would not steer you wrong on this.

Now go buy some wings, the ingredients and this Pressure Cooker!