Navin’s is a compact procedure: a one smoker, a small indoor kitchen behind the counter wherever you order, a dining room that seats about two dozen. If everything on the menu grabs your attention at a look, it is the checklist of sandwiches — with names like the Jerk and the Mess and possibilities each vegetarian (the ShiNOLA) and vegan (the Shroom) — or it’s possible the Texas Twinkie, a enjoyable variation on the jalapeño popper stuffed with brisket and product cheese, wrapped in bacon and not fooling all around with its capsaicin wallop.
Smoked chicken wings at Navin’s BBQ
Learning this menu, you wouldn’t guess that chicken wings were the breakout hit throughout Armstrong’s yard experiments. These wings are shown individually from the brisket, pulled pork and other meats that you get by the pound or as a plate, but the placement isn’t specifically well known. I did not imagine to order them until my final stop by listed here — virtually a colossal oversight.
Armstrong produced his strategy to smoked wings cautiously. He isn’t “the biggest rooster-wing supporter in the entire world,” he informed me in a cellphone job interview. As well typically, the pores and skin is rubbery. So he analyzed tactics to stay clear of this flabby destiny. He consulted his uncle, who also judges wing competitions. The ensuing course of action, he stated, is one particular of Navin’s most elaborate recipes: a beer brine, a 2½- to a few-hour smoke, a spiced brown-sugar glaze, a quick finishing blitz from the kitchen’s charbroiler.
What you get is a exceptional wing, crisp and sticky, its meat juicy down to the bone. The flavors are not delicate, but their balance and deployment are. Navin’s signature blend of smoke — oak as the mellow base, with the autumnal sweetness of apple wood and a bite of hickory — extends and deepens the glaze’s initial strike of caramel and pepper. For an invigorating accent, dip each and every wing in the tangy Alabama white sauce.