Southern Tailgate Food With Soul Food Flavor | BBQ Chicken Wings

We're breaking out our best game-day tailgate roster with these insanely delicious and hearty Southern soul food tailgate recipes!

Starting with easy Southern BBQ chicken wings with savory soul food flavors for your next tailgate party.

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 40

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Soul Food, Southern Food

Servings:

Calories: 396kcal

12 chicken wings
2 tablespoons seasoning salt Famous Dave’s Country Roast Chicken Seasoning or similar (Contains soulful flavors such as paprika, mustard seed, garlic powder, onion powder, bell pepper, and lemon zest all in one!)
2 tablespoons garlic & herb seasoning Weber Seasoning Roasted Garlic & Herb, or similar
1 ½ cups BBQ sauce Homemade BBQ sauce recipe HERE!

In a small bowl, mix the chicken seasoning and the garlic & herb seasoning.
Rub the seasoning mixture on the chicken pieces to coat them.
Then use a basting brush to coat the chicken with the BBQ sauce.
Spray the air fryer basket with cooking oil, or if you have an air fryer tray or baking sheet, line it with parchment paper and then spray the paper.
Place the chicken wings in or on the air fryer basket or tray.
Air fry at 350 degrees F for a total of 30 minutes.
Halfway through, after about 15 minutes, flip the wings over in the air fryer and return to cooking.
Air fry at 350 degrees for the remaining 15 minutes.
Serve this Southern soul food BBQ chicken wings recipe right away, and enjoy!

How do you make soft BBQ chicken?

Optionally, you can use the below instructions and marinate the chicken in a buttermilk brine to tenderize it before adding the BBQ sauce.

This additional step is easiest with an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker.

Instructions for a buttermilk marinade chicken brine

To make homemade buttermilk, use 3 cups of milk and 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. In a medium-sized bowl, stir the two ingredients together and let them sit for 5 minutes.
Open the Instant Pot lid and add the buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of salt to the stainless steel inner pot.
Add the chicken pieces, skin-side up, to the pot with the buttermilk. (No Instant Pot? No problem! – allow the chicken to marinate in the buttermilk for 4 hours to overnight.)
Close the Instant Pot lid (make sure the valve is in the sealing position – up) and pressure cook on high for 20 minutes.
When the cooking time is finished, allow a natural pressure release for at least 10 minutes.
To open the Instant Pot lid, move the valve to ‘venting’ and manually release any remaining pressure, if applicable.
Remove the chicken from the Instant Pot (you can discard the buttermilk) and set the chicken pieces aside on a rimmed baking sheet to cool off to the touch.

You can make the buttermilk for this recipe yourself. Because let’s be real – it’s not a common pantry ingredient!

Buttermilk for this recipe: ½ cup of buttermilk = ½ cup of milk + ½ tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Stir and let it sit for 5 minutes.

What can you substitute for the poultry and herb seasonings?

You can use your favorite all-purpose seasoning or a combination of these soul food seasonings to make 4 tablespoons.

Homemade soul food chicken seasoning: