Buffalo Wild Wings Desert Heat Dry Rub

Home reconstruction

Desert Heat is the sweet-and-smoky one — chipotle, brown sugar, a citrus edge — and it is the seasoning people most often try to reproduce at home. The blend is not the hard part. The application is.

At the restaurant the wings are fried, given a very light toss in oil, and then dusted while still hot. At home people take wings out of the oven and shake powder onto them, and most of it ends up in the bottom of the bowl.

Why the oil step exists

Dry seasoning needs something to dissolve into. Fried wings have a surface that is hot and slightly greasy, which does the job on its own — but oven wings, and wings that have sat for even a couple of minutes, do not.

A teaspoon of oil per 450 g of wings is enough. Not enough to make them greasy, enough to make the surface tacky so the rub bonds to it instead of sitting on it.

The same trick is why the seasoning tastes different once it is on the wing. Some of the sugar dissolves, some of the paprika blooms in the warm fat, and the raw edge of the spice goes away.

What is in Desert Heat

The flavour has three parts working at once:

Sweet. Brown sugar, and enough of it that it registers before the heat does.

Smoky. Chipotle powder rather than plain chilli, plus smoked paprika. The smoke is what stops it tasting like a barbecue rub.

Sharp. A citrus note. Lime or orange, and it is what lifts the whole thing.

What you need

• 3 tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp chipotle chilli powder
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp fine salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried lime zest, or the zest of one lime dried on a plate overnight
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

1. 1. Break up any lumps in the brown sugar before you mix. Damp sugar clumps trap the spices and you get a mouthful of nothing followed by a mouthful of pure chipotle.
2. 2. Combine everything in a bowl and whisk it properly — a minute, not ten seconds.
3. 3. For wings: cook them however you like, then while they are hot, toss with 1 tsp neutral oil per 450 g.
4. 4. Add the rub — roughly 2 tbsp per 450 g — and toss again immediately.

Getting the sugar to behave

Brown sugar is damp by design, and in a spice blend it will cake within a week. Two options:

Use it fresh, mixing what you need.

Dry it first. Spread the brown sugar on a tray for a couple of hours before mixing. It keeps far better and the blend stays pourable.

Do not substitute white sugar to dodge the problem. The molasses in brown sugar is a real part of the flavour.

Storing

Three months in a sealed jar, and it will clump towards the end. Break it up with a fork rather than throwing it out.

Wings, once dusted, should be eaten immediately. The sugar draws moisture out of the skin and softens it within about ten minutes.