Wingstop Hickory Smoked BBQ Recipe

Wingstop's Hickory Smoked BBQ is a barbecue sauce flavour that the chain describes as bold, smoky, sweet and rich. This copy simmers ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, molasses and Worcestershire sauce for ten minutes and finishes with half a teaspoon of hickory liquid smoke. It makes a cup and a half, enough for four pounds of wings.

What Wingstop says about Hickory Smoked BBQ

Wingstop's page for the flavour gives it four words: bold, smoky, sweet, rich. It calls the flavour inspired by Southern smokehouses and sums up the taste as smoky and slightly sweet, a classic barbecue. The page lists no ingredients.

So the copy is a classic American barbecue sauce with a smoke note: tomato, brown sugar and vinegar, with the hickory added as liquid smoke. It is a reconstruction, not Wingstop's formula, and MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Wingstop.

Recipe

Wingstop Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce

A reconstruction of Wingstop's Hickory Smoked BBQ flavour — a ketchup-based barbecue sauce with brown sugar, cider vinegar, molasses and hickory liquid smoke. One and a half cups.

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Prep

5 min

Cook

12 min

Total

17 min

Serves

12

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke

Instructions

1. Whisk the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and salt together in a saucepan.
2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then turn the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has darkened and thickened slightly.
3. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the liquid smoke. Use the sauce warm on wings, or cool it and refrigerate.

Nutrition

Calories:

55

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Liquid smoke, and how much

Liquid smoke is a water-soluble flavouring sold as condensed smoke from various woods; the bottle names the wood, and for this sauce it should say hickory. It is concentrated. Half a teaspoon is enough for a cup and a half of sauce, and it goes in off the heat, at the end.

Smoked paprika adds a second, milder smoke note and deepens the colour. Without liquid smoke, raise the smoked paprika to 1 tablespoon; the result is a smoky barbecue sauce, though not a hickory one.

Hickory Smoked BBQ on wings

Toss hot wings with warm sauce in a large bowl, about 1/3 cup per pound. The sauce contains a lot of sugar and scorches in a hot oven, so it goes on after the wings are cooked, not before.

The wings themselves are baked on a rack at 425°F until crisp, as described in the Wingstop hot honey rub. On ribs, brush the sauce on for the last 15 minutes only; the party ribs on this site are a place to use it.

Sweeter, sharper, hotter

• Sweeter: replace the molasses with honey. The sauce is lighter in colour.
• Sharper: add 1 more tablespoon of vinegar at the end.
• Hotter: 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. The sauce in the card has no heat beyond black pepper.

Keeping it

Three weeks in a closed jar in the refrigerator. Other Wingstop flavours on this site are the sweet chili glaze and the Lakers Legendary Garlic.