Brined, Smoked & Cast Iron Pan Roasted Wings from Bear Street Tavern on YGEH

24hr brined, smoked & cast iron roasted wings with mango piri piri wings from the Bear Street Tavern in Banff Alberta on You Gotta Eat Here s3e9. I have not had these wings, but would very much like to. @johncatucci is a lucky man! #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #chickenwings #wings #smokedwings #yougottaeathere #ygeh #johncatucci #foodnetworkcanada #bearstreettavern #banff #wingsontv

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on May 15, 2018 at 9:10am PDT

24hr brined, smoked & cast iron roasted wings with mango piri piri wings from the Bear Street Tavern in Banff Alberta on You Gotta Eat Here s3e9. 


I have not had these wings, but would very much like to. @johncatucci is a lucky man! 


#lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #chickenwings #wings #smokedwings #yougottaeathere #ygeh #johncatucci #foodnetworkcanada #bearstreettavern #banff #wingsontv

LOTW Meme Monday - Suicide Wing Idea Before & After

The next night I'd be eating those suicide wings again.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Special thanks to my mom and all our wing eating adventures together :)

Hope all you mom's out there are getting all the wings you want, and for all you kids, take your mom out for wings today!!!

Burger King Buffalo sauced Nuggets

I love me a Whopper from Burger King, or even recently The Angry King burger. But I have to say I am a fan of the chicken products at BK.

I love the original and the spicy chicken sandwiches. Chicken fries are pretty cool too. I am curious about their new Crispy Chicken sandwich too. But when I'm just looking for a snack, BK chicken nuggets are a good way to go.

The other day I saw the special, $2.99 for 10 pieces. For real? I'll take that deal.

In an unsaleable paper bag comes 10 crispy nuggets of goodness. Now as far as fast food chicken nuggets go, McDonald's is and will probably always be my favourite - it something about that batter on it. But BK nuggets are a close second.

Unlike the Golden Arch's with their 4 premade shapes, BK's are pretty unique to each one. They all look close to each other, but just slightly different.

The meat is all white meat, generally breast meat, that's clearly been processed and formed. They are then coated in a "home-style" breading and fried. Each bite is a bit crispy, with the tender formed meat. They are pretty good on their own, but often these things are just excuses to have sauces.

BK offers dipping sauces like BBQ, Honey Mustard, Sweet & Sour, Zesty, and the best for nugget dipping in my opinion, Buffalo.

I was a little off-put by the date on the container: 2009. I'm pretty sure that's a copyright date, but still that seems old in 2018. Also, you'd think Buffalo sauce would be pretty simple. I mean its normally just butter, cayenne hot sauce and vinegar. Not this:

Water, Soybean Oil, Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Aged Cayenne Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Garlic), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Egg Yolks, Modified Food Starch, Contains less than 2% of Dark Brown Sugar, Spices, Salt, Garlic and Onion Powders, Maltodextrin, Paprika, Polysorbate 60, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate added as Preservatives, Autolyzed Yeast Extracts, Oleoresin Paprika, Chipotle Peppers, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sodium Diacetate, Annatto, Malic Acid, Extractives of Turmeric(Color), Butter Oil, Calcium Disodium EDTA added to protect flavor, Tocopherol

Wow, that's a crazy cocktail. I mean there is Cayenne Pepper Sauce, butter oil, and heck even some chipotle peppers. But there's a lot of stuff in there I have no idea how to pronounce.

The sauce is a bright neon orange typical of bottled Buffalo sauces, but not necessarily the real thing. There are flecks of pepper or spice throughout. The sauce is very thick and very creamy. When you smell it, it does have a kind of chemical butter/hot sauce smell. The sauce itself is zingy - not real heat but just enough to let you know this is a hot dipping sauce.

Of all the BK dipping sauces the Buffalo is my favourite for the nuggets. It coats each bite just right and pairs well with the seasoned breading. For fast food, this is a decent 'boneless wing'. The crunchy nugget, the creamy-zingy Buffalo sauce work so well together. I would recommend if this is the kind of thing you are craving.

Burger King
527 Hunt Club Road West, Ottawa ON
Burgerking.ca
burgerking.ca/offers
burgerking.ca/content/chicken-nuggets-0

Happiness Happened Here - "Horror Show"

Happiness happened here.

"Horror Show"


#lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #chickenbones #wingbones#bonepile #boneart #lotwbonepile #bones #hotsauce #happinesshappenedhere#horrorshow

#fryday = Merivale Seafood Grill

#fryday = fried Haddock & Chips takeout from Merivale Seafood Grill. The haddock was tender, flaky & had a nice crispy batter. The tartar sauce was perfection & so glad I asked for extra because the containers are tiny. Coleslaw was ok. The fries were a bit blah because they were not seasoned at all & I wasn't given any ketchup, vinegar or cutlery for that matter. Yes I ate everything with my hands and I don't regret anything. Thumbs up on this fish! #lordofthewings #fishandchips #haddockandchips #haddock #tartarsauce #fries #coleslaw #merivalefishmarket #takeout #fry-day #ottawaeats #ottawafood #merivale #itsnotallaboutwings #latergram

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on May 11, 2018 at 10:01am PDT

#fryday = fried Haddock & Chips takeout from Merivale Seafood Grill.

The haddock was tender, flaky & had a nice crispy batter. The tartar sauce was perfection & so glad I asked for extra because the containers are tiny. Coleslaw was ok. The fries were a bit blah because they were not seasoned at all & I wasn't given any ketchup, vinegar or cutlery for that matter. Yes I ate everything with my hands and I don't regret anything. Thumbs up on this fish!


#lordofthewings #fishandchips #haddockandchips #haddock #tartarsauce #fries #coleslaw #merivalefishmarket #takeout #fry-day #ottawaeats #ottawafood #merivale #itsnotallaboutwings #latergram

THE BARLEY MOW (Westboro) - Ottawa On

I continue to re-review places in Ottawa that I haven't tried in a long time, and the Barley Mow was on my list. 

Almost a year ago (was it really that long ago?) I went to the Westboro location to do my first actual review of this Ottawa area pub chain, but never got around to posting the review (just a mini-one in my End of Year Review). I had never done an actual review, and had in the past only had their wings at the Orleans location in a brunch buffet setting where they were just ok. Back then they were just another generic pub, but these days they have tried to reinvent themselves as a gastro-pub.

The Westboro location is one of the newest chapters fo the chain but has been around for a few years now. Inside is slightly dark, with a classy yet rustic feel. It's very clean and sleek yet contrasted nicely with lots of wood features. There are sports on the screens around the pub, but there were lots of folks working on laptops and having a pint.

Now I knew that the Barley Mow has wing night on Thursdays from my last trip, but the sandwich board at the entryway was a nice reminder that they have 1/2 price wings after 4pm.

I scanned the menu and found the wing section. I was shocked at the $16 price point for the wings. $16 for what would turn out to be 8 wings was a little crazy. Thank goodness for wing night.

I went with a double order of wings and they didn't take long to arrive. I forgot that the orders came with a side of fries, so each was a big order of food.

The fries are fresh-cut, with the skins still on. They were slightly limp, but also crispy. They were seasoned well and I gotta say, they were very good. They come with a side of ketchup. I would have added vinegar, but I didn't bother because I knew I was going to be taking most of them home with me. Plus there was other dip to go with them ...

The wings come with Garlic Ranch Dip. No veggies (unless you count the fries as veggies). This was a very nice, creamy, garlicky dipping sauce. It went really well with the Cajun wings especially. Good with the fries too. Ok good for almost straight up drinking.

The wings only come in one order size which is about 8 wings per order. The menu actually says there is an option of Seasoned or Battered. I wasn't offered either and I didn't ask. Not quite sure which I got but I would guess battered because there was just a hint of extra coating on the wing, but it wasn't a full on breading or battering that one would normally expect.

The wings were about a medium in length give or take. Nothing too special. In terms of meatiness they were again about a medium with some being a bit more.

The skin was crackling crisp (on the dry Cajun wings anyway) and deep fried very nicely. If there was a batter, it was doing a nice job on that skin. The meat was relatively tender too. There was just enough sauce on them to be considered wet, but not as much as I would like.

When I was at the Barley Mow last year, I had tried the Hot with a side of suicide, and dry BBQ with a side of the 40 Creek BBQ. They discontinued the dry BBQ (which I found pretty undetectable). The Hot was standard hot and the suicide was too sour for my liking. The BBQ was slightly sweet and smokey.

Not really wanting to do those flavours again, I went with Hot, Cajun, and a side of the Maple Bacon BBQ to change things up.

MEDIUM

The Medium sauce was ok. Slightly gooey, more sweet than a hot, but nothing bold or flavourful on their own.

CAJUN
This dry rub was also, ok. As you can see it was a very very light dusting, which gave the wings more of a salty taste than anything really Cajun.

MAPLE BACON BBQ

I really wanted to try something different, and Maple Bacon BBQ sauce seemed to be the way to go. I was very skeptical of this sauce (I'm not a huge maple bbq sauce fan) and I was right; this was just not fore me. It was cloyingly sweet from the maple, with some sour in there too. I could faintly taste a smokey bacon, but there was some sort of spice like cinnamon or nutmeg in there that really turned me off. Again, this isn't my type of sauce to begin with, but others might like it.

THE SCORE:

I just wasn't feeling the wings on this trip. They are a decent size and have a nice crackle-crispness to the skin. The sauces are ok. The sides are great - tasty fresh cut fries and a garlic ranch dip that is awesome. The price is crazy, so wing night is the only night I would bother with. The location is nice, and my waiter Matt was very attentive (when cleaning crews threw out my take-out container of leftover fries while I was in the bathroom, he went and got me a new take-out container of fresh fries!). Maybe the other food is great, but outside of Thursday nights I wouldn't bother with the wings. 8/15

The Barley Mow
399 Richmond Road (and other locations)
barleymow.com

NO NAME BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS - Frozen Wing Review

I`ve said it before and I`ll say it again, I`m a sucker for a wing sale.

$10 for 908g box of wings isn`t the greatest deal, but these days a box of frozen wings is over $13. I used to kind of like the No Name brand Hot wings,  so I thought I would give the Buffalo flavour a try.

There were several things that I was aware of that I am not a fan of off the bat. First off, the wings used to be 907g, but that used to be ALL WINGS. Now at 908, that includes the 4 packs of sauce inside. The box says 2 sauce pouches, but that`s 2 Buffalo and 2 Ranch. I also can`t get over the microwave instructions right on the box (4mins).

Instructions were pretty clear, as were the tons of ingredients in all the products in this box.

Bag of frozen wings (partially freezer burnt?) and the four packs of sauce.

So far so good. Not a lot of wings in the bag, but welcome to 2018. I only put out half of the wings, so there are about 14 wings in the box.

The instructions actually suggest using parchment paper for these. The cooked up in their own grease, and developed a puffy kind of skin crust.

After 25 minutes my wings were ready. While the wings were cooking, I thawed a pack of Buffalo sauce and Ranch to serve on the side.

The ranch was, well not that great. I don't know why they bother including it. The consistency just is wrong on all these frozen wing sauce.

The wings were all different sizes, but for the most part the wingettes were really small but the drummettes were meaty and big. It was almost like they came from very differently sized chickens.

As mentioned before, the skin wasn't very crispy, but a puffy layer did develop. There was a fattiness to the skin that was not uncommon to No Name type wings, but like nothing you get at the pub or even from fresh. The meat on the wingettes  were tender, but the drummettes were kinda tough. The chicken itself was pretty oily and you can see that in the photo above once it was bitten into.

For pan baked wings, some did get a char-like cook on the skin. But as a chicken wing, they are not attractive or enticing.

I had the Buffalo sauce on the side. The sauce was ok - it wasn't a buttery rich Buffalo sauce, more of just a generic cayenne based hot sauce.

The sauce was not bad, but nothing special. It did help with the flavour of the plain wings, so I dumped most on top of them all, as it should be.

FINAL SCORE:

These were pretty much a fail for me. Not crispy, small, kinda mushy or tough, and most importantly not very tasty. What's the point? 3.5/15

So reminder to self DO NOT BUY NO NAME BUFFALO WINGS AGAIN. I probably won't bother with any No Name wing product.

DRY FRY WING EXPERIMENT v1

There was an amazing deal on fresh, uncut chicken wings at the nearby Asian market store and I bought a pound of wings to have with lunch. Well I bought 2 pounds. Well then one more because it was such a good deal. 2 of the pounds went into the freezer but the last pound I planned on going out and using the community grill for the first time since the fall.

Unfortunately due to various circumstances, that didn't happen. I didn't want to bake the wings, so I did a little research online and decided to try dry frying the wings. The dry frying idea is that you don't need oil or anything else to fry the wings, just use the chicken's natural fat to produce a crispy wings. Sounded simple enough ...

I had to cut the whole wings for them to fit into the pan. I dry rubbed them with Frank's Red Hot Dry Seasoning, garlic powder, paprika and salt. I then made sure that all the wings were skin/fat side down; the reason for this is that the fat will render out making the skin crispy, but also providing that oil needed for when you flip the wing over.

I found it interesting that in the dry frying process you place them in a cold pan, place the pan, then start heating. I don't know the food science behind this (where is Alton Brown when you need him?) but this is what I did.

After frying for about 10 minutes I could see the skin turning a nice golden brown. I was impressed. Some of the chicken skin stuck to the pan; I lowered the heat and waited a minute or so until they naturally released themselves.

Pro-tip: make sure your vent fan is on high for the heat. There wasn't a lot of smoke, or even that much smell, but better safe than sorry.

To make sure the inside of the wings were cooked through, I covered the wings which kind of steamed the chicken. I removed the lid after the first 5 minutes to reduce the 'steam' effect and help crisp up the skin again. Also, you may have to toss the drummettes a third time because they kind of have 3 sides instead of just 2 to make sure you get crispy coverage.

There was so much fat/grease from the chicken that if I didn't do this myself, I would have sworn they were cooked in oil.

I took the wings out and actually did a little paper towel dab to remove some of the excess oil. There was a lot of excess oil.

Look at that, crispy skin! They were tasty just like this,

I made a hot wing sauce on the side: 1 part butter, 1.5 parts Frank's, 1/2 part 3rd Degree & Sriracha each. Melted and hot. It was VERY good. Buttery, rich, nuanced, and a good kick. As soon as I added the sauce I knew I added way too much for these wings to handle.

I served myself these wings with some leftover fries and extra hot sauce I made. I was very pleased with my meal.

The good news is that the wings were very tasty. The bad news is that the sauce completely destroyed the crispiness of the skin. Obliterated it. Again, I tossed them in waaay too much sauce, so that didn't help. But without that true deep-fry crispingness, these wings didn't have a hope in hell.

I would totally make these wings again. Next time though, I would definitely do these as a dry rub and maybe do a sauce drizzle. There is merit to this method, but you have to do it right.

Overall, I'd say a successful experiment with room for improvements.