Piller's Buffalo Chicken Sausage Snack

I am always up for pretty much anything chicken wing related. Chicken wing chips, chicken wing nuts, chicken wing dip, chicken wing pretzel nuggets. So when I saw Buffalo Chicken pepperoni sticks at the store, I didn't even hesitate to buy them. Well, they were on sale so I was even more encouraged to buy them.

The packaging is pretty underwhelming and if I wasn't already looking at Piller's pepperoni sticks to begin with, I would have easily missed this. I mean, there isn't even a chicken wing on the cover, but at least they have Buffalo sauce.

 After getting this I looked over their social media and saw no advertising for this product either. They do have it on their website - but there isn't anything highlighting it other than an item on a menu list. Way to sell your product Pillers!

The back of the package is almost unreadable. It wasn't until I saw the website info that I could even read the ingredients. I'm happy to see chicken and cayenne sauce powder on there as well as some other spices and even natural smoke. This may contain egg ... but is that from the chicken?

Nothing seems out of the ordinary for commercial pepperoni sticks, so that's good. Even the bad stuff doesn't seem so bad. It's 50 Calories per stick, and 22% Meat Protein. I don't know if that's good or not. I also find it funny that they call this a sausage snack. Sausage just doesn't seem like a snack.

These say spicy, but that could be a gamble. Sometimes pepperoni sticks can get spicy or stingy, or they can fall flat.

The first thing I noticed when looking closely at the package was the condensation inside. That's a little weird. I think.

They were really wet inside too. The smell when opening up the resealable opening was immensely sour. Like sour bleach. It was not pleasant. At all. The colour was really light too, but I'm assuming that's from chicken verses pork or beef?

The size seems on par for Piller's other pepperoni products. They are (by eyeballing it) about 15 centimeters long. It is also more slimey and wet than a regular meat stick from Piller's.

I took a bite - SOUR! Wow was that sour. I mean it smelled sour and the first bites were sour. My first impression - I did not like this.

It's weird. There is no way anyone would guess Buffalo chicken from this. If you stop and think about it, you can taste some spice. You can even taste garlic. There is also a hint of smoke. But not Buffalo.

I will say that once you get past the initial sour smell and flavour, it's not bad. I like the garlic and the spice and the smoke. Like, but not love.

The other downside to this product is the texture. It's tough. The skin/casing is really tough and trying to bite a piece off is a challenge. It's kind of leathery in that it's pliable, but there's no give. The meat is also chewy and there's no give. Even for a meat stick.

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN?

No. Big old nope. It's tough, and it smells. It's flavour is nothing Buffalo-like. If you make it past the sour start and the tough casing, it's ok, but I wouldn't recommend even bothering. I wonder if this is why Piller's hasn't promoted it at all.

Piller's
Buffalo Chicken Sausage Snack

St LOUIS AYCE Boneless Wings January 2020

It's becoming an annual tradition: St Louis AYCE Boneless event:

Every January you can eat all the boneless chunks of meat tossed in your sauce or rub of choice. This year, it was actually cheaper. CHEAPER! $13.99! Last year it was $17.99. It was $16.99 back in 2018. $13.99 is an awesome price and seems just a little inconceivable.

I went in early January but have been behind on posting, as seems to be the case every year. The event is all January long though so you still have time.

My server was Kristin, who is just fantastic. She's been at St Louis for several years. When she came to take my order, I told her I was getting the AYCE Boneless and her eyes lit up "good choice!" I like that encouragement. I already knew, but I asked her how it worked just to clarify:

• $13.99 you start with an order of 15 boneless bites, blade fries, and dill dip.
• you can split your first order into 2 flavours
• once you finish that order, you can get another order of 5 boneless bites
• everyone at your table must get the AYCE  

Sounds good to me. Actually it seemed like they took some of my suggestions from last year: you can split those 15 bites up into 2 flavours, and fries weren't required with each order. Beautiful.  Now all I had to do was pick my flavours.

St Louis is now up to 30 different flavours, 7 dry rubs and 23 sauces. I was hoping they might have added some exciting new sauces since I had been last, but no they hadn't. I decided to try some different flavour than I usually get this time.

I technically did 3 rounds, but it was only two. Round one I split the 15 pieces starting with the Chipotle Mango Dry Rub, and Medium Saucy. These also came with my fries, which were ok, but nothing special. Filler. Then I went for round 2 with the Sweet Sriracha Hot Sauce, and Kristin came back after I had given my order to see if I might as well put in the 3rd order (Mississippi Honey BBQ), so they came at the same time.

The chicken pieces are not uniform, cookie cut out pieces of chicken. They are all unique cuts and sizes. They have a thick breading, and are fried till they are crunchy. Some came out tender and soft meat, others were dried out and hard. All came out hot and fairly well coated in their respective sauces or rubs.

After I had the 4 different flavours, I was full. I cannot eat as much food as I used to. Kristin almost seemed disappointed, but I said while I could probably squeeze in another 5 bites, I wouldn't enjoy it and I was happy. I asked her what was the most she had seen someone eat and she said it was tough with the boneless because it's all meat. She thought around 35 (starting off with 15, then 5+5+5+5) but with bone-in, 5lbs. I had 25 so I felt accomplished enough. Considering a 15 piece order is $18.99, I was way ahead in my money's worth.

We chatted about competitive eating and people downing wings or hot dogs in crazy quantities. I also asked what was the most common flavour people ordered and I loved her response: "oh, because people don't like to try out their palates, honey garlic." I love that we both scoffed at honey garlic! But other than that she said everything else pretty equally. Interesting.


ROUND 1

CHIPOTLE MANGO DRY RUB

Something different, I took a chance on these. Shouldn't have bothered. While they were well coated, this was just a very weak flavour. I could barely get a flavour over the breading and the chicken. It wasn't bad, just very weak. Did a lot of dipping in their dill sauce with these. These were also very dried out and tough so it would be a big pass in the future.

MEDIUM SAUCY

Sometimes, sometimes, I don't get hot when I go out for wings. Not because I can deal with the spice, but sometimes Medium sauce is just a much more flavourful sauce. This was not the case with the Medium Saucy. It too was kind of week. Again, not bad, just I want a more punched up flavour experience.


ROUND 2 & 3

SWEET SRIRACHA HOT SAUCE

So these came out really hot/fresh from the fryer and sauced well. I took a bite, and was surprised that these actually bit back! It wasn't crazy spicy, but these were much spicier than I expected, considering they are "sweet" sriracha. It also had an Asian flavour (no I'm not confusing the sriracha flavour) but almost a sweet and sour sauce in there. It actually didn't taste like a real sriracha sauce, but it was still good nonetheless.

MISSISSIPPI HONEY BBQ

I love this sauce. I always get this sauce. It's sticky, sweet, smokey. Everything I wanted in this style of BBQ sauce, and it just goes so well with the boneless bites. These too were hot, fresh, and crunchy chunks of chicken. A great way to end off my boneless experience.

Do you use a fork or your fingers for your All You Can Eat Boneless? Get this awesome deal for only $13.99 all month long! pic.twitter.com/iMyJhCZh3i

— St.Louis Bar & Grill (@stlouiswings) January 19, 2020

So overall I had a pretty great meal. In the future, I will not bother with the Chiptole Mango and the Medium Saucy. Sweet Sriracha was tasty, and for sure I'll be ordering the Mississippi BBQ again. Fries were fine, I had free refills on my pop, and the Signature Garlic Dill Dip was also refilled upon request. For $13.99 I for sure got my money's worth of boneless chicken, plus I had some excellent service. Thanks Kristin!


St. Louis Bar & Grill
1331 Clyde Ave #101 Ottawa ON (and other locations)
stlouiswings.com

OUTTAKES - Buffalo Boneless Bites

Hey it's Tuesday which means Cineplex theatres have cheap night and discount movie admission! As a Scene card member, I got even cheaper admission, Scene points going toward a free ticket, and a discount at the concession stand. I also cleaned up playing TimePlay. But back to the concession stand ...

There's been a revolution in cinema snacks that have gone beyond the popcorn and candy fare. The movies are competing with Netflix and piracy streaming, so the theatres themselves are getting make-overs with bigger sound, better pictures, recliner seats. The VIP cinemas have recliners with tray tables where you can get served to your seat a burger, jalapeno poppers, club wraps etc. You can even get beer and wine. And at this location, you can even order Cineplex food at home with UberEats. It's crazy.

My schedule is unorthodox, so I get a chance to hit up matinees, or sometimes, a morning flick. When I got to the movies, I almost always get popcorn, but since this was just before lunch, I was feeling hungry for something more substantial.

I headed to OutTakes - the 'food-food' counter at the movies. Since it was a morning movie, the place was pretty empty. I scanned the menu board - they have poutines, burgers, hot sandwiches, but one thing caught my eye:

OK so it's not wings, but boneless wings will do in a pinch. They have 3 flavours, Sweet Thai, BBQ and Buffalo. The ads are all for the Buffalo, and to be honest, that's what I was interested in. They also had a snack combo that was the chicken, pretzel bites, and mac and cheese bites for just about $10, but I went with the Buffalo Boneless Chicken for $7.99.

The staff member told me it would be about 7 minutes because none were ready (again, it was the morning). I heard the fingers go into a deep fryer and sizzle away. I walked away and got some popcorn (at another stand) but when I returned, the chicken was ready. I watched as they were placed in metal bowl and sauce from a squeeze bottle was drizzled, then tossed over top.

Out came a little cup - so very unceremonious, so kinda sad looking. The presentation was really underwhelming.

Fortunately, the chicken itself was more impressive. The tenders were all different shapes and sizes, which is nice to know they aren't preformed chicken patties. The above photo shows one of the larger pieces and clearly not a 'bite'. Actually this was awkward to eat with just a fork out of a cup. There were 5 pieces in the little cup.

The chicken was crispy, tender, and relatively saucy. The breading on the outside gave a nice little crunch. The chicken was moist and tender. Just as a chicken tender/finger, these were really good.

The sauce was lightly tossed - not very wet, but not dry either. It tasted like commercial Buffalo sauce, but a good quality commercial Buffalo sauce. When I say that, I mean it's obviously not fresh melted butter and hot sauce, but it doesn't taste bad like some poorly made sauces.

Of course I got popcorn - layered with butter. Can't watch a movie without it. I also add a Dill powder shaker to enhance my popcorn experience.

Would I get the Buffalo Boneless Chicken Bites again? Maybe. They were good boneless bites no doubt with their crispy breading and tender meat and decent sauce, but for $8 for 5 pieces, I'll probably pass as a regular snack.

 I know food prices are expensive and inflated these days, but what most people don't understand is that a movie theatre doesn't make money on the movies themselves, your admission money goes to the movie studios. The concession stand is where the theatre makes it's money. So yes popcorn and pop are overcharged, but that's the price to pay for a superior movie experience ( I just don't understand people that prefer watching a movie at home). Also, don't be the guy who smuggles in a can of pop and cracks it open during the movie. Mini rant over.

Those who have survived live by only one rule: never make a sound. Trailer for the upcoming extremely expected, ‘A Quiet Place’. 😧🎥 . ———————————————————————— . 

A post shared by Seventh Art Studio® (@seventh.art) on Feb 18, 2018 at 4:21pm PST

Oh, what movie did I see you ask?  A Quiet Place. Really recommend it - great atmosphere, superb use of sound and silence, and a unique take on alien apocalypse thriller.


OutTakes
Cineplex Theatres - Food & Drink

DQ Honey Hot Tossed & Sauced Chicken Strips

For a while now I've seen Dairy Queen (DQ) advertise their Honey BBQ Glazed Chicken Strip Basket:

This guy went to sports bars for "Honey BBQ chicken" - I don't know if he means wings, fried chicken, or sauced chicken fingers, but now he's doing "the dad thing." Most sports bars I've been to these days have families at them ... so why can't you take your kid? What are you trying to imply about sports bars DQ? Also, this is the American version of the commercial because this combo never came with toast here in Canada. 

Well recently DQ upped their game with Honey Hot Glazed strips .. with a dig at wing lovers:

"I make sports bar wings cry to their celery sticks"  - well now I had to see for myself if these sauced chicken were up to their call.

I headed down to a local DQ at lunch time to see what all the hullabaloo was about, if anything. They place was pretty quiet - only 2 guys in suits who were already eating, and someone came in after I was about to leave.

Both chicken strip baskets were advertised on the menu board. I was there to try the Honey Hot, but I was curious about the honey BBQ. I placed an order of Honey Hot - I was asked if I wanted 4 or 6. I asked if I could get the order of 4, but could I get an added order of just 4 of the BBQ but no fries but was told they can't sell the strips on their own - they have to come in the combo, and that I couldn't get 6 and mix and match. Their order terminals are very limiting I guess.

I went with the order of 6. I didn't ask for the drink, but they guy automatically upgraded my meal to a drink, despite the adds suggesting you can add a drink if you want. It's ok, I wanted a drink anyway.

The order took about 5 minutes to make, and they gave me my bag with a big box on the side.

I had turned the bag upright, which was a mistake because when I opened the box, I saw the above photo.

There, moved the fries, that's better. This box makes it look underwhelming, but it's actually a big box and the rest of the strips are under the ones seen here. My first impressions was that the chicken looked crispy, super saucy, they were steaming hot and smelled good.

Again, this photo looks deceptive, as it looks like a chicken finger. The chicken strip was actually about 8-10 cm long. Each strip was different, and it was great that these were not preformed processed chicken, but more like the actual chicken tender from the breast.

Despite about a 5-10 minute drive to park and eat, these things were steaming hot when I pulled them out, and the chicken was still crispy/crunchy when I took a bite. The meat was also very tender. Texture wise, these were damn good.

The sauce was perfectly described - Hot Honey. It was sweet with heat. It was viscous, and slightly sticky thick but still runny. I . . . I really liked it. It actually had a small kick, and it wasn't sickening sweet either. A great balance.

They also have ranch dressing on the side - and it works for a nice dip that works well with the chicken and the hot honey sauce. It's not cloyingly fake like some ranch, but isn't too in depth either.

In the end, there was a nice little lake of sauce that I used to dip my fries in. The fries are decent - crispy, but not a lot of flavour, but not garbage fries either. However, you can totally switch for onion rings (which I have done since).

So I would totally recommend Dairy Queen's Honey Hot chicken strips. They don't claim to be boneless wings, and while they claim to make sports bar wings cry, they aren't, but these are excellent sauced chicken fingers. Don't know about the BBQ, but the Honey Hot was great.

#nonwingsunday - Harvey's Buffalo Crispy Chicken Sandwich

A few days late, but here is my #nonwingsunday post, Harvey's Buffalo Crispy Chicken Sandwich.

This sandwich has been around for a while, but I don't think I officially reviewed it. It's pretty simple - a crispy fried chicken patty that's dunked in Buffalo sauce. Then, in the Harvey's tradition, you top it with the toppings you want:

I have to admit, growing up Harvey's was the last burger place I wanted to go as a kid. I don't know why, I always enjoyed the burger. I mean the meat patty is kinda sausage-y, the toppings were always fresh, and they have onion rings. Now that I'm older, I appreciate this Canadian burger. My standard burger go to is tomatoes, shredded lettuce (so glad they brought this back after the leaf lettuce fiasco) red onion, pickles, hot peppers, jalapenos with mayo and hot sauce. Yum.

But the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich is another beast. And this time I didn't go for my regular toppings. This time I went with red onion, pickles and mayo. Normally I'd get lettuce, tomato and hot peppers as well.

If you haven't had this sandwich, it comes on a soft burger bun. They place the fried, hot sauced dunked chicken burger on the bun first. I like this chicken patty because it is crispy, seasoned well and had a great crispy/crunchy texture. The Buffalo sauce is a little syrup-like and not buttery like a true Buffalo sauce,  but it is tangy and has a bit of a bite. That sauce sticks to the burger and is very saucy, but the chicken doesn't get soggy.

I find Harvey's always has fresh toppings, and the red onions brought that mild heat and crispness. The pickles bring that sour zingyness that heightens the hot sauce. Mayo adds a bit of heat relief (not that this is really spicy. I do admit I think I missed out on not adding the lettuce and tomato to balance out the rest of the sandwich.

If you like the taste of Buffalo Wings in sandwich form, I think you might like this. I do. How would you top yours?

Jack Astor's Buffalo Sauced Up Chicken Fingers ~ Toronto ON

Last week I was attending a "Business Meeting" (like a mini-conference) at Humber College for one of the associations I belong to for my work. It's a great chance to meet up with my colleagues from around the province and compare war stories and discuss the future of our work. After a social was organized at Jack Astor's and I couldn't turn down the chance to eat and socialize.

Jack Astor's is a chain across Ontario (and elsewhere) that went from crazy-wacky family restaurant to  more casual-chic. This was actually one of the earliest wing reviewed joints I did back in 2006. I liked the wings, but I was looking for a Buffalo-style wing more so then. You can always identify them by their sign where the 'tor' flashes on and off, as if broken, which makes the sign look like 'Jack As s'. Get it? Huh? Huh?

The location I was in on this visit had our large group sitting in a kind of plain open space. But the main part of the restaurant looks nice. The above is a screen capture of their website which has a stylized and interactive version of their restaurant. If you look at my picture below, it really is very similar (look at the chandelier).

It's not the best photo, but you get the idea.

It's also Movember, and they have this cool coaster going on. Not only that, but the mustache actually pops out of the coaster for you to use! Not only that, you'll notice that there is a number on my coaster. That's because they gave everyone a number so that they could do separate bills for us all. This is awesome because usually when you have a big group, you pay as a group, then some people don't put in enough for tax and tip, and others have to put in more, and I just hate it. So this was awesome. Not shown is the cherry Coke that went on the coaster. You heard that right, cherry Coke.

Our Humber hosts got appetizers for us all. Our table had a plate of Roasted Garlic Bruschetta ($8.97). I don't care for bruschetta, but this one looked good. I didn't try, and they didn't last very long either.

They also got us a plate of Jack's Ultimate Nachos ($13.44). This platter was emptied in minutes (we were really hungry) but it was pretty good. What really stuck out for me was the Layered melted cheese (yes, not just cheese on the top layer) and chopped up jalapeno that actually had some kick.

Most of those sitting near me had the chicken fingers. My boss Sarah went for the Shanghai Lettuce Wraps ($9.97). This was a cool dish of sliced chicken, veggies and deep fried noodles tossed in a "sweet chili-hoisin sauce" that you spoon into a lettuce leaf cup. She said it was ok, but low on chicken.

With my dinner, I added Jack's Garlic Pan Bread ($5.98 regular, $7.93 with cheese, $2.96 to add to an entree, and $4.34 with cheese added to an entree). This is a loaf of bread, covered in cheese, and soaking in melted garlic butter dip. It is soft, delicious and heavenly. There is a slight yeasty taste, but otherwise this is a dangerous indulgence.

My dinner: The Sauced Up Chicken Fingers ($12.96). "Fresh chicken tenders, marinated, seasoned and breaded in-house to order . . . tossed in your choice of Buffalo Wing Sauce (mild, medium, or hot) or zesty chili honey sauce."  You can get it with fries, soup or house salad, or upgrade to sweet potato fries for $1.79.

The fries are just slightly crisp, mostly limp, but seasoned well. They were pretty greasy, but I don't mind them.

I'm a little embarrassed but I don't remember if this was a blue cheese dip or a ranch dip. It was thick and creamy and was excellent for dipping fries or chicken into. You can't really make it out, but the swizzle stick actually has a donkey on it (a Jack ASS if you will).

I really love these chicken fingers. They are fresh not frozen, then breaded and deep fried. Toss that in hot sauce and you have some awesome 'boneless wings.' They are not uniform in appearance and about 4 pieces come in an order.

I went with the hot sauce. This sauce actually has a kick. Hot is hot, and my mouth has a nice sting that attacks the tongue and lips, but also has a lot of flavour from the cayenne hot sauce and butter. It's very buttery sauce.

The chicken is crispy from the breading, but the meat (breast meat) is tender. Even after being tossed in sauce and being saucy, the chicken maintains its crispy structural integrity.

This is the only place I will pick chicken fingers over actual chicken wings. I'm sure the wings are good, but this dish is just too good. With the pan bread, this is a killer dish. Spicy, saucy, crunchy - how can you go wrong? With a cherry Coke on the side, I am super content and barely miss the bones.

Jack Astor's

25 Carlson Court (Toronto Airport Hwy27 & Dixon), Toronto ON

jackastors.com