The hot, spicy chicken wings at Elephant & Castle restaurant in Temple Bar, Dublin are an iconic dish - you just can't go there and not order them. For years, diners have been trying to coax the recipe for the dark red, hot and savoury sauce from the restaurant wait staff, but to no avail. However, with the arrival in Irish supermarkets of Frank's Red Hot Original Sauce, a US condiment made from aged cayenne peppers and vinegar, you can make a version of the dish that is, I think, almost identical to E&C's.
And the secret ingredient? Not just the hot sauce, but the copious quantities of melted butter the recipe demands. A third of a cup (70g) of butter, melted, mixed with a half cup (110mls) of Frank's Original Red Hot sauce, poured over and thoroughly mixed into 750g of chicken wings (about 24 mid-sized pieces) that have been roasted in the oven (an hour at 180 degrees; longer if you want them really crispy), produces a really good imitation of an enduring favourite.
Could we have let the secret of E&C's famous wings out of the bag? "I can't tell you. Ours is a recipe that's been in use for more than 20 years. It's similar in style, though," says manager Derek Tighe. And the butter? "We do use clarified butter," he says.
Frank's Red Hot Original Sauce is imported by BR Foods, and sold in branches of Tesco, Spar and independents nationwide. There is also a Buffalo Wing sauce in the range, which doesn't need to have butter added, but has a heady cocktail of additives and preservatives that aren't in the original version, which contains only cayenne peppers, vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder.
The original sauce has a recommended retail price of €2.99 - unless you buy it in Dublin food store Fallon & Byrne, where I paid €5.95 for it.
