This recipe for spicy grilled (or smoked) chicken uses up some of that extra hot sauce you have in the pantry and makes some pretty tasty chicken to boot.
Ingredients
10 Skin-on Chicken Thighs
6 oz Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce or Wing Sauce (see comments below)
¼ Cup Tablespoons Honey
2 Teaspoons Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
Directions
Rinse the chicken thighs and pat dry then place them in a large bowl. Mix the hot sauce, honey, and seasonings until well combined. Pour over the chicken and make sure the mixture coats each piece. Marinate for at least two hours then put the chicken on the grill or smoker and cook to your device’s specifications. If desired, toss the chicken with extra hot sauce after it has cooked.
The recipe above is just a very basic template that is designed to use up extra hot sauce. (There is no such thing as too much hot sauce, it’s just hot sauce that is waiting to be used!) This will use up about a bottle and a half to two bottles, but you can adjust that if desired (see below for heat level). In place of the honey, you can substitute jalapeno jam or any spicy jam if you have some in the pantry or the fridge. You can also mix the hot sauce with barbeque sauce, about half a cup or so. I don’t include salt in the ingredients above because chances are that the hot sauce has plenty of that already. But you can adjust to your tastes and also add other seasonings that you like.
As for the heat, the recipe above will come out to about the Mild level on my scale, but feel free to amp that up if you want. The Louisiana-Style Hot or Wing Sauce provides a good base, but I usually throw in some hotter sauces to increase the heat. A couple of tablespoons of habanero or ghost chili sauce will certainly give this a kick. Or if you want to go hotter, add even more. I do find that a fair amount of the heat seems to cook out during the grilling process, though, so adding more sauce at the end is an option as well.
In that case, melt a tablespoon or two of butter and mix with about 4 to 5 oz of your preferred hot sauce then toss the chicken thighs with that once cooked. Or you can have that on the side to allow people to regulate their own heat.
I use chicken thighs because they are usually inexpensive and they are flavorful and juicy. But you can do this with wings or with mixed chicken parts. If the latter, pay attention to the cooking time and use a thermometer because wings and legs will cook quicker while the breast will take longer.