TANDOORI DRY RUB CHICKEN WINGS

About last year I had posted my first take at creating a tandoori dry rub.  I made the original rub on a piece of tofu; -- a slab of absolutely flavorless protein -- to get the flavors in the rub correct. In this recipe, I've taken that dry rub recipe and created a spice rub for chicken wings that hits the tandoori taste buds.

This recipe requires you to first brine the chicken wings. The brine allows the chicken wings to hold in moisture as you cook them on a grill. Because you brine the wings, you need to omit the the salt from the the actual dry rub, otherwise the wings will come out overly salty. 

The second "trick" in making these wings absolutely perfect, is to add a little cornstarch to the dry rub, prior to tossing on to the wings.  This "trick" is one that I learned from watching Cooks' Country on PBS. The effect of the cornstarch is to counteract the effect of the brine, which can cause the chicken wings to stick to the grill when cooking.  Another trick that I learned from Cook's Country was to cook the wings on low heat for a longer period of time; I cooked these wings for almost 30 minutes on low heat, until they registered an internal temperature of 180 F.

This recipe certainly came out to my liking. The salt and the spices were correctly proportioned, and the brining really helped to keep in the moisture. I added some chopped fresh cilantro for garnish and drizzled a little garlic olive oil to carry through a little more of that garlic flavor.