So ... wings! (Part 2)

I finally got these "wangs" cooked. They were good. But then you knew that. You don't cook things that aren't good, and neither do I. (Or is it that we never confess our failures?) No matter, we're all adults here. Wings - roasted at 275 degrees for 2 and 1/2 hours after marinating (for 4 days!) in wine, chicken broth, miso paste, garlic and onion powders and black pepper.

Any one of you could cook these wings as well as I did. The great thing about them is (not only are they good) there's lots of them. I got one of those value packs I sometimes talk about as the only sensible alternative to buying whole chickens. Golly, gee, we've been having a great time with the grits Bo sent me. The stone ground ones take 30 minutes whereas the "quick" variety take about 8 minutes. You know what? They are both really good. Cheesy grits - one of nature's miracles. Give me a chicken wing and a bit of baked potato and then just shoot me.

So ... wings!

I got such good deals on a beef roast and some pork things that we have a whole bunch of leftovers. So these wings are just going to marinate for another day. It won't hurt them (it won't hurt me, either). I'll be back on Thursday with the results of this unusual marinade experiment.

I left the drumettes and wingettes attached while they were in a miso marinade. For ease of eating I cut them apart before cooking. I mentioned this the other day, but the marinade consisted of onion and garlic powders (I use them a lot these days), red miso paste (nice and salty), white wine, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and chicken broth. It had been a long time since I baked chicken wings and I had to do a bit of research to remind myself of the best method.

What I found was that I used to make wings with a fairly low and slow method: 275 degrees for up to 3 hours. That worked really well in the past and I saw no reason not to rest on my laurels. Have you noticed that lately I'm not posting actual recipes? No particularly good reason, except that none of us seems to make the recipes. Rather, we all adapt, mimic, whatever. I don't say this as a criticism. Out individual inventiveness is what leads us down this path. Cook on, dear readers. I know I shall.

Slumdog wings redux

We’re almost there in terms of cleaning the fridge of leftovers. Problem is, Peter makes huge quantities of food. Then we’re held hostage to it until it’s gone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all very good food. I just like to move on a little more quickly. So here goes again with a recipe redux. Each of these is something I really felt good about but was not read (or at least not commented on) by anyone. Now that I have more followers I’m pleased to share good stuff with you.

Here’s the latest:

Does that look good or what? The recipe below serves 2 for big appetites as an entree, or 4-6 as appetizers. The perspective of the photo is misleading. These wingettes weren't large, quite small actually, but in the pic they look like legs!
I revisited my previous tandoori-style chicken recipe. There were wings left from my birthday party in April. So I modified the whole thing and prepared them as follows. It’s not essential that you brine it, but I nearly always brine chicken before cooking. Note that after brining no salt is added. If you choose not to brine, add 1 tsp table salt to the dry mix.Slumdog wings

10 chicken wings, tips removed

2 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 cups water

1 tbsp garam masala
2 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp powdered garlic
2 tsp chili powderlime juice

Cut apart the two sections of the chicken wings. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Put the wing pieces and brine mix into a freezer bag. Refrigerate for 1-4 hours.

In a bowl, mix together all the remaining ingredients except the lime. Put this into a shaker bottle (an empty spice container is perfect).

Remove the chicken from the fridge, rinse and dry with paper towels. With a sharp knife, make a slit in the meatiest part of each wing piece.
Sprinkle the chicken liberally with the spice mix on both sides. Place them on a wire rack over a large plate and refrigerate uncovered for 1-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250°. Put the wire rack with the chicken on it onto a baking pan with at least 1” sides. Pour 1 cup water into the pan. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 2 - 2 ½ hours.

Remove from the oven and turn the heat to “broil.” Leave the oven door ajar so that the heating element does not cycle off. Remove the foil from the chicken. Sprinkle with more of the spice mix on the top side. Broil for 3-5 minutes until the chicken starts to get nice and brown. Turn the pieces over, add spice mix again, and broil for another 3-5 minutes until sizzling and browned.

Remove from oven, tent with foil and allow the chicken to rest for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with lime juice and serve.

Asian wings

This is one of my least fortunate pictures. When it’s time to eat I just don’t feel like spending a lot of effort with my quirky little camera. I applaud so many of you for your magazine-quality photos. As for me, as long as my food tastes good I will just live with my limitations.

It was time to haul the chicken wings out of the freezer, brine them, and recreate my recipe for Asian-flavored wings. It’s very easy. The reason for this particular flavor choice is that Peter put together some Thai-style noodles with peanut sauce. ‘Nuff said.

I chose to limit salty ingredients due to the 2 hour brining I did. If you don’t brine the wings, add fish sauce and/or Chinese cooking wine (both of which are salty).

Asian wings
3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
2 tbsp liquid smoke
1 tbsp sriracha sauce or other chili sauce
2 lb. chicken wings, tips removed and cut into individual pieces
sesame seeds (optional)
juice of 1 lime

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add the wing pieces and toss to coat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a shallow baking pan with foil and lubricate it with cooking spray. Arrange the wings on the pan. Roast for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using. Continue baking until cooked through and tender, 20-25 minutes. Allow to rest 10 minutes. Sprinkle with lime juice before serving.

Roasted chicken wings

We got a big package of chicken wings yesterday at 50% off in the manager’s special bin. I froze half of them and put the rest into a salt and pepper brine overnight. I wanted to do them in a simple fashion and came up with the recipe below. I never brined chicken for this long before. I decided it would be wise to check out the saltiness. I cut off one drumette and nuked it for 3 minutes. Oops, too salty. I soaked the wings in cold water in the fridge for 2 hours before proceding. That took care of the sodium problem.

Given that I was making this up as I went along, after the fact I’m scouring my brain to get the details down. It probably doesn’t matter, as no one else is going to make wings in exactly this fashion. So let’s look at it as a lesson in “how to manage a work in progress.”

In the end they weren’t strongly flavored, but they were moist and ready to gently pull off the bone with your teeth.

Roasted chicken wings

8 large brined chicken wings

1 stick unsalted butter

½ tsp garlic powder, or more

½ tsp onion powder, or more

black pepper

1 tbsp smoked paprika

lemon wedges (optional)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse and dry the wings. Melt the butter. Season with onion and garlic powders and pepper. Put the wings in a large bowl. Pour the butter mix over them and toss to coat.

Put a baking rack or two on a baking sheet with 1” sides. Reserve leftover marinade. Coat with cooking spray. Arrange the wings on the racks. Add some water or broth to the baking sheet. Cover tightly with foil.

Bake for 30 minutes, reduce heat to 275 degrees and continue baking for 45 minutes. Remove foil from the pan. At this point the wings won’t be brown – they’ve been more or less steaming so far.

Increase oven to 400 degrees.

Remove foil. Heat marinade in the microwave for 20 seconds. Brush it on the wings. Sprinkle paprika over them. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until well browned. Let rest for 10 minutes and then serve.