Axe Kickin' Chicken
- Tracy Scheckel
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
In my day job, I had the good fortune to meet Alissa and Mike Wetherbee at a food business workshop series at the Union River Center for Innovation here in Ellsworth. Mike and Alissa are the owners of Axe Women Loggers of Maine, a highly competitive team of women who compete all over the country. The Wetherbees were at the workshop series because in addition to the Axe Women, they have created a line of Axe Kickin' hot sauces, rubs, and drink mixes that they have been marketing for a few years and are considering ways to reach a broader market.
During the first of the workshops, after Mike and Alissa shared their story, I asked why they hadn't brought us some samples to try. Hint taken, and the following week Mike brought us each a bottle of their Habanero Pumpkin Hot Sauce. I'm sure you can all guess what I did as soon as I had some time.......
All the Axe Kickin' products have a heat rating and this one is 7 of 10. That made me cautious when sampling. A drop or two on a spoon had some heat, but not overwhelming.
It's almost impossible to describe this sauce, I didn't really taste pumpkin, but there is a distinct essence of pumpkin pie spice. I say essence rather than taste because that truly what it is: you know it's there, you can sense it, it brings pumpkin pie to mind, but it's like the flavor is in your mind and not on your tongue.
As far as the heat that I expected to have more kick, after perusing their website, I learned that they rate there sauces as high as 27 of 10 in the case of Reaper Scorpion Hot Sauce, so the relative mildness of the Pumpkin Habanero made more sense.
The Sunday after I got my mitts on the sauce, I set out to cook a sheet pan full of chicken thighs as the vehicle for whatever I came up with in that day's trip down the rabbit hole. Because I wanted the seasonings in the sauce to be the star of the show, I was cautious with the accompanying ingredients for the BBQ sauce I had decided upon. Ultimately I went with apple sauce as the base: partially because I felt like catsup / mustard would mask the sauce but also because that spice essence made me think of apple pie. No BBQ sauce is complete without some acid and some sweet, so I used apple cider vinegar and some brown sugar with a couple of drops of liquid hickory smoke. As with any experimental recipe, there are things that can be improved upon; I should have used less apple sauce and more hot sauce. The recipe I'm sharing has those adjustments made -- who would want the imperfect recipe anyway?
THE RECIPE:
10 boneless chicken thighs
1 to 1-1/2C dark brown sugar
1/4C apple sauce (I'm guessing you could also use apple butter or even sweet apple cider)
1/4C apple cider vinegar
1T Axe Kickin' Pumpkin Habanero sauce
a few drops of liquid smoke (I used hickory which is a bit milder than some others)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Pat the chicken dry and lay it out the the cut side up an a parchment or silicon pad lined sheet pan.
In a bowl, whisk the BBQ sauce ingredients together until smooth.
Brush about 1/3 of the BBQ mixture on the chicken and bake for 20 minutes or so.
While the thighs are baking, heat the remaining glaze in a small saucepan until it's bubbling and let it reduce a bit.
After 20 minutes remove the pan and carefully turn the thighs over.
Brush them with another third of the BBQ sauce.
bake for another 20 to 265 minutes until the thighs reach 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
Drizzle the reduced BBQ glaze on them and serve. (or once cooled, store them in an airtight container in the fridge to serve or sue later.
My MO for my Sunday chicken thigh ritual is to serve them as dinner one night during the week after, maybe a second night as a sandwich or in some kind of stir-fry or taco dish and/or to use some for a chicken salad.
In the case of these, we did have them for dinner (I forgot to take photos) the next night, and then I made some Axe Kickin' chicken salad -- recipe coming to you soon.
