Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Russ and I are flying our American flag for the first time today and are going to a 4th of July celebration tonight with friends for dinner. We didn't want to go all out cooking bbq today since we'll be having it tonight, but we did want to grill out something for lunch. We decided on chicken wings. Russ and I both love wings and have tried grilling them out at home once before with great results. We decided that it would be a very American lunch for the 4th!

Today Russ picked a new method for preparing the wings. He decided to go with a salt water brine to start the process. The wings sit in the brine for 40 minutes and then are patted dry. Once dry we decided to test out several different seasonings we have to see what we like best. We went with Huey's, Mr. P's, Butt Rub, and some with just salt and pepper. All of them will end up being tossed with some of our favorite wing sauce, Phil's Wing Sauce.

All of the wings turned out really well, but our favorite were the ones that had Mr. P's seasoning followed by the Butt Rub. The plain ones were too plain. All were a little on the salty side, so next time we will use a modified brine (listed below) with less salt than the one we used today. We also will do a taste test doing have in the brine and half not in the brine. All in all they were very yummy, but I forgot the carrot and celery sticks and the ranch... Russ rates the wings a 7.

Russ' Modified Brine

1 gallon cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt (or 1/4 cup table salt)
1 cup sugar

Let the chicken wings hang out in the brine for 40 minutes. Then drain them and pat dry.