It’s the time of the year when everyone’s warming up for the beginning of the NFL regular season and that’s no different for me. I finally make one Aussie’s wish come true as I warm the ever-loving-heck up with a preseason recipe for the ages.
I take inspiration from Down Under in nuclear fashion with a sauce for what I call…
Nuke-A-Roo Wings
Credit or blame goes to Rumblings regular Will G. who has been asking me for a looooooooooong time to do something with Vegemite. More on why I finally did it and my impressions
of the Australian staple below in my usual “try not to bog things down for people who just want the dang recipe” style. Here’s what I’ll stick to up here (so I can offend all the Australians below)…
If you can take some heat, this sauce might be a top-five all time that I’ve made. I felt it would be good, but it exceeded all of my expectations.
Nuke-A-Roo Wing Sauce
Makes: Enough sauce for 10-12 wings
Active Time: 10 min
Total Time: 20 min
Ingredients
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbsp hot sauce (the usual kind for wings, you know the brand)
2 Tbsp weaponized hot sauce (see below)
1 Tbsp Vegemite
2 Tbsp hot honey
Juice from half a lemon
Wings ready to be sauced
You’ll need: Medium sauce pan, patience or a small food processor to mince garlic, even more patience to bear with me making fun of Australia below
- Melt butter on LOW. Add minced garlic and increase heat to MED ; Stir frequently for about 3 min (butter should bubble a bit).
- Reduce heat to LOW and stir in hot sauces, Vegemite, and honey.
- Squeeze juice from lemon into pan and stir in.
- Reduce all about 5-10 min (aim for a little sticky to cling to the wings).
- Toss wings in hot sauce and enjoy!
Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery
I don’t usually say the name of the hot sauce we all know goes in wing sauce because I’m holding out for a lucrative endorsement from them, but for the weaponized sauce I know I’ve expressed my preference for Melinda’s brand sauces. In this recipe I used her scorpion pepper sauce because Australia is full of things that might kill you, including scorpions, so why should my sauce be any different? As for the honey, I went with Mike’s brand of hot honey and the extra hot variation. My assumption is that Australia also has Mikes to go along with their scorpions.
The heat on these outdid the hottest sauce available at my local joint but if you’re really looking to turn it up a notch simply skip the brand I won’t name and double the weaponized variant. That should really lead to fire coming from your outback. As is, these will kick like a kangaroo. If you want to go the other direction, use regular honey and double the non-weaponized hot sauce instead for a milder outcome.
I know there’s all sorts of Men At Work trying to figure out why I’m doing this recipe now of all times. I’ve been a bit of a Yahoo this year and branching out into some Serious snacks from around the world. The most recent purchase was a box of goodies from Australia (Tim Tams are magical).
What do I think of Vegemite? By itself it’s not my bowl of rice. If I’m being candid I think many Americans trying it solo might go walkabout to the loo to chunder. I tried some on buttered toast and saw some real potential — and in Nuke-A-Roo sauce it sure is ripper. You’ll wanna bog in despite the heat. Whip up some sauce, toss the wings, and Bob’s your uncle!
