#53 – SMOKED CHICKEN WINGS at HILL COUNTRY

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

One of my first food discoveries in New York were the chicken wings at Stillwater Bar & Grill in the East Village. This dive bar is so unmemorable that nobody would think of looking for great food there. Except I found it. And it’s still sort of my little secret. My first experience there was the first time I had chicken wings that were not fried, but roasted. They tasted like real chicken and the meat literally fell off the bone.

Since then I have yet to find chicken wings as mindblowing. I’ve heard great things about the ones at Daddy-O (and of course Pok Pok), but Time Out’s list directed me to a place I would never have looked. Hill Country (the original barbecue location, not the newer fried chicken spot) features smoked chicken wings as a special on Wednesday nights and certain other times. They’re not advertised anywhere within the smoked joint except for a small blackboard up front. This is something I think you need to ask about.

And that’s what I did at 5:00 when we came by for an early snack. The pitmaster told us we had to wait about 30 more minutes because, “when you’re smoking something, you don’t want to rush it.” Fair enough.

So to kill some time (and to whet our appetites) we got some of their incredible brisket (both lean and moist) and a couple of pork ribs. I love places like this where you buy your meat by the pound and there’s no real minimum. Chris Rock in I’m Gonna Git Ya Sucka would be very happy. If you don’t get that reference, watch this video.

While I literally could (and did) order one rib, the chicken wings were sold in orders of five. And since we had almost filled up on the other offerings, we stuck with just the five.

These came out piping hot, but not as beautifully presented as Time Out showed in their photo. Those were garnished with scallions and served with two dipping sauces. I had to ask for a sauce and what I got was a little container of blue cheese dressing.

The wings had an impressive rub of seasonings. The meat did fall apart rather easily and there were very subtle hints of sweetness and spices (celery salt and dry mustard were most prevalent) with lots of smoky flavors throughout. That being said, I didn’t find them terribly flavorful. The chicken, while moist, tasted like chicken (which is rather bland on its own) and the rub of seasonings had not quite penetrated the meat. Sure, some of the nearby barbecue sauce added a tang, but it slightly overwhelmed the meat.

Hill Country’s were good chicken wings, but not nearly as wondrous or surprisingly flavorful as the ones I discovered many years ago in that dingy dive bar in the East Village. Go figure.

Would Hill Country’s Smoked Chicken Wings make my Top 100 of the year? They’re not the best wings I’ve had in NY, but they get a 7 out of 10 for having subtle and deep flavors while being smoky and tender.