Delicious Dish: Halloween Black Bat Wings

These sweet and savory BBQ chicken "bat wings" are the perfect dish for your next spooky themed Halloween party or book club.  They look so much like bat wings on something out of a horror movie, your guests will be be doing double and triple takes on these creepy little guys. 

Our meat-eating book club members (myself included) were hesitant to try them at this month's party for "Shutter", but if you can get past they way they look, they taste delicious and your guests will be giggling with delight!

Halloween Black Bat Wings

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup teriyaki sauce ( I used Yoshida's Original Sauce from Costco)
1 cup dark soy sauce
1 cup honey hickory BBQ sauce (I used whatever I had on hand which was half Sweet Baby Ray's and Stubbs Original BBQ sauce)
1 drop black food coloring (or as needed)
4 lbs chicken wings 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix the brown sugar with all of the sauces together in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the black food coloring.  The only dye I could find was Betty Crocker's Bold Gel coloring.  I found that I needed to use quite a bit more than the one recommended drop to get the color dark enough.   Don't worry if it has a green tint or doesn't look black enough, the color deepens and darkens as the chicken cooks.  

Prior to placing the chicken in the marinade, pierce the chicken on both sides with a fork (go to town and stab that chicken good!) The marinade needs to seep in to make the chicken tender and make it easier for the color to take.

If you have the time, marinate the chicken overnight or at least the minimum recommended time of one hour.

I didn't have eight hours to wait, but I wanted the best flavor, so I have a handy trick that works really well if you have a Food Saver and canister accessories.  By removing all the air, the low pressure gets the marinade into every nook and cranny and gives me the same results in 45 minutes that I would normally get from an overnight marinade.

I did this twice and let the chicken soak for about 15-20 each time.  

After the 15-20 minutes wait time,  I placed all of the chicken back into the bowl with the sauce to marinate for another four hours until it was time to go into the oven.  

Once ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and arrange your chicken into two 8" x 11" glass casserole dishes with the remaining sauce.  

I was concerned the 'bat wings' weren't dark enough, so I reserved a little extra sauce, added more black dye, and brushed the darker mixture on each individual wing.  You can never be too safe, right?

Bake for at least an hour or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Voila!  Chicken wings transformed into nasty Black Bat Wings!  Get ready for everyone to squeal when they see them!

Me, with the finished product--equal parts yum and yuck!  

Happy early Halloween and happy eerie party planning!  Be sure to check out our blog post from our "Shutter" book club earlier this month for other spine-chilling food ideas!

*Original recipe found here.

xo,