Glow in the Dark Wings - RECIPE

 

This recipe is super easy and super cool! Stay tuned for more!

In case you weren't aware, this was an April Fool's Day joke. I had full plans to come up with a whole recipe plan, but time just didn't allow it. Just making the green glowing wings took hours to complete. Bah I wish I had more time for the blog!!!

Celebrating National Chicken Wing Day 2020 with Wings 2 Ways: Sriracha Buffalo & Salt'n'Pepper

HAPPY NATIONAL CHICKEN WING DAY EVERYONE!!!

How did you celebrate?

I made wings. I knew I was going to make wings but it wasn't until an hour before showtime that I decided what we were going to have.

Wanna see how I did it?




Maybe I'm going to be getting back into the Youtube/WKTV thing again? What did you think?

This was the whole meal - wings, fries, and carrot coins with blue cheese dip. The fries sucked. McCain frozen fries. Would not get again. The blue cheese and carrot was good though.

The deep fried wings. Aren't they glorious on their own? I had to re-scrub down my deep fryer from the last time I used it, but it was well worth it. You cannot beat a deep fried wing.

Sauced and tossed. The only problem I had was that I over-sauced them, as well as sauced them too early, by the time we actually ate them they were a bit soggy. Delicious, but soggy.

Surprisingly, everyone's favourite wing was the Salt 'n Pepper. They did turn out perfect though - light but very crunchy skin, with the right amount of salt and pepper. What I did was eat the skin, then dipped the chicken in the Sriracha Buffalo sauce.

The actual photo of my plate of food. Well, round one anyway. Everyone had seconds of wings!

Do you know what was also good? Drizzling blue cheese on the Sriracha Buffalo sauce. Creamy on steamy!

So we had a great meal and I'm so happy we got to do it up right. What kind of wings did you have?

200 Year Old Chicken Wing Recipe!!! Townsends tries Clairmont's Recipe

Everyone seems to think that chicken wings started in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo NY. Well, those are Buffalo wings, but people have been eating chicken wings as long as chickens have had wings. Proof is found in a 200 year old recipe that was reviewed by Youtuber Jon Townsend.

Jas. Townsend & Son was to start a unique business in Piecerton Indiana that specialized in anything historical to do with the 18th Century (particularly American); Clothes, pottery, tools, books, spices - you name it, they do it. Well several years ago Jon Townsend (the son in Townsend & Son) who now runs the business, started an educational channel on Youtube with the focus being on cooking in the 18th Century while occasionally highlighting products from the store.

As a history nut, I fell in love with the videos as they showed not only what people ate back in the 1700's, but how they prepared them by using the few cookbooks that existed in that time.

"Thanks for joining us today as we savour the flavours and aromas of the 18th century"

 The food often looks soo good, and the host is so welcoming, charming and friendly, you can't help but enjoy watching the videos.

I've always wanted to feature them somehow on the blog and today I noticed they had a new video posted. I couldn't believe it when I saw it; a 200 year old recipe for chicken wings!

The recipe comes from The Professed Cook by Clermont, which is translation of an older French cook book called "The Courts Dinner". In English, it's called "Chickens Without Art" but Jon points out the better interpretation is "Chicken, the easier and friendly way"

INGREDIENTS & INSTRUCTIONS (condensed by me):

• 8 whole wings
• Pepper & Salt
• Chopped Parsley
• Green Shallots
• Mushrooms
• Oil
• Cullis (meat stock)
• Juice of a lemon

1. Cut off the wings of four middling chickens and flattened with handle of knife
2. Marinate them with pepper and salt, chopped parsley, green shallots, mushrooms, and a little good oil
3. Put them in a stew-pan, separately with the marinade, on a good brisk fire
4. Turn them soon as they will be done in about a quarter of an hour
5. Remove the wings and lay on the serving dish
6. Add two spoonfuls of Cullis to the sauce; skim it well
7. Add a good squeeze of lemon to the sauce, and serve on top of wings

The whole recipe is actually simple and accessible to do (many recipes seem to call for something we don't have access today). Aside from the mushrooms, this sounds like something I want to try!

Jon is doing double duty on this show; he's half Julia Child teaching the audience to cook on his show, but he's also our history teacher, navigating us through both language and events that are far removed from us today. He does a great job of both!

Not only that, but the cinematography is beautiful and the food looks so good in both preparation and execution. He is not only a great host, but he seems to have an excellent team backing him up behind the scenes.

So how did they turn out? 

"Whoa! The flavours are tremendous!" Jon exclaims, as he too is trying this recipe for the first time. It's a delight to watch him eat and explore these lost dishes.  "This is just one of those 'you've got to try it' ... boy, it's like 10 stars!" 

Short ingredient list, short prep time, easy to make, chicken wings, from 200 years ago? I'm in!

So check out this video and the rest over at Townsends - if you love history or food, you'll love this channel.

Griddle Wings Experiment: The Worst Way to Cook Chicken Wings?

Over a year ago we were given an electric griddle as a gift. It's great for making a bunch of things all at the same time. Pancakes, potato pancakes, or I mostly use it for frying bacon. My version is really easy to clean and my only complaint is the cold zones take up a big side of the griddle.

Since I got it, I've wanted to try and cook chicken wings on it. I don't know why, but I thought this would be a great new way to make a fried wing without deep frying. I don't know why it would, because I'm not crazy about pan fried wings, but a new toy is a new toy. Only it wasn't new. Or a toy.

I entered the Lord of the Wings Test Kitchen and went simple for the wings; I just seasoned the wings with salt and pepper and tossed them on the griddle. That's it.

They might have done well to have some oil, but I figured the fat in the wings would be enough to keep it lubricated, and the griddle is non-stick, and ya I didn't need it.

I kept the wings on the hottest side of the griddle, and we got a good cooking sizzle going on. I was cooking at the maximum heat to try and get the crispiest skin possible.

When the chicken skin browned, I flipped them over. The drums got 3 or 4 flips because there are basically 3-4 sides to try and get it all fried up.

At the midway of cooking these wings I started to go from excited to really skeptical about this cooking method. The joints still had lots of blood coming out, but the skin was fried up. I did not like how this was going.

One of the problems with cooking like this is that so much of the heat is lost. When you cook wings in an oven, or a BBQ, or the deep fryer, you are enveloping the wing with heat. But the griddle, you lose so much heat. I was cooking these for almost half an hour and finally decided to change things up. I grabbed a metal bowl and decided to cook the wings underneath.

This seemed to be working. The skin was staying crispy, but the inside was starting to get crisp.

When I thought they were done, I took them out and took a bite. Nope, still not done. This is why you cook by temperature and not time. Unfortunately my thermometer hasn't been working, so I couldn't. But you should.

So they went back under the metal bowl and cooked for like another 15 minutes.

The wings were still juicy looking and crispy. But it wasn't that appealing to look at. I mean, I think to the average person anyway.

Also, how tiny are those wings? It's hard to get good size fresh wings around here.

So the cook time was basically an hour plus a bit more. This took way too long. It was just too long. I did try the wing as is, and it was ok, but it was going to need sauce.

I threw together a quick and tasty sauce - margerine, hot sauce, chili flakes, worchestshire sauce, some spice, some garlic. This was tasty.

I poured that sauce all over the wings because that's what you do.

These still don't look so good.  More tossing and saucing needed.

Well these don't look that much better either. Bah!

This was the best looking wing of the bunch, then I stopped taking photos. Because I stopped caring. The wings were ok. The sauce was the highlight.

The actual wings were kind of crispy, and the wings remained kind of juicy, but it wasn't the best texture. I would not bother with this way of cooking wings ever again. Baking makes much better wings than this. When I bake wings, the skin is really crispy, the meat is tender, the bones pull apart nicely. This was tougher, not that crispy, and it took way longer to cook.

So I won't bother with an electric griddle again. Of all the ways I've tried cooking wings, this is the worst. The only way that would be worst is the microwave, but I won't do that to chicken.

#FAIL

Frank's Buffalo Bat Wings Recipe

- Please Note: the following is an April Fool's prank for April 1st 2019 -

Apparantly I will do anything for a wing post. 

This past weekend we had some beautiful weather, and I had a unique opportunity to try something completely different; my local butcher sometimes has exotic meats to try out - alligator, kangaroo, snake, but this past weekend, he had bats. Yes bats. I thought to myself, well, they have wings, so why not Buffalo-ize some bat wings!?!?!

This was truly going to test the limit on the S#!T I put Frank's hot sauce on.

INGREDIENTS

• 10 small bats
• 1 bottle of Beer
• Garlic Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Cayenne Pepper
• Salt & Pepper
• Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Remove the fur (if not already done) Be careful not to tear wing membrane - its very easy to do!
2. Wash the bats
3. Let the bats soak in beer* for 1 hour
4. Dry, rub with spices
5. Either grill bats or add to hot oil to fry & cook for approx 15 minutes until brown & crispy
6. Toss bats in a bowl with Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce
7. Plate & Enjoy!  Have extra sauce or add Blue Cheese for dipping.

First off you want to make sure your bats have most of their fur removed. I don't know if you can get them already de-furred, but if you can, that is much easier. Just like chicken feathers, nobody wants a big old bite of fur in their mouth. To be honest, this step is a little freaky, because it's like you are removing these little guy's sweaters. Be VERY CAREFULL not to tear the wing membrane when doing this. I messed up a bunch of times and the wing doesn't taste the same. Then wash, then soak your bats in beer for 1 hour*. The butcher said apparantly they can SMELL BAD when being cooked, but soaking them tames that odour. Dry the bats and add your spices. Ideally, you would air-dry the rubbed bats in the fridge at least one hour before cooking.

Next, heat up your hot oil so you can get a nice crispy fry going on. Since moving I haven't found my deep fryer, so I used my wok on some coals in my garage. Made me feel authentic when I was cooking these flying mammals. Watch out, they spatter.

Alternatively you can grill the bats over some charcoal. I took one that I had screwed up and tore the wings and used him as a grill subject. While this method has a nice smokey approach, the fried ones had a much better texture.

When they are all done, put them in a bowl, and let that Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce flow. Toss toss toss until well coated.

I won't lie, these were a little hard to eat. I mean, I left the heads on, and that might have been a big mistake. They kind of looked like little Xenomorph/Chest Bursters from Alien. But once you get past that, dang these were tasty.

Bat's are low in fat and high in protien, which means you aren't getting a lot of fat on the wings. If you didn't tear the wings, they will be so crispy, crispier than any chicken wing you will ever have. The meat on the bat is slightly tough and chewy though, but it's very lean and thin so no worries there. As always, the sauce is what makes it.

If you are doing this for company or friends, plate them up nicely. Some cucumber does the trick.

Would I make it again?

Sure. Well probably not, they are a lot of work and the wings just aren't that much. You need to eat a lot to get filled up, but I have to say that these were much better than expected. So as it turns out, I will put that S#!t on anything!!!

President's Choice CAYENNE & SCOTCH BONNET WING SAUCE

When I'm at the grocery store, I always wonder down the condiment aisle just to see if a) any hot sauce is on sale b) there are any new hot sauce. Most times, neither is the case. 

But earlier this summer I was pleasantly surprised that there was a new sauce! President's Choice Cayenne & Scotch Bonnet Wing Sauce.

In general I'm not a big fan of scotch bonnet pepper sauces; I like the white hot blistering heat, but not the more fruity flavour of the pepper flesh. But with the cayenne in there, and it marketed as a 'wing sauce' and not just a hot sauce, I had to try it.

 I mean the bottle even says it is "Scorching" in the PC heat rating scale! And the fact that Hot Sauce and the Scotch Bonnet Peppers are listed near the top of the ingredients, it seemed pretty promising. When you open the jar, the smell is slightly sour, slightly vinegary, and slightly fruity. The look of the sauce is light orange.

Taking a taste, the sauce attacked the tip of my tongue. The heat was white, quick and stinging. I was shocked and surprised - this was actually a hot hot sauce after all! I used it on a few food products and the taste was kind of a watered down cayenne based hot sauce, with a big bite. I immediately knew this sauce would be great on a grilled wing.

At the moment we live in a condo/apartment building and have to use a communal BBQ grill. I got some charcoal on fire, and I was excited to get to use my cast iron sauce pot. I lobbed in some butter, and then added the hot sauce.

Once the sauce was heated thoroughly and mixed, I put it off to the side of the charcoals to keep it warm while the wings cooked.

For the wings, I brined them in water, vinegar, salt, and spices. Once the brine was done, I seasoned them with Frank's Dry Seasoning, paprika, salt, pepper, roasted garlic and spices. Once the coals were flaming hot, I put down my BBQ mat and let them cook.

This grilling pit is really hard to control the temperature so a few wings got a little more scorched through the mat than I had planned. The fire was HOT. In the above photo at the bottom you can see the fat and seasoning is bubbling (there is no sauce on those wings). I tried one just as it was (Level 1) and they were good. I could only imagine how with the sauce it would be.

I transferred the wings to cook directly on the grill and started to baste them up with the sauce. If this grill pit had a lid I wouldn't have bothered, but I wanted that skin to get direct smoke, as well as some flame kisses. But it was so hot and my basting brush was very small, my hand had a hard time reaching those back wings.

I took the wings off the grill after flipping and basting a few times. I tried them as they were (Level 2) ooh wow they were good. I could have just eaten them at this stage as is, but I wanted to go to Level 3 with these wings.

Level 3? Yes, lets sauce these wings up! Also keep in mind that at this point the sauce was picking up the smoke from the lump charcoal and growing that flavour as well.

The photo above is one of my favourite moments of wing eatery. It just looks so beautiful.

I sat outside at the picnic table and took it all in. The grilled, charred rubbed wings, basted in butter hot sauce, and slathered in more butter Cayenne & Scotch Bonnet sauce. This was a perfect summer moment.

Wow. Wow were these good. The flavour was ON POINT. Charred and smokey wings, buttery and spicy sauce - it was a match made in heaven. As mentioned before, the PC sauce is a bit watery on it's own, but you mix it in with butter and you've got a kicked up Buffalo Sauce. A worthy suicide for the average spice lover.

The only downside was the wings themselves. Despite brining them they were still tough and a bit chewy for my liking. I can't seem to get tender wings on this outdoor pit.

Would I get this sauce again? You bet. It has a nice flavour, but it also has a lot of heat. Good heat. This isn't a sauce I would use all the time; I'm not crazy about scotch bonnet sauce but the added cayenne makes it a more full flavoured sauce. What elevated this hot sauce was the addition of butter. And grilled smokey wings. So good. Well done President's Choice, well done.

PC Cayenne & Scotch Bonnet Wing Sauce
Presidentschoice.ca