Guava-Glazed Wings

Kuawa — strawberry guava and common yellow guava — runs feral through the islands, and guava concentrate has been a pantry staple in local kitchens for generations. It brings something a bottled barbecue sauce can't: real fruit acid alongside the sugar, which keeps a wing glaze from going flat and cloying.

Crispy skin over live fire is a moisture problem, not a heat problem. A baking-powder dry brine held uncovered in the refrigerator raises the skin's surface pH and pulls water out, which is what lets the proteins brown hard and the fat render clean at 400F. Then the glaze goes on off the fire — sugar that spends any real time over kiawe coals goes bitter before it goes sticky.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs chicken wings, split into flats and drums
• 2 tsp baking powder (aluminum-free), 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder — the dry brine
• 1 cup guava concentrate or guava jelly (frozen Hawaiian Sun concentrate works)
• 1/4 cup shoyu
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp red chili flake, or chili pepper water to taste
• 1 Tbsp butter, off heat
• Sliced green onion and toasted sesame seeds

Cook Sequence

1. Pat the wings bone-dry, toss with the baking powder mixture until evenly coated, and rack them uncovered in the refrigerator 4-24 hours. Skip this and you get leathery skin — there is no shortcut here.
2. Simmer guava, shoyu, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and chili for 8-10 minutes until reduced by about a third and thick enough to coat a spoon. Kill the heat and whisk in the butter.
3. Set up two zones over kiawe lump with one chunk on the coals, and hold 400-425F on the indirect side with the lid on.
4. Lay the wings skin-side up on the indirect side, not touching, and cook 18 minutes. Flip and go 12-17 more.
5. Move them over direct heat for the last 60-90 seconds a side to blister the skin — watch them, wings go from crisp to burnt in about fifteen seconds over kiawe.
6. Pull at 185-195F. Wings are food-safe well before that, but the collagen and fat need the high end to render out and leave the skin brittle.
7. Toss in a warm bowl with the glaze, off the fire, until every wing is coated. Sesame seeds and green onion, serve immediately.

Round Out the Plate

• Asian Slaw — sharp and cold against a sweet glaze
• Somen Salad — the local pūpū-table companion