Buffalo-Style Hot Wings

Tonight's dinner: Buffalo wings with creamy bleu cheese dressing and a salad.  For dessert, a slice of homeade blueberry pie and a cup of iced Strawberry Bliss tea brewed fresh from my loose tea stash.  What more can you ask of an evening?

I am constantly craving finger foods, the kind you would find in bars like potato skins and buffalo wings.  Tonight I decided to finally tackle the short learning curve and make my own buffalo wings.  Being from NY, I wanted to make the authentic wings that originated in Buffalo, NY.  Alton Brown came to the rescue with this authentic recipe sans the deep frying since this is adapted for the home.

First, a little lesson on the anatomy of the chicken wing:

My whole life, I had thought there were these tiny chickens running around that were specifically grown for the purpose of hot wings, having tiny legs for the drum sticks part of hot wings and tiny wings.  Now that I've been educated by my brief google search, I know the standard chicken wing is cut into three parts, the tip, which is discarded or saved to boil into chicken stock, the Wingette, which is the two boned portion of the wing, and the drumette, which is the tiny chicken leg like portion of the wing.  When sharing a portion of hot wings, usually there is someone who loves the drumette and someone who loves the wingette, creating hot wing harmony.  If we ever find ourselves sharing wings, I prefer the drummette as it is so much less messy to eat.

Now that we've got that cleared up, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

• 12 whole chicken wings
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

 

Directions

Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.  Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes.

Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

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Pop goes the chicken, and the chicken goes...

Well I'm starting to eat normally again, so I attempted a home cooked meal for once.  Last night's dinner was the coined "Chicken Poppers" which is a stuffed chicken breast wrapped with bacon, but with a kick of heat.

Ingredients:

4- 8oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded
1- 8oz container of whipped cream cheese of your choice (I use Breakstone's Temp Tee)
1- Jar diced jalapenos (if you can't find diced, just buy the slices and dice yourself)
12 slices low sodium bacon- NOT thick cut!  The bacon doesn't crisp if it is cut too thick
4 Tablespoons chipotle seasoning of your choice (I use Konriko brand- bottle shown below)


Directions:

1.  Butterfly each breast and pound (but try not to tear the chicken).  I have learned that when you pound any kind of meat, you need to guard against splashing the juices around as you hit the meat.  (Please ignore all double entendres tyvm)  A perfect way to protect yourself from splashing Salmonella into your mouth is to first lay one sheet of wax paper and tape it down to the counter.  Then put your protein on top, then a layer of saran wrap goes on top.  Now you are ready to pound your meat!  (That one was intentional.)


2.  Put even amounts cream cheese in the middle of each fillet.  Try to keep the cheese towards the middle, leaving all four sides bare (makes rolling and tucking easier).

3.  Add a heaping teaspoonful of diced jalapenos on top of the cream cheese, and spoon a little juice on top from the jar.

4.  Roll it up like you would a burrito, tucking in the sides as you roll.


5.  Wrap with 2 to 3 slices of bacon each, depending on the size of the fillets, and place in a pyrex baking dish, and sprinkle a teaspoon of chipotle seasoning on each wrap.







6.  Bake at 350 Degrees F for approximately 40 minutes or until bacon is crispy and the chicken juices run clear.



I usually plate one chicken wrap (with some of those juices spooned on top) with a some broccolini and some Knorr Herb Butter rice sides.

I had mentioned the lemon blueberry crumb bars in my last post, and I didn't want those waiting for the outcome to feel left in the dark.  I did make them this past weekend, and I substituted the sugar with baking splenda for health reasons.  I have to say it came out pretty good!  Not as tasty as I had hoped, but I bet if I had used brown sugar in the crumbs, it would have been a knock out.


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Jamba-LI-ah!

Couldn't resist the Seinfeldism (Newman on The Soup Nazi episode).



This weekend I attempted Chicken and Smoked Sausage Jambalaya after reading Cajunlicious' guest post  from Nola Mommy.  The recipe is both easy to understand and cost effective for those on a tight budget.


So before I start heating anything, I always prepare all of my ingredients ahead of time.  This allows me to cook in a more calm environment where I can focus on flavors and cooking style instead of rushing around the kitchen trying to cut or measure something before the meal burns.

The Jambalaya recipe calls for 1 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup diced celery and 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper, and 1 Tablespoon minced garlic (which I conveniently had already minced in a jar in the fridge).




Celery dicing tip:  Slice the celery stalks lengthwise first, then line them up at one edge and dice into small squares.








The result is evenly sized celery squares that are perfect for sauteing.




Bell Pepper de-seeding tip:
Turn bell pepper upside down and slice sides away as you would peel an apple.


Then slice sides lengthwise to make perfectly sized bell pepper slices.



If you want to dice the pepper slices, line up the slices at one end like you did the celery slices, and cut into evenly sized squares.



The recipe calls for 8 oz (1/2 lb) smoked sausage, and I picked Polska Kielbasa to use in the dish because I love the stuff.

Dice the kielbasa by slicing into rounds and then quartering the rounds into four cubes per round.












Next, cube the 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast and season with approximately 2 Tablespoons Cajun seasoning.  (The recipe calls for only 1 teaspoon but I found 2 tablespoons nicely coated the chicken.)  Mush the chicken around to coat all the cubes.



Preheat your stock pot on medium-high with 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil.


Measuring cooking oil tip: Count to 1 while pouring the oil and that is one Tablespoon. If you need two tablespoons, count to 2, etc.  No need to dirty a measuring spoon to measure cooking oil!


Heat the oil until a piece of chicken inserted into the hot oil causes it to sizzle.  Then the oil is ready to cook the chicken properly.  Put all of your chicken in the hot oil and cook for about 5 minutes, turning the chicken once after 2 and a half minutes.  this will cook the chicken long enough to cook the outside until golden but not fully cook it through so it doesn't dry out.  If you find the chicken is sticking to the bottom of the pot, turn down the heat a bit.

Next add the kielbasa and cook it for about 5 minutes longer, just to heat the kielbasa through.  Then add the garlic, bell pepper, celery and onion and cook for another 5 minutes.

While the vegetables cook and soften, use this time to dissolve the Tablespoon of dry dark roux in 1/2 cup warm water.

For those of you like me who live on the East Coast and have no idea what I am talking about when I say dark roux, you can order it here.  Roux is a mixture of flour and fat, usually butter and cream, that is used in this recipe to color the jambalaya.  For more information on how to make a traditional roux, click here.  Making a roux is time consuming and many prefer to buy the less caloric and easy to store powdered roux.  The link listed above is where I got mine.







Now after the five minutes are up, add the dissolved roux and cook for an additional 10 minutes, occasionally stirring to mix and coat everything in the pot.

Next, mix in the 2 cups uncooked long grain white rice and 3.5 cups low sodium chicken broth.


Add a bit more Cajun seasoning if you so desire (Nola Mommy's suggestion and I have to say that I did it and it tasted great).

Bring to a boil and cover.  Cook on medium for 30 minutes, mixing occasionally so the bottom doesn't burn.






Nola Mommy suggests sprinkling the top with some sliced scallions as garnish, which is what I did in the picture at the top of the post.  She also suggests adding Tobasco sauce to the dish, which I did, approximately 10 shakes per bowl, and it brought out the flavors and added some welcomed heat to the dish.

Overall, this dish was a success.  My DH requested this to be on our regular menu, which is what I use as part of my success-o-meter.  I also loved the flavors in this simple dish.  My only issue was I added more than the required vegetables which created too much liquid in the pot, making my rice come out too mushy.


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