Cajun Wings - Mac's Brewbar, Wellington Waterfront

Just a quick post today to share my relief that the weird wings I had last time I was here weren't replacing the great Cajun spiced wings that I remember. Not overly hot, but just enough of a chilli kick & decent whack of salt to make you really thirsty for beer. Its just a pity they don't brew their own here anymore.

The wings are jointed, so you can choose either the bicep part, or the fore-arm & wingtip. Because I like the crunchy bits, I skip the meatier bicep section and go for the piece with the wingtip. They come with two sauces, Thai sweet chilli & I think a BBQ sauce, but unless you are really sensitive to chilli you should skip the sauce & just enjoy the seasoning & crunchy juicy wings as they came out of the oven - or frier or whatever they were cooked in.

These might be my favourite wings in Wellington now.

Wings - Mac's Brewbar, Wellington Waterfront

I just wanted to post a quick comment on my last encounter with Chicken Wings, which was at the bar I think has the best outdoors area in Wellington.  That's mostly because I really like the floating crane Hikitia which neatly blocks views of Wellington's container terminal across the water at the Port.

Anyway, i'd wanted to go back and get a picture of the Wings at Mac's Brewbar for a while as I had found them very delicious.  Only this time they were different - instead of the dry spiced Cajun wings, we now had a sticky something-else kind of Wings.

I wasn't sloshed, but for whatever reason I couldn't pick what these were supposed to be.  I settled on calling them either under-soyed 5-Spice & Honey Soy Wings, or under-chillied Jerk Wings.  They weren't bad, and the wings were very well cooked - moist & delicious.  But flavour wise they just didn't pack a punch at all.

I saw later that the Cajun Wings are still on the bar menu, so perhaps we accidentally got a special or something from the Restaurant menu.  Who knows, but don't go for this variety - unless you like kinda bland, yet quite sweet sauces, on your chook.

Cajun Chicken Wings - BBQ Version

This isn't a recipe at all really, but I was so disappointed from the previous evening's failure at great wings that I decided to try to make my own.  Cue 2 dozen wings for $10 from Preston's Butchery, maybe $1 of year old, pre-mixed Cajun spice, a nice day for a BBQ and a full gas bottle.

Done and done.  Oh, you want a method?

1. Buy Chicken Wings
2. Season liberally with pre-mixed Cajun Spice
3. BBQ on a medium-hot Grill, preferably with the lid down, until cooked.
4. Eat.

I've given myself 2 Chillis for the effort, because I don't think this is the perfect way to prepare wings at all, but the whole excercise was to demonstrate what had gone wrong the night before.  With fresher spice this would have tasted nicer, but even with that caveat they had a nice heat and smokiness to them.  Having a BBQ with a hood makes cooking things whilst maintaining moisture content much easier, so these had a good crunch on the outside, but were still tender & juicy on the inside.

When I think of Cajun flavours i'm thinking Cayenne, Black Pepper, Oregano and Paprika, but whether this is really true or I wouldn't know.  Having never been to Acadiana, Louisiana or even the USA, at the end of the day who am I to say that this Cajun is better than that Cajun? What I can conclude is that one lot of wings had flavour, and got 2 Chillis, the other didn't and got 1.