Vietnamese Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings. And I love Asian food. So of course, the two work together quite well.

I suspect that this recipe is not standard, but rather one of dozens that fit the definition. Like so many foods, often the recipe is a family one, and varies accordingly.

However, this was perfect in my book. Spicy, a bit hot, but not overwhelming.

Perfect snack food.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2lbs wings, (about 12-14), cut up if you prefer or left whole.
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 c lime juice (about 2 whole limes)
• 1/4 c fish sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp canola oil (or other)
• 2 stalks of lemongrass, diced, or 1 tbsp minced.
• 1-2 habeneros or birds-eye chile

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and place wings in it. Marinate for several hours, preferably overnight.
2. Place wings on a grill and cook slowly.
3. Take the marinade and pour into a saucepan and simmer for ten minutes.
4. Use the marinade as a periodic baste as you grill the wings until they are very crispy and well charred.
5. Serve.

SERVES: 6

NOTES: Getting the wings nicely charred is the goal here.

SOURCE: Recipe Tin Eats

Tandoori Chicken Wings

I love wings. They are a favorite snack of mine. So the more recipes the better.

This one is Indian in nature. Tandoori spices predominate.

You can do this one in the oven, but it would work perfectly well on the grill.

Enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 Cup Plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp Fresh ginger, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp Garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp Allspice
• 3/4 tsp Cayenne
• 3/4 tsp Smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp Cumin powder
• 1/2 Tbsp Coriander seed powder
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• Generous pinch of pepper
• 1 Tbsp Coconut oil, melted
• 1 1/2 Lbs Chicken wings (about 12 wings)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the wings, and stir well to make sure all the spices are evenly distributed. Add in the wings and stir so that they are coated in the yogurt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
2. Once the wings have marinated, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with cooking spray.
3. Take the wings out of the marinade (don’t scrape off the excess!) and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the outside has darkened and is nice and crispy, about 45-50 minutes.

SERVES: 4

NOTES: A dip with mint would be fine, or just eat them plain. Room temperature is the best I think.

SOURCE: Whole Yum

Chorizo Dip

Okay, get ready. This is so incredibly good, you want to swim in it. I literally could not stop eating this with carrots and celery sticks. It is great with crackers of course, or cauliflower, or sweet peppers. Oh it’s magnificent.

It whips up in no time with a food processor and honestly I don’t think you can make it without one.

INGREDIENTS:

• About a 1 inch piece of Spanish chorizo (DO NOT USE MEXICAN CHORIZO) diced small
• 1/3 c diced onion
• 1 scallion chopped
• 1 lg jalapeno (seeded or not as you desire)
• 1/3 c red sweet pepper
• 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 (4 oz) cream cheese package
• 1/2 c mayonnaise
• Sriracha sauce if desired

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Put the diced chorizo in the food processor and whirr until its small pebbles.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and whirr until smooth.
3. Adjust for heat.
4. Serve with raw veggies or crackers.

SERVES: about 2 cups

NOTES: Spanish chorizo is not generally available at average supermarkets. Whole Foods would have it and upscale markets for sure. You can surely order it online. I buy about 1/2 lb at a time. That would make this dish about 4 times. It is a very very hard salami. You could substitute Genoa or a mortadella perhaps but the taste will be different because of the different seasonings. Even Lil Smokies would work. But again, the taste will be different. This lasts in the fridge for a good week.

SOURCE: Sherry Peyton

Greek Chicken Wings

I’m becoming a bit of a fanatic when it comes to wings. They are just great snack food. And there are so many sauces and rubs and ways of doing them.

Since I love Greek food, this seemed natural to me when I saw the recipe.
It turned out well.

Hope you enjoy it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 pounds chicken wings, cut into drumettes and flats
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoon greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh oregano
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly minced garlic, about 3 medium cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Feta cheese (Get the Feta in a brick form which makes it easier to grate)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Dry the wings and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a single layer on parchment lined cookie sheet and refrigerate uncovered for 8 hours or up to 24. (toss with the baking powder if you wish but I omitted that)
2. Place all the wings in a bag and pour in a couple tbsp of olive oil and make sure they are well covered.
3. Place single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 425 for about 30-40 minutes or until done.
4. Cool.
5. Meanwhile place all the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk. (Leave out the feta until the end).
6. Add the wings to the bowl and mix, coating the wings with the dressing. Put the feta in and mix gently.
7. Arrange on a plate and enjoy.

SERVES: 8

NOTES: You can have these hot if you wish, but I think room temperature is perfect. You can also grill the wings and that may be even better.

SOURCE: Meatwave

Chorizo-Pork Meatballs

I do love appetizers. In fact to me it’s a great way to enjoy a lazy Sunday, grazing while watching some football. Also works for Saturday too.

Anyway, I make regular meatballs for spaghetti and then there are Swedish ones for a hot dish which is nice, but then there are SPICY ones!

I worked this one up myself, mostly because it wasn’t too hard to figure out–just put in the usual stuff with some hot stuff and voilá it pretty much works.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 lb chorizo, casing removed
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/3 c finely minced onion
• 1 large jalapeño finely minced
• 1 tbsp flax seed meal (use breadcrumbs as an alternative and then use about 1/4 c)
• 1 tsp garlic granulated
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix it all together with your hands until well blended but do not over handle as the meat becomes tough.
2. Using a melon scoop, place by scoops onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 400° for about 20 minutes.
3. Please note that the grease in the chorizo will bleed out of the meatballs and will caramelize around so kind of break those bits off when you remove from the pan.

SERVES: About 30 meatballs

NOTES: You can serve this with any number of dips from a ranch, blue cheese, cheddar cheese, or pepper jack. Also BBQ sauce. Fairly infinitely versatile in that respect.

SOURCE: Sherry Peyton

Heavenly Holy Hummus

Okay, hummus is fairly simple and I’ve a couple of recipes that change it up a bit already posted.

Nothing much new to add, but a new technique I learned makes it even better than normal.

A friend mentioned that she liked hers very creamy and I realized that one of the only things I disliked about my hummus was that it was sort of grainy, not like I get in the restaurant.

So this recipe came along and boy did it work. So don’t pay any more attention to the recipe than you care to, but do pay attention to the technique.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
• 1 c water
• 1/3 c tahini
• 1/4- 1/3 c lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 2 cloves garlic, microplaned
• salt and pepper
• 2-3 tbsp EVOO

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place the beans in a small saucepan and add the water. Boil gently for as long as it takes to reduce the water by about half. Don’t be overly concerned here, you can always add more water to the puree at the end to get the consistency right. So err on less rather than too much.
2. Place the beans and remaining water in a food processor and whirr for 2 minutes.
3. Add the balance of ingredients through garlic  and whirr another 2 minutes.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Drizzle the olive oil while whirring again just until incorporated
6. Garnish with some paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.

SERVES: 1 1/2 cups

NOTES: you can embellish in any fashion you wish with roasted garlic, roasted chiles, or whatever you might fancy. The key is the boiling of the beans.

SOURCE: Technique from RealHousemoms

Bang Bang Chicken Nuggets

As the football season approaches we love easy grazing meals where we can pick up a plate and fill it with finger foods munching on and off throughout the day.

One of the best is of course some form of chicken nuggets, made from either breast meat or thigh.

This one fits the bill with a great little sauce for dipping that really works nicely.

I’ve significantly altered the cooking process, since I am not a big fan of big wet sloppy coatings that tend to fall off in one piece with the first bite.

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE CHICKEN:

• 1 pound or more of chicken breast or boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 c flour
• 1/2 c cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c buttermilk
• 1-2 tbsp hot sauce (sriracha or your favorite)
• vegetable oil of your choice for deep frying

FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE:

• 1/3 c mayo
• 1/8 c sweet Asian chile sauce
• 3 tbsp sriacha sauce or other hot sauce

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Dry the chicken pieces.
2. Whisk the flour and cornstarch together.
3. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour
4. Whisk the eggs and then add the buttermilk and hot sauce and stir until mixed.
5. Dip the floured chicken pieces in the egg mixture and then dredge again in the flour
6. Drop immediately into hot oil heated to about 350-375° until golden brown and done.
7. Place on a rack to drain away any excess oil.
8. Mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce.

SERVES: 6

NOTES: The original uses a wet batter that I find utterly messy and that forms a coat that once you bite into the chicken comes off in one mass of boring breaded yuck. I prefer the method above which makes for a lighter but still crunchy coating which sticks to the chicken better. I also heated up the sauce and reduced the excessive sweetness. You can of course alter this as you wish.

SOURCE: Adapted from Damn Delicious