White Sauce Wings

White Sauce Wings are seasoned and smoked chicken wings that are seared to crisp up the skin before being dunked in a homemade tangy Alabama white sauce with just a hint of horseradish. Fair warning: the white barbecue sauce is very addicting. All of this is done with indirect grilling (two zone grilling) on a charcoal grill.

The white sauce in this recipe is not the ranch dressing dip that has been popular, but a tangy Alabama white dipping sauce originally developed by Big Bob Gibson BBQ and later published by author Chris Lilly, a righteous pitmaster himself (and all around great guy), in Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book which can be purchased here (we highly recommend that you do).  I’ve owned that book for several years and cherish it for the recipes and processes therein.  I previously posted Spatchcocked Chicken with White Sauce almost 4 years ago and now will apply a similar process to chicken wings.

Editor’s Note ~ Since the publishing of this recipe, the Grillin’ Fools have gotten the opportunity to judge the Jack Daniels Invitational. Last year, Grillin’ Fool Scott got to judge at a table with none other than Chris Lilly

Back to the recipe.

First, the wings will receive a coating of a spicy, but not too spicy, dry rub.

White Sauce Wings Dry Rub Ingredients:

• 18-24 fresh chicken wings and/or sections
• 2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika (use spicy variety for more kick)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3-4 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

And our latest wing recipe is a dry rubbed wing with a home made honey sriracha. 

The wings are dumped into my old icebox pan and given a light coating of oil and then the rub is applied. 

Guess it is sort of a dry/wet rub combination but realize the oil really holds the rub on the wings as we’ll see later:

Nicely coated wings:

Now for the white sauce.  I modified the book recipe by adding sugar to the mix thus generating a bit of sweetness to enhance some of the southern tanginess.

White Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 cup white vinegar
• ½ cup apple juice (fresh cider would work well also)
• 4 tsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp horseradish
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I squeezed a half a large lemon)
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

Squeeze that lemon (I think Robert Plant is wailing in the background), add the vinegar and apple juice:

Drop in the horseradish and spices then whisk together well. 

Furthermore, use caution with this sauce and refrigerate if you have a lengthy time between prep and making your wings into white sauce wings.  We’re dealing with mayo here.

My treasured charcoal box grill is set up for indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side and the seasoned chicken wings on the other. 

Then, a chunk of apple wood is added for that sultry smoke flavor. For our complete list of smoke woods and what meats they pair with, click here.

How to Make White Sauce Wings

The chicken wings are on the side with no heat and the smoke wood on the coals:

Pro Tip ~ Place the bigger, full wings closest to the heat and the smaller drummies and flats farther from the coals

Now close the lid and let the smoke and heat work their magic. Target internal temperature of the grill is about 250-275. Target cook time is approximately one hour or until internal temp of the chicken is 150.  We’re not recommending you grill them to 150 and eat them. We still have to sear the chicken wings which will take them to the USDA recommended 160 degrees.

We’ve got some smoke happening at the 30 minute mark and a little browning:

At close to an hour, the chicken wings are at about 150F degrees internal temperature and ready to sear:

Your grill may cook differently so please use a good probe thermometer rather than a time frame. Know the temperature, don’t guess at it.

Before searing, make sure to add fuel to ensure a raging hot fire to give the chicken wings a good blast of heat:

Then place the wings over the hot fire. Once they get a little charring and the skin firms/crisps up, remove them from the heat:

They look so good here I’m wondering why I made sauce!

Time for some dipping to truly make them white sauce wings:

White Sauce Wings Summary:

But how was the taste? In a word? Addictive. Moderate heat, nice glow and very moist wings with a good amount of crispness. The white wing sauce (now I’m hearing Stevie Nicks in my head) both moderated and complemented the dry rub. Should you wish to serve something slightly (well more than slightly) different to your dining guests I strongly suggest giving this recipe a try.

Indeed, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

Additionally, if you could leave us a great review with lots of stars that would be most appreciated!

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5 from 1 vote

White Sauce Wings

Smoked chicken wings, slathered in an Alabama white BBQ sauce. It sounds odd, but White Sauce Wings are positively addictive!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Chicken Wings, Finger Food, Wings

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Barbecue, BBQ, Chicken Wings, Wings

Keyword: Alabama White Sauce, Charcoal Grill, Chicken Wings, Indirect Grilling, Smoked Chicken Wings, Smoked Wings, Two Zone Grilling, White Sauce, White Sauce Chicken Wings, White Sauce Wings

Servings: 8 People

Ingredients

Dry Rub Ingredients

• 18 to 24 chicken wings and/or sections
• 2 tbsp Ancho chile powder
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika (use spicy variety for more kick)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 to 4 tsp Olive oil

White Sauce Ingredients

• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 cup white vinegar
• ½ cup apple juice (fresh cider would work well also)
• 4 tsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp horseradish
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp lemon juice (from ½ large lemon)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

• Combine the dry ingredients from the rub in a bowl
• Place the chicken in a pan, drizzle and coat with the oil and then coat with the dry rub
• Prepare the grill for two zone/indirect grilling with coals and smoke wood on one side and nothing on the other
• Target temperature of the grill is 250-275
• Place the rubbed chicken wings on the side with no heat, a chunk of smoke wood on the coals and close the lid
• Prepare the white sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine
• Refrigerate until time to serve
• Once the chicken wings reach 150 degrees internal temperature (about an hour of cook time), then stoke up the fire and sear the wings to get them up to 160 degrees and firm/crisp up the skin
• Then serve with a bowl of the white sauce, dunking the chicken wings as you eat

Additionally, a bonus collage of the process:

Greg Thomas

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This article was initially published on: December 16, 2013