Chicken Wing Week: Day 6 - Salt & Vinegar Wings

This is my last recipe of Chicken Wing Week! I hope you’ve enjoyed this week because I’ve had a lot of fun. Margie has one more recipe coming at you tomorrow!

Salt & Vinegar Chicken Wings

This recipe is tailored towards two adults and makes about 12 wings. Multiply as needed.

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 TB of avocado or olive oil

• 2 TB red wine vinegar

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Other Ingredients

• 2 TB avocado oil

• 2 TB red wine vinegar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp dried oregano

• 12-14 traditional bone-in chicken wings (about 2 #)

• Helpful tools: wire rack that fits inside your baking sheet, tongs, aluminum foil, and a meat thermometer.

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix your quick marinade of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss your wings in the marinade, making sure to coat every wing evenly. NOTE: Make sure you don’t let the wings sit in the marinade for too long (more than a couple minutes) because the acid from the vinegar will start to cook the chicken).

3. While you wait for your oven to preheat, cover your baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil and place your wire rack on top. NOTE: If you don’t have a wire rack, that’s ok too! You’ll just need to flip your wings half way through the baking time. The wire rack allows for better air circulation and crispier, evenly cooked wings.

4. Bake in the center rack of the oven for 25 minutes at 425 degrees F. If you don’t have the wire rack, make sure you flip the wings halfway through this 25 minute cooking time.

5. Remove the wings from the oven and turn the oven onto broil. This is the part that is magical for the crispy skin, but you must keep a close eye on it since everyone’s oven is different, and broiling happens quickly. I normally broil wings for 2 minutes in my oven, but for this recipe I want the skin to be extra crispy, to compensate for the super thin sauce. Therefore I broiled for 3 minutes on each side, with the wings on the top rack. They should be close to the broiler but not touching ANY flames. Therefore, they broil for 6 minutes total.

6. It’s important to measure the temperature of your wings to make sure they are cooked throughout and at least 165 degrees F. If you prefer a drier wing, you can take them up to 175-180 degrees F. This part is up to you!

7. While your wings are broiling, it’s time to mix up the salt & vinegar sauce. In a large mixing bowl that can fit all of your wings, mix 2 TB avocado oil, 2 TB red wine vinegar, 1 tsp of salt, and the dried oregano. Adjusting the ratio of oil to vinegar here is totally up to you. (i.e. If you love a really acidic salt & vinegar flavor, try using more vinegar)/

8. Once your wings are done broiling, using tongs, transfer them to your mixing bowl and coat with sauce really well.

9. To serve, you can pour a little extra sauce on top and top with a little extra oregano if you’d like.

I hope you enjoy this wing recipe and stay tuned for the last recipe tomorrow over on Margie’s blog <<click here>>!

CHICKEN WING WEEK RECIPE ROUND-UP:

Day 1 - Dre’s Original Baked Wings

Day 2 - Margie’s Thai Curry Dry Rub Grilled Wings

Day 3 - Mexican Dry Rub Wings

Day 4 - Chicken Tikka Masala Wings

Day 5 - Margie’s Strawberry Sriracha BBQ Glazed Wings

Day 6 - Salt & Vinegar Wings

Have a great weekend,

Andrea

Chicken Wing Week: Day 4 - Chicken Tikka Masala Wings

Chicken Tikka Masala is probably Mikey’s favorite thing that I make. He asks for it every week, so I thought why not get creative and make the same magical spice combinations in wing form?

Chicken Tikka Masala Wings

This recipe makes enough for about 24 wings!

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt

• 1 TB lemon juice

• 1 TB garam masala powder

• 2 tsp ground black pepper

Other Ingredients

• about 2 dozen traditional bone-in chicken wings (about 4 #)

• 2 TB Avocado Oil

• 3 TB butter

• 1 TB minced garlic

• 1/4 cup tomato paste

• 1/2 cup half n half, heavy cream, or full fat coconut milk

• 4 tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1/2 tsp salt

• Helpful tools: wire rack that fits inside your baking sheet, tongs, aluminum foil, and a meat thermometer.

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all of your marinade ingredients. Add your wings and coat them evenly. Cover your bowl and put in the refrigerator to marinate for 30-60 minutes. NOTE: I like to cover use a bowl that has a lid (i.e. Pyrex) so that I can shake the wings up a bit to coat them better.

2. Remove your wings from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Cover your baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil and place your wire rack on top. NOTE: If you don’t have a wire rack, that’s ok too! You’ll just need to flip your wings half way through the baking time. The wire rack allows for better air circulation and crispier, evenly cooked wings.

3. Heat a big soup pot or dutch oven to medium-high heat, then add your avocado oil. Using your tongs, place some of your wings skin side down, into the pan. Hearing a sizzle is VERY important at this step. If you don’t hear a good sizzle, your pan isn’t warm enough yet and you won’t get a good sear to lock in the juices. It’s also important not to over crowd your pan because then you will steam your wings instead of searing them. Make sure they aren’t touching. You will most likely need to do this step in a couple batches depending on the size of your pot and amount of wings you are making.

4. Sear the chicken wings for about 3 minutes until golden brown, then flip and repeat on the other side. Once both sides are seared nicely, use your tongs to remove the wings and place on the wire rack, that is on top of your baking sheet and repeat the process until all of your wings are seared and on your wire rack.

5. Bake in the center rack of the oven for 25 minutes at 425 degrees F. If you don’t have the wire rack, make sure you flip the wings halfway through this 25 minute cooking time.

6. While the wings are baking, it’s time to make your chicken tikka masala sauce to coat your wings! Reduce the heat of your soup pot to medium heat and add 2 TB of butter. Once melted, add your minced garlic and saute until fragrant (about 30-60 seconds).

7. Add your tomato paste, half and half, and water and mix well until combined. Add 4 tsp garam masala, paprika, and salt. Allow to come to a simmer, reduce heat a little to medium-low and let cook until your wings are done baking.

8. Remove the wings from the oven and turn the oven onto broil. This is the part that is magical for the crispy skin, but you must keep a close eye on it since everyone’s oven is different, and broiling happens quickly. In my oven, I broil for 2 minutes on each side, with the wings on the top rack. They should be close to the broiler but not touching ANY flames. Therefore, they broil for 4 minutes total. NOTE: It’s important to measure the temperature of your wings to make sure they are cooked throughout and at least 165 degrees F. If you prefer a drier wing, you can take them up to 175-180 degrees F. This part you can adapt to your preferences.

9. While wings are broiling, add your last TB of butter to the sauce and let melt and mix in evenly.

10. Once your wings are cooked to your preference, toss them in a couple TB of sauce to coat and serve. I like to serve with a little chopped cilantro on top but that is optional.

I hope you have been enjoying Chicken Wing Week so far! We still have THREE more recipes coming at you! Head to Margie’s blog tomorrow <<click here>> because she’s up next and you don’t want to miss her next creation!

Happy Wednesday,

Andrea

Chicken Wing Week: Day 3 - Mexican Dry Rub Wings

Mexican Dry Rub Wings

This recipe makes enough dry rub for about 24 wings!

Ingredients:

• 2 TB chili powder (feel free to add more if you want them spicy!)

• 1 TB garlic powder

• 1 TB onion powder

• 1 TB cumin powder

• 1 TB coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• about 2 dozen traditional bone-in chicken wings (about 4 #)

• Helpful tools: wire rack that fits inside your baking sheet, tongs, aluminum foil, and a meat thermometer.

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all of your spices well to create your dry rub. Add your wings and coat them evenly in the dry rub. Cover your bowl and put in the refrigerator to marinate for 30-60 minutes.

2. About 5 minutes before your marinading is over, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Cover your baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil and place your wire rack on top. NOTE: If you don’t have a wire rack, that’s ok too! You’ll just need to flip your wings half way through the baking time. The wire rack allows for better air circulation and crispier, evenly cooked wings.

3. Remove your chicken wings from the fridge and lay them on your wire rack for 25 minutes at 425 degrees F. If you don’t have the wire rack, make sure you flip the wings halfway through this 25 minute cooking time.

4. Remove the wings from the oven and turn the oven onto broil. This is the part that is magical for the crispy skin, but you must keep a close eye on it since everyone’s oven is different, and broiling happens quickly. In my oven, I broil for 2 minutes on each side, with the wings on the top rack. They should be close to the broiler but not touching ANY flames. Therefore, they broil for 4 minutes total.

5. It’s important to measure the temperature of your wings to make sure they are cooked throughout and at least 165 degrees F. If you prefer a drier wing, you can take them up to 175-180 degrees F. This part you can adapt to your preferences.

I hope you enjoy this wing recipe and stay tuned to the rest of CHICKEN WING WEEK! Make sure you head to Margie’s blog <<click here>> to check out her Thai Curry Dry Rub Wing recipe from yesterday. I’ll be back tomorrow with new flavors!

Have a great day,

Andrea

Dre Does Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

I know this is a beauty blog but I can't help but share this recipe because it's so ridiculously yummy and easy that you have to try it. I fell in love with Lemon Chicken Rice soup last summer when I worked at a Greek restaurant. When the new year began I told myself I was going to learn how to make it no matter how hard it was because I missed eating it. So I got to googling and YouTubing and I was pleasantly surprised to find how simple and easy it is to make. I didn't follow an exact recipe because it all depends on how lemony you want it and whether you want rice or pasta (like orzo), but you can easily tweak it to your liking. 

Here's the basic guidelines I followed (I call them guidelines because I come from a family of non-measuring cooks): 

64 oz. of chicken broth (I prefer low sodium but you can use what you like)

1 cup of uncooked rice (let's be real though. I love rice...I probably used more haha)

2 cooked and shredded chicken breasts 

3 eggs

2-3 lemons

Salt and Pepper

Dash of Oregano (one recipe I found called for it and I can't escape my Italian roots so I obviously loved it)

The really awesome thing about this soup is that you can utilize leftovers! Takeout rice from leftover Chinese food can get a second life and so can leftover or rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I however was starting from raw rice and chicken so this is what I did.

1. In a large soup pot, I added all the chicken broth and brought it to a boil.

2. In a large sauté pan, I added a little butter and started to cook my chicken breasts after I seasoned them with a little sprinkle of salt and pepper. 

3. Once the broth was boiling, I added my uncooked rice and stirred it every once in a while to keep from sticking to the bottom, in between checking my chicken breasts.

4. Once the chicken was cooked, I let it cool for a few minutes, shredded it, and threw it into the big soup pot. The time that it takes to cook the rice and sauté the chicken were pretty even which works out nicelyv. 

5. In a small separate bowl I squeezed my lemon juice, removed an seeds that tried to make it to the party, and cracked my eggs into the juice. I then whisked everything together. 

6. Now you have to temper the eggs. If you were to just add the egg and lemon juice mixture to your soup pot, you would make Lemon Chicken Egg Drop Rice soup, because they would cook so quickly, so you have to slowly warm them first, then add them to the soup. To do this you just slowly add ladles of the hot soup to the eggs while you are whisking it. I added about 5 but it'll be different for everyone. Once you can feel the mixture warm up a significant amount, stir the big soup pot and add your egg, lemon juice and broth mixture. You'll notice the broth thicken up and kind of get creamy but this is totally normal and the whole point of what the eggs do. They make the soup so thick, creamy and delicious. 

7. Now I just add my dash of oregano, let everything hang out for a little bit together, and test for salt and pepper. 

That's it! You now have an amazing soup you can eat all year round. It's filling, yet still refreshing because of the lemon. One thing to remember is that it thickens if you save it for later in the fridge, so if this bothers you, when you warm it up just add a little water or broth to thin it out. Like I mentioned before, you can customize the amount of lemon and other ingredients to your liking, but I hope you try it out and enjoy it! If you do let me know!

Have a beautiful day,

Dre