Buffalo wings ... with blue cheese dressing in the Thermomix and celery sticks

I have a cousin in the US who is always bragging about his wife's buffalo wings and I love buffalo wings, so I've asked for the recipe a number of times but never got it.

Since I had a hankering for buffalo wings one night, I decided to search the interwebz and consult with some American friends to see what I could come up with for a recipe for buffalo wings.

I found a recipe that I thought would work and looked simple enough to make and decided to have at it.

Here's the RECIPE that I used:

Ingredients:

• 36 chicken wing pieces (one wing makes 2 pieces - the "flat" and the "drum")
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce (Frank's is the brand used in Buffalo)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
• celery sticks
• blue cheese dressing

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• If necessary, cut whole wings into two pieces. In a bowl toss the wings with the oil, and salt. Place into a large plastic shopping bag, and add the flour. Shake to coat evenly. Remove wings from the bag, shaking off excess flour, and spread out evenly on oiled foil-lined baking pan(s). Do not crowd. Bake for about 20 minutes, turn the wings over, and cook another 20 minutes, or until the wings are cooked through and browned.
• While the wings are baking, mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a pan, and over low heat bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and then turn off.
• After the wings are cooked, transfer to a large mixing bowl. Pour the sauce over the hot wings and toss with a spoon or spatula to completely coat.
• These are always served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing on the side.

Since I don't live in the US, getting the Frank's brand of hot sauce was a bit of a challenge even though I have now found out that it's possible to get the Frank's hot sauce from an online store that specializes in American foods. For my next batch of buffalo wings, I will make sure that I have the right hot sauce because I do think it makes a difference.

I ended up using a bottle of hot sauce that I found in the pantry that worked pretty well.

The buffalo wings turned out tasting pretty good, and my blue cheese dressing was incredible, but to me, it just seemed like I had used a whole lot of butter. When I chatted to a friend about it later, she said that she only uses 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter and me following the recipe with 6 tablespoons of butter was a heart attack just waiting to happen. Next time I will use a lot less butter!!

There were only the two of us, so I only used 10 chicken wings (but full wings, including tips) and I cut them up with the little drummettes in one piece and the wing and tip in another piece. The Boy likes the little drummettes and I like the wings and the tips. Works out well for the both of us - just like Jack Sprat and his wife! :-)

As for my blue cheese dressing, the stuff was so dang good that I wanted to eat it all up on it's own with the celery sticks. I ended up with a lot more blue cheese dressing than I needed for the meal that night, so I saved what was left for another night.

Here's the RECIPE for the blue cheese dressing, and I'm telling you - even without buffalo wings, just make the dressing to eat with salad or as a dip. It's delicious!!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup regular mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 180g blue cheese
• 1 Tablespoon apple cide or wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• (optional) 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• (optional) 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions:

• Crumble the blue cheese, and mix together with all other ingredients. Thin with water if desired.

Thermomix instructions:

• Put all the ingredients in the Thermomix and blend on speed 7 until smooth. This may take between 7 and 15 seconds.

I made my blue cheese dressing in the Thermomix, but really, it's not necessary if you don't have one. A regular old blender or food processor would do the trick too. Or if you didn't have any of those, just crumble the blue cheese like it says in the recipe and just mash it all around with the fork or whisk with the other ingredients. That works just as well too.

Happy munching!!


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A simple but delicious chicken Caesar salad

Small aside: I wrote this post in the Summer, but I'm just posting it now. Somehow, I failed to post it when it was written. It's Winter here right now!!

I'm a huge fan of the chicken Caesar salad. When I am not sure what I want to eat when I'm out for lunch and it's a warm day, this salad is always a tasty option. Of course, the quality and taste varies from place to place, but for the most part, I enjoy it a great deal.

Last night was hot, hot, hot, a nasty 37 degrees C and The House was sizzling. We had the AC on but couldn't bring ourselves to do much cooking that involved heat, either from the stove or the oven.

We decided on a chicken Caesar salad since it was quick and easy.

Here's my RECIPE for this delicious and simple salad:

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken thigh fillets of cooked chicken cut into bite size pieces, seasoned with Masterfoods Season All
• 4 tablespoons Caesar salad dressing (we use Cardini's)
• 120g Lettuce salad mix or cos lettuce
• Garlic salt (my not-so-secret ingredient)
• 1 handful shredded cheese (I just use the Coles Pizza cheese mix)
• 1 hard boiled egg quartered
• Croutons (optional)

Instructions:

• Place a layer of salad mix in the bottom of a large salad or mixing bowl, then sprinkle a small amount of garlic salt over the top of the lettuce.
• Repeat until all the salad mix is in the bowl.
• Drizzle some of the Caesar dressing on top of the salad mix - I use about 4 tablespoons for the two of us, but you can use whatever amount you like, depending on how much dressing you want in your salad.
• Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top of the dressing and mixed everything together.
• Top the mixed salad with the chicken pieces and serve up salad onto plates
• Once the Caesar salad is in the plates you are serving with, place the quartered hard boiled eggs on top of the salad.
• Enjoy!

This recipe serves two people for dinner with nothing else to accompany, so it's quite large and filling.

When I am more inclined, I cook my own chicken thigh fillets but last night, The Boy decided that we just buy a roast BBQ chicken from Coles so that we could have the chicken for the salad and then also for sandwiches and eating as cold meats to accompany an antipasto dish. I actually really do enjoy the Coles BBQ chicken since they are quite tasty and still fresh and hot when you buy them. Usually, when we buy them, I bring them home and take the meat off the bones - breast, drumstick and thigh. I also take all the other meat around the chicken carcass off and put them together for the salad and anything else I want to use them for. Then I enjoy nibbling on the bones, the chicken wings and the stuffing as a small snack.

I have in the past made my own salad dressing but last night we decided to just run to the store and get a pre-made salad dressing. Cardini's is The Boy's favorite even though it also has the most calories, but really, it's the tastiest. The other one that we like is the Paul Newman Caesar dressing, either the Newman's Own Caesar Dressing or the creamy version.

The garlic salt makes a huge difference to the taste of the salad. Don't use a lot, but just a little sprinkle between the layers of lettuce as you place it into the bowl for mixing adds a lot of depth to the flavor of the salad.

An alternative to the shredded cheese is also just straight shredded Parmesan cheese - something like this, though it doesn't need to be this exact brand. Just make sure it is shredded so you get texture and not the powdered or finely grated stuff for pasta.

Since there are the two of us, we each got two quarters each for the hard boiled egg but you can decide how much egg you like.

Notice I don't have croutons in my recipe, but that's entirely up to you. I don't like croutons, so for me, I leave them out. If you like them, of course, include them.

I hope you enjoy this very simple salad recipe. It's one of my favorites.


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