by This throwback recipe is considered to be an early predecessor to hot wings, and you can take plenty of liberties with it (like I did) to spice up your “deviled bones” however you choose.
Ingredients
2 lbs Cooked, Bone-In Wings
2 Tablespoons Butter
Cajun Seasoning
Hot Sauce (See Below)
Directions
This recipe is derived from one that I discovered on the wonderful YouTube show Tasting History with Max Miller (you can watch the episode below and I highly recommend subscribing to his channel). He found it in the 1854 cookbook titled A Shilling Cookery for the People by Alexis Soyer, and it certainly looks like a precursor to today’s hot wings. The recipe is a way to use up leftovers and calls for “any remaining joint or poultry, which has still some meat on”. It uses cayenne, salt, and pepper along with mustard and “mushroom ketchup” instead of hot sauce to spice up the wings because the latter was not readily available then (Edmund McIlhenny was still over a decade away from bottling and selling Tabasco sauce).
But since I have quite a lot of hot sauce in the pantry (their is never too much hot sauce, it is just waiting to be used), I decided to go with that instead. And I did two batches, one at the Medium heat level and one that cranks up the burn!
To start off with, earlier in the day I smoked two pounds of wing pieces to use as my “leftovers”. I had seasoned those with two tablespoons of Cajun spice and marinated them overnight in buttermilk to which I also added two tablespoons of Frank’s RedHot Xtra Hot Sauce. I let those sit after smoking then put a few cuts on each piece per recipe and separated them to make two batches. The recipe calls for seasoning the wings and putting them under the broiler, but I decided to just cook them on the stove in a wok skillet.
For the first batch, I threw in one tablespoon of butter and let it melt at medium heat. I then added the wings and a sprinkling of Cajun spice. You can then add one to two tablespoons of the Frank’s Xtra Hot, depending on how hot you want your deviled bones (I went with two tablespoons). I cooked those for four to five minutes, stirring regularly, until heated through. I then added a little more of the hot sauce before removing them from the skillet. That batch turned out to be around the Medium heat level on my scale, which was what I planned.
For the next batch, I decided to really put the devil in the bones! After melting the butter and throwing the remaining wings in the skillet, I seasoned them with the Cajun spice and and threw in the majority of a devilish concoction that included two tablespoons of El Yucateco Chili Habanero Hot Sauce, one tablespoon of sriracha sauce, and a few drops of Tabanero Dragon’s Breath Sauce. You can substitute pretty much any habanero sauce for the El Yucateco and something like Dave’s Insanity Sauce for the Dragon’s Breath. I cooked those wings for five minutes then added the rest of the sauce before setting them out on a plate. Needless to say, these definitely brought the heat, getting to above Fiery on my scale.
I do want to try these with just the seasonings per the original recipe at some point, but I was doing these two batches for the Super Bowl and wanted to make sure they had plenty of heat. That they did, and the wings disappeared pretty quickly, even the second batch (confession: I ate most of that batch). Be sure to watch the original video below and then feel free to come up with your own variations. And I have to agree with Max Miller that “deviled bones” is a really cool way to refer to hot wings!
