Wings, Hoisin Pork And VEGAN SPARE RIBS on Your BBQ Grill!

The party season is coming! But in your Arctic Cabins BBQ Hut, all year, all weathers is party season. Read on to find out how we tackle planning party food and entertaining at home...

So, in this blog, I’ll share some BBQ party food ideas that we will be serving from our grill over the Christmas and New Year period – but each of them will go down well with your guests at any time of the year.

Like the Arctic Cabin BBQ hut itself, the BBQ Vegan Spare Ribs especially are a hit for all seasons! More on those later, but first, we’re winging it!

1 - THE BEST BBQ CHICKEN WINGS IN THE UNIVERSE, EVER

The Ingredients

100ml tomato sauce

125ml barbecue sauce

90g brown sugar

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (or Hendersons Relish if you’re near Sheffield!!)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp (minced) garlic

1 tsp (minced) ginger

1 kg pack of chicken wings

The Method

STEP 1

Mix all the ingredients together to form your marinade.

STEP 2

Move the chicken wings to a suitable container and add the marinade – keeping some back for brushing during the grilling process. I find a big enough Tupperware box with a lid or (Top Tip) a sealable freezer bag does the job really well. Refrigerate for two and a half hours.

STEP 3

During the marinading process swirl the wings in the marinade or turn them in the bag to ensure an even covering.

STEP 4

Oil your grill.

STEP 5

Direct grill the wings over a medium heat, about 180°C. As a guide you’re looking at a 15-25 minute grill time, keep turning and brushing with leftover marinade. After 15 minutes, insert a bbq thermometer into the centre of each wing, and ones that have reached 74°C can be served or moved to a cooler part of the grill – see Top Tips. If some aren’t at the magic 74°C, leave them on the coals for another 5 minutes or until the wings are thoroughly cooked and sticky and nicely charred all round on the outside.

TOP TIPS

*Some wings cook faster than others. I find a clay plant pot (a clean one!!) placed on the grill, half over the coals and half not, provides a space for keeping these warm while the others catch up! It’s like cooking on a gas barbecue and leaving one burner off! The heat from the coals circulates nicely but watch out – that pot gets hot – so remember your oven gloves!

**The key to great wings is to turn, check, brush! So, grill for a few minutes, then using your big BBQ chef tongs, flip the wings and see how they’re doing. Hot spots in the coals can lead to some wings charring, when this happens, flip them and brush on some sticky marinade. Keep an eye on them and, as they darken, move to your plant pot part of the grill. They’ll keep cooking there but won’t over brown!

2 - HOISIN PORK KEBABS

Hoisin sauce isn’t just for Chinese aromatic crispy duck! Pork tastes awesome drenched in too! These hoisin pork kebabs go down a treat.

The Ingredients

Pork Diced

Hoisin sauce

Peppers (Red, green, yellow, orange ... just go for more than one colour!)

Cherry Tomatoes

Red Onion.

Olive Oil

Kebab skewers

The Method

STEP 1

Cut the pork into chunks. Or buy ready-cut pork! Less prep time leaves more eating time!

STEP 2

Generously coat in gloopy hoisin sauce and set to one side.

STEP 3

Cut up the peppers and onion into square chunks.

STEP 4

Build some awesome kebabs with the pork chunks, tomatoes, onion and peppers.

STEP 5

Brush the kebabs with olive oil and cook on the Arctic Cabin BBQ Hut grill, turning regularly and brushing occasionally with hoisin sauce!

3 - VEGAN BBQ RIBS

At a recent BBQ in our Arctic Cabin, we made these delicious BBQ ribs for some vegan guests and they were a hit with the meat eaters too! The essence of a BBQ’d spare rib is the sticky, smoked BBQ flavour, followed by the texture and everyone says these vegan versions deliver that in abundance – no one ever says their favourite bit is the bone!

I’m being quite specific on brands here, just because these are the ones that worked for me, feel free to try alternatives and let me know how well they work.

The Ingredients

200g Holland & Barret Vital Wheat Gluten

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp smoked paprika

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

Fresh black pepper (to taste)

150g Pure Earth Turmeric Infused Vegan Broth

2 tbsp Butternut of London crunchy natural peanut butter

1-3 tsp (depending on taste) Nifty Kitchen Smoke Dust (or Liquid Smoke if you can get it)

1 tbsp soy sauce

200g barbecue sauce for cooking (but more for when you serve).

The Method

STEP 1

Preheat your kitchen oven to 180°C. (**)

STEP 2

Lightly grease a 20cm² baking tray.

STEP 3

Mix and stir the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper in a bowl.

STEP 4

Whisk together the broth, peanut butter, smoke dust, and soy sauce. When fully blended pour the mixture into the bowl of vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper and gently stir until you have a kneadable ‘dough’.

STEP 5

Knead the dough gently for about 3 minutes.

STEP 6

Transfer the dough onto the greased 20cm² baking tray and flatten it evenly across the whole dish.

STEP 7

Create 16 ribs by cutting once lengthwise in the centre and then turning the tray to cut at 2.5cm intervals. There’s no need to prise them apart at this stage, the cuts allow you to separate them easily once grilled.

STEP 8

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

STEP 9

Take from the oven and brush the top of the ribs with some of the leftover barbecue sauce. Place onto the Arctic Cabin BBQ grill, sauce side down (medium heat ideal) and brush the top with more of your barbecue sauce.

STEP 10

Flip the ribs when they are browned on the bottom (probably about 5 minutes depending on the heat) and cook the other side until that’s brown too.

STEP 11

Remove from the grill and serve with more barbecue sauce and napkins for those sticky fingers!

It takes a little more prep time, but I hope you’ll agree the results are worth it! As I say, I have been more brand-specific with this recipe and a link to each of the branded ingredients can be found below – but experiment with other brands and share YOUR results with me!

(** I’ve not tried it with this recipe but we’ve had success creating an oven on the BBQ grill by placing a large heat-proof plant pot over the cooking area – this could be an alternative to a preheated oven, keeping everything in the BBQ Hut!)

The thing about your Arctic Cabins BBQ Hut is that its versatility in terms of how you use it, see A-Z of Uses for an Arctic Cabin - Your Unique Perfect Escape (arcticcabins.co.uk), translates onto the grill as well. I’ve shared just three party food ideas but I reduced it from around thirty I was considering. If you have a favourite BBQ party food – get in touch.

Find out more about Arctic Cabins BBQ Huts by calling 0115 932 8888, get in touch via arcticcabins.co.uk or visit our Arctic Cabins Village (our show-site of dressed timber garden buildings) just off junction 25 of the M1 near Nottingham.