Hot Wings on the Fly

It's Super Bowl Sunday. OMG, I haven't started my potluck dish yet. No worry. Hot Wings on the Fly to the rescue. Here is my simple recipe I created by accident.

Can't find my photo for this recipe

Ingredients:
16 wing pieces (uncooked)
1/2 cup your favorite hot sauce
1/3 cup butter (nothing imitation)

Direction:
Rinse and pat dry the wing pieces.
Bake the wings until cooked (about 25 min) at 450 degrees. They should be crispy, so the sauce will stick.
Melt butter and mix in hot sauce in a large mixing bowl.
Toss the baked wings in the wet mix. Make sure they are evenly coated.
Serve with your favorite veggie sticks with Ranch dressing

Simple Chicken Broth

Chicken was on sale at 59¢ a pound. I bought several. After removing the meat from the bones, I decided to cook these bones for clear chicken broth.

1 set of chicken back and breast cage
2 stalks of celery
3 skinny carrots
half onion
4 cups water

Set to SLOW COOKER mode. It will automatically cook for 8 hours.

This is a base for a lot of soups. You can modify the vegetables as you see fit. Discard the vegetables and season the broth with salt and pepper if necessary.

Chicken Soup Made of Scraps

It's cold outside. My favorite comfort food is soup. Instead of spending money at the restaurants, I decided to make my own chicken soup. After learning from Ziad at Eatwell Bakery Cafe , I want to try his "nothing but chicken" recipe. Well, I had to clean up my refrigerator last night. I added some other stuff.

I striped this chicken to bones only. I used other parts for entree.

Ingredients:
1 Chicken back and bones from breast part. Don't remove skin. That's for flavoring.
2 Carrots, medium size
1 Celery, stalk
1 Cucumber (I hate to waste a freeze-burnt veggie.)
1/2 Onion
1 piece American Ginseng (optional)
1-3 tbsp Salt, after the soup is done

Procedure:

1. Put everything in the pot and fill with water to cover the ingredients.
2. Set Midea Electrical Pressure Cooker to SOUP setting for 33 minutes.
3. Follow instruction to start the process.
4. When done, release pressure and discard all vegetable solids. 
5. Remove soup and meat from the pot, season with 1 tbsp salt to taste.

Fresh chicken is on sale 58¢ per pound at H-E-B on Beechnut. Time to make some good soup at home and save my money for Houston Rodeo next month.

Fiscal Cliff Deadline Wings

This was the one-of-a-kind hot wing dish - not fried, but baked wings. On 12/31/12, there was nothing to watch on TV, because every news channel was showing the sudden change in personal income tax laws in 2013.

I thought, "gee, if the time really gets bad, let's have some fun with whatever I could find in my kitchen."

My "Fiscal Cliff Deadline Wings" recipe was born.

Ingredients:
8 Chicken Wings, Parted
1/4 tsp Liquid Smoke
1/2 tbsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Crushed Hot Peppers
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1 Orange, crushed

BBQ Sauce: (if you don't have 1 cup of BBQ Sauce)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

They go well with toasted garlic bread. You can make it an appetizer or a late night snack.

Directions:

1. Marinate the wings with liquid smoke, paprika, hot peppers and salt in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
2. In a pan, heat the BBQ sauce ingredients and mix in crushed orange and its juice over medium heat until bubbling. Turn to simmer.
3. Heat oven to 400.
4. Lay chicken parts on a greased cooking pan. Bake for 40 min. Flip them and bake for another 10 min.
5. Remove the wings immediately and dunk them into the hot sauce mixture.
6. Toss to coat and ready to serve.

Miso Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
1 de-boned chicken breast
1/2 cup Zinfandel
3 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
5 sliced jalapeno

Miso has extra aroma after cooking

Directions:
Marinate all ingredients overnight
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake 20 minutes uncovered.

Stir Fry Chicken Pieces

Ingredients:
One half chicken breast
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups of cabbage
2 tsp chili sauce
1/2 cup of chicken broth
dash of salt
dash of pepper

I used Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce (from the maker of Sriracha) 

1. Cut chicken into bite size.
2. Mix corn starch and soy sauce into chicken piece in a lunch box.
3. Cover and marinate overnight.
4. Cut cabbage into half inch strips.
5. Heat oil in a wok on high heat for a minute. Don't let it scorch.
6. Stir in cabbage. 
7. Coat them with heated oil and stir, stir, stir until slightly transparent.
8. Add chicken broth, salt and pepper.
9. Lower heat to medium high and cook until slightly soft. Don't overcook.
10. Remove from heat and set aside.
11. Use remaining oil and add 1 tbsp oil, if needed.
12. Stir in chicken pieces. 
13. Coat them with heated oil and stir fry until surface changed to white. About 3 minutes.
14. Mix cooked cabbage, hot sauce into the wok. 
15. Stir fry on high heat for about 2 minutes. Sample the chicken pieces, make sure no longer pink inside.
16. Remove from heat. Ready to serve with steam rice.

Technique of stir frying: Coat the ingredients with heated oil and keep stirring until cooked. This will allow meat to be tender and evenly cooked.
I prefer olive oil is because of flavor and healthy benefits. You can use vegetable oil.

My First Jambalaya

Ingredients:
2 drumsticks
3 cups of water
4 oz of fully-cooked Smoked Sausage, about quarter of a ring
8 medium size (26-30) shelled shrimps
A box of Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix
1 tbsp oil

1. Boil chicken legs in water and cook them at medium heat for about half hour or until you see the meat falling off the bones. 
2. Pull the meat apart from the bones. 
3. Set the liquid aside. I'd rather use the juice from boiling chicken to replace water as required.
4. Slice the sausage into thin as possible pieces. 
5. Half the shrimps, make sure you remove the yucky parts.
6. Followed the directions on the box of Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix. 
7. Viola! Jambalaya is served in less than 60 minutes.

I normally use lower sodium version, because I want to taste the meats.
Next up, stir fried chicken pieces using one-half of the chicken breast.

Easy meals in 60 minutes or less.

Chicken 6 ways

How can you cook a chicken into 6+ different dishes?

I normally buy a whole chicken, which is cheaper than chicken parts. I cut it into pieces: breast, thighs, legs, wings, back and whatever is in the stomach cavity.

Chicken 6 Ways plus more

Photo above shows:

1. I de-boned the thighs to go on the George Foreman's Grill
2. I parted wing pieces for hot wings.
3. I cut out breast meat from its cage, half for stir fry and half for roast.
4. I boiled the drumsticks for Jambalaya.
5. The rest of bones are in a big pot for chicken broth to season beans, greens etc.
6. Oh. I smashed the cooked chicken liver for pâté or a treat for my cat.

Up next, my first jambalaya. Mmm... yummy.