Homemade Chicken Wings 3 ways!

Last night I had a serious craving for wings….something about Friday night really makes me not feel like cooking. Last night I was driving home and was really tempted to convince my husband to go to our favorite local wing place (Randy’s Up the River) to grab some wings and Friday night beers. However I knew it would be much more economical to make it at home and just grab a six pack of beers. So this is precisely what I did!

When I went to the grocery store they didn’t have wings in the meat section, and I had to ask the deli if they had any….they seriously looked at me like I had 8 heads. Why? After getting over their initial puzzlement I left the store with a ziplock bag full of chicken wings. Lol.

I decided to make a variety of flavors. I went with

1. Honey Mustard

2. Traditional Buffalo

3. Smoky Spice blend from Practical Paleo.

I also tried to re-create the sweet potato fries that we had last time we went to Randy’s….last night I whipped up some carrot fries. Just as good!

I had 15 wings (an assortment of wings and legs). First, I rinsed them in the sink and patted them dry with paper towels. Then I melted about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a bowl and tossed the wings. I baked all of them plain except the ones that got the dry rub. In retrospect next time I might try putting the sauce on THEN baking them. I put them on a cookie sheet (sprayed) and I baked them at 400 degrees for about a half hour (Or until the internal temp reached 165).

Honey Mustard Sauce:

2 tablespoons of your favorite mustard

2 tablespoons raw honey

2 tablespoons water

1/2 of a garlic clove

salt and pepper

 

This local mustard we love made them a little spicy as well.

Buffalo Sauce:

1/2 hot sauce (I love Frank’s Red Hot)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

As mentioned, I baked them in the oven and then when they came out I tossed them with the sauces. Except for the smoky spice blend ones. Those I dry rubbed before they went in the oven, and they came out great! They were my favorite. Practical Paleo = My Bible.

Disgusting cookie sheet….sorry.

 

Okay…so maybe they weren’t as good as Randy’s…..but it definitely satisfied the craving!

Wings where we live (in WNY) are really good since we are kind of close to Buffalo. I have yet to visit the “famous” Anchor Bar or Duff’s though.

What are your favorite type of chicken wings?

Have you ever tried to make them at home?

Roasted Chicken and Avocados

That’s not the name of a recipe or anything….rather a topic of this blog post. Tonight I roasted a pastured chicken for dinner and it.was.amazing. I literally did nothing to it. I put melted about two tablespoons of butter and poured it over the bird in the roasting pan, then added spices (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, sage).

I cooked it in the oven at 385 for an hour and a half. The skin was so crispy and delicious.

Just make sure you measure the temperature of several spots and it has reached 165 and you’re good to go! Don’t be scared of roasting chicken. The leftovers will last us 2 more nights for dinner! The bird was one of the pastured chickens I got from the farm down the road. Just knowing that a month ago, these chickens were grazing (right word??) in a field less than 5 miles away makes it taste even more delicious.

Chicken leg/thigh, kale and carrot fries.

The texture of pastured chicken is also quite different. It’s velvety, rich, and melts in your mouth. Yes it’s a little more pricey, but worth it. It kind of hurt forking over $4/lb for these birds that I got…but putting it into perspective- one bird will feed us for three dinners. So if one bird costs $15, that means $5 of chicken a night for two people. I’m perfectly fine with spending $5 a night on chicken for two of us. I mean really. A dinner at KFC for one is more expensive.

Need blogger help! This week avocados were on sale….and I had two in the bag until I saw these Florida avocados.

 

excuse my gross nails

I only went with it because they were bigger and the same price. Here are some facts about the difference from the Hass avocado:

– Larger

– Smooth, light green skin

– 50 less calories per ounce

-less creamy taste

-less fat

Sounds good on paper, but I prefer the regular ones so much more! The Florida variety is kind of bland tasting……not sure how to describe it. Just doesn’t have the creamy, buttery goodness you expect from an avocado. I have two large ones…but needless to say I won’t be buying them again. I will have to make something with them instead of eating them plain. Suggestions?

What type of avocados do you prefer? Have you tried the Florida ones?

What spices do you use to roast a chicken?

Pad Thai Chicken

I normally wouldn’t just do a blog post about someone else’s recipe, but I just ate dinner and it was AMAZZZZZING!

I got this  Pad Thai Chicken recipe from Skinnytaste.com and I just had to share. It took less than a half an hour to make and it was so good.

Skinny Taste was one of the first food blogs I started reading. I have taken countless of recipes from it. This recipe, I modified slightly by

a) Using PB2 instead of what it called for, which was Better N’ Peanut Butter.

b) Using a cut up red onion and a red pepper instead of the broccoli and carrot slaw- because it was what I had on hand.

I have never eaten Better N Peanut butter, but the PB2 actually has LESS calories than it does, so the calorie count would be slightly lower. YUM!!!!! You must try this.

 

 

What blogs first inspired you to get into cooking/blogging? Peanut Butter Fingers is another one of my favs!