Barker's Marinade - Fiery Wings product reviews

In my family we are divided on what makes a spice hot as opposed to fiery. My son-in-law and I like it fiery, the hotter the better. If it brings tears to your eyes it is perfect. My grand-daughter likes it medium spicy. As for my partner, daughter, and grandson, they like their chili so weak it might as well not be there at all. So it takes all sorts. The beauty of a product like this is that you can tailor the effect to suit the individuals.

I used two packets of frozen chicken nibbles for the six of us. The marinade is designed for six servings, but I used less - once the chicken was thawed, I divided the pieces into three separate oven proof dishes and mixed in varying amounts of the product. Having prepared the bowls and left the meat to absorb the flavours, I delegated the vegetable preparation to the two children: we planned to have red cabbage and apple baked in a separate dish, and plain white rice to absorb the heat of the marinade!

The combination of flavours worked well. The sweet-sour effect of the red cabbage and apple complemented the spicy chicken to perfection, and the rice was freely available to those who wanted a little less spice. However, the way I had allocated the spice by quantity worked really well. Son-in-law and I enjoyed the challenge to our taste buds while those who find hot food daunting were content with the slight flavour burst they got from their own dish.

Despite the heat of the spices, I could easily taste the tomatoes and could see the marinade being used in other ways where a tomato paste is called for. Pizza would be one possibility, and I would also like to try some in a spaghetti bolognaise instead of a whole chopped jalapeno. There was about a third of the packet left, so I set out to do some more experimenting.

The first thing I discovered was that this product can replace a sauce or chutney in a meal. It does not have to be used as a marinade. I tried it smeared on the bread for a sausage sizzle and inside a cheese toastie to jazz up the cheese single. It was also nice stirred into a little mayonnaise to make a substitute thousand island dressing for white fish. The second thing I discovered was that it lasts much longer than the seven days advised on the packaging. I kept the open pack in the fridge and it was still perfectly usable two weeks after opening. That is a plus for me as I am often the only one using up very spicy products.

Now that the packet is all used up, I will be adding it to my shopping list - to be opened when I am sharing a meal with my son-in-law present so that it gets used up within a reasonable time frame. I am also going to experiment with freezing leftover marinade in ice cube trays so it will be available when I want to use it just for myself. I have done that in the past with other sauces and it has worked out well.

My partner and I love spicy food, and so does our 12-year-old daughter, however my two sons are not keen and will usually shy away from anything with even a little bit of heat to it. When I saw this product advertised on KIWIreviews I knew instantly that I needed to try this and share with the other two spice lovers in the house.

The packaging is full of vibrant colours, and the contrast between the background and the text really makes it stand out, the marinade in the bowl is a nice colour and I was hoping that was a sign that it was going to be spicy! The packaging is easy to open by tearing across the top from the wee cut out notches and is an easy material to be able to squeeze the majority of the liquid out. The first thing that hit me was the aroma, it was super spicy smelling, and my tastebuds were dancing in anticipation. I coated our chicken wings and popped in the fridge until dinner time, then popped in the over till done (I had used all the marinade and forgot to baste).

The first bite was amazing, this marinade certainly delivers on the heat, and I was not disappointed and continued to go back for more, the others also agreed that it packed a punch, and they were pleasantly surprised. The marinade left the chicken sticky, so it ended up being finger licking goodness. This has been requested to be in the pantry for our upcoming BBQ season and I am not going to argue with that!

Like usual Barker's has successfully produced another high quality, top ingredient, flavorsome product that I am pleased to have been able to try. I will definitely be keeping my eyes open to see which other flavours Barker's comes up with, I am happy to pay that price for a quality product that delivers what it says it will, and a NZ company even better, support local!

As a busy mum working full time, I often use prepackaged sauces to add to chicken to make our meals more interesting. Barker's are well known for their jams, chutneys, syrups, and sauces which I've really enjoyed so I was really looking forward to trying this marinade. The Fiery Wing marinate comes in an attractive orange pouch which is relatively easy to open. I decided to marinate 2 diced chicken breasts and there was ample marinade. The packet says it serves 6 and I think there would definitely be enough to thoroughly coat another diced chicken breast, but hey ho, my husband likes his food hot and spicy so I thought he could have extra sauce. The sauce was quite thick and whilst the chicken was marinating, you could smell the chillis. The ingredients consist of 64% vegetables (tomato paste, onion, and red pepper) and 10% chili (of which habanero is 3%). Other natural ingredients such as sugar, vinegar, paprika extract, canola oil, and garlic salt finish off the marinade.

You could smell the spices whilst the chicken was cooking and the marinade smelt like it was going to pack a punch. It didn't disappoint! Whilst my teenagers said it was tasty but very hot, my husband absolutely loved it and gobbled up any extra sauce from the girls. He said it was the best marinade he had tried and thoroughly enjoyed his meal. As much as I enjoyed it, I did find it a little hot for my liking. You could really taste the chili and tomatoes and I think my daughter's and I would probably have enjoyed these more on chicken wings/ legs, where we could have moderated the amount of marinade that was used.

So, for a versatile marinade that does indeed pack a punch, this one is definitely worth trying!

I love a good hot marinade and I love barkers products in general so this was a real treat to try.

I chose not to use wings but rather legs/drumsticks so if it was hot there was a bit of reprieve if it was too strong and a bit more meat if it was lovely (it was the latter!). First thing I noticed was that there was a lot of marinade in the packet and it was good and thick and not to runny so it worked well on the bigger items for us and was easy to spread around. The packet was really clear about what was inside and how to use it which is great when you are unfamiliar with the marinade. I liked the easy open packaging which wasn't too messy to get into and allowed squeezing every last morsel out of the packet into the bowl. The suggestion was 10 minutes but we like a bit of strength to our flavours so I gave it an hour in the fridge.

It didn't smell particularly strong but when I tasted a bit of the sauce it totally packed a strong punch and felt it was not in the slightest bit weak or filled out with anything unnatural. It was exactly what it said it was, fiery and fierce. The sauce was so lovely looking and smelling I basted it on during the cooking and was not disappointed with that result (seemed a shame to waste any of it). There was a clear fruitiness with the heat and a lovely rich taste which also looked really appealing (see the picture of our drumsticks which were a huge hit with everyone - we did say it had chilli as a warning though). The heat wasn't overpowering and the ability to moderate it by using less would be ideal for some people but we loved the good kick and the strong flavour. It would have been a lot more subtle as just a marinade but it was such a shame to waste the lovely ingredients. My only personal observation is that it wasn't easy to recognise the red peppers, with the tomato and chilli being the clear stars of the show. I would probably do some more interesting things with this (would love to try it with pasta/meatballs). I understood it was designed for chicken but as usual a red sauce would be great with beef in something a bit Italian or spanish.

Barkers did not disappoint with another great product which we will be keeping in mind for cold nights and warm dinners.