'Home-Schooled' BBQ Chicken Wings Recipe

John Stage is owner/pitmaster of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Harlem, New York, where you can regularly find us chowing down on massive platters of expertly smoked meat with all the fixins. He was kind enough to loan his recipe for barbecue chicken wings just in time for the NFL's home-stretch toward the Super Bowl.

I like to smoke chicken wings over low heat, then finish them over high to glaze and crisp them up, but you can achieve similar results in your home oven when it's too cold out to grill — or you'd rather watch the game than tend a fire. Season the wings with red rub and some oil before baking, but avoid adding any sauce until finishing, since barbecue sauce has some sugars in it that will burn. With baking, the flavors of the spices will come out and toast; you won't.

When finishing the wings, make sure you have a hot broiler, and avoid tossing them with too much sauce; you want to glaze them, but you also want to maintain that crisp skin that gives way to juicy flesh. It's that sweet spot of caramelization that's not soggy or charred. Plus, you can always serve a side of sauce for dipping along with blue cheese dressing. In fact, I encourage it.