Calling all hot dogs and hamburgers. If you hadn't already noticed, chicken wings are staking their claim as legitimare heirs to the Summer Cookout crown. And who better to contribute a fanstastic wings recipe than one of the area's favorite chefs: Timothy Grills. The longtime owner of Timothy's Grill on Bank Street, Grills served for years as director of dining at Mitchell College and is now the director of dining at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. He says:

"This recipe for chicken wings is not your normal deep-fried wing and doused with sauce. It is actually a healthier version (if there is one). It consists of baking your wings and then sprinkling the season over them once baked. The spice is made from our general spice blend with the addition of cayenne pepper for a little heat in the background. The neat part about this recipe is, during the summer, if you don't want to use your oven, you can always set up your grill as an oven outside. To set up your grill, place bricks together in your grill the size of your pan, so the pan is complete covering the bricks and the pan is in complete contact with the brick."

Grills's Spice Plus

Ingredients

3 tablespoons garlic salt

3 tablespoons onion salt

3 tablespoons dried oregano

3 tablespoons ground thyme

3 tablespoons paprika

3 tablespoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (for a milder wing, cut the amount of cayenne by half)

Instructions for spice

Place all ingredients in a zip lock bag and mix well. Keep spice mixture in a cool dry area. Mixture will keep for some time in zip lock bag until ready to use. When ready to use, place mixture in a shaker container to coat product. Place back in a zip lock bag for storage when completed use.

Chicken Wings

Ingredients

4 lbs. chicken wings (size 8 to 9 per pound)

2 teaspoon Lawry's season salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F

For this recipe, you will want to stick with FRESH chicken wings. Frozen wings will be holding on to too much moisture, which is basically the enemy of crispy wings. Use a paper towel and blot the wings as dry as possible to remove any excess moisture. This is a critical step as we are trying to achieve maximum crisp level in baking.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place an oven-safe rack on top. Also coat the baking rack with nonstick spray so wings come off the rack easier. Once you have blotted dry the wings, place them in a bowl and evenly season the wings with the Lawry's salt tossing in bowl to make sure wings are evenly coated.

Line the wings on the oven safe rack, making sure they are not touching each other. Bake at 425°F for 30 minutes, flip over, then bake another 30 to 40 minutes, until the wings are golden brown and crispy. If you have a convection oven, your timing will be reduced by 10 to 15 minutes.

Now that the wings are cooked and crispy, place them in a bowl and sprinkle the enhanced Mitchell Spice over the wings tossing in the bowl to make sure they are well coated. Repeat this process one or two times until evenly coated. Always good to do a taste test in between to make sure you don't over spice the wings.

Wings are best served immediately. Enjoy!