Wing Off!

Hobby of the Day: Cooking

Recently a group of friends and I started a "Cook off."  Whoever wins the competition gets to choose what "secret" ingredient to use, or can choose a theme of the cook off.  So far we have done two.  We had a dip off which was filling, rich and delicious. We had buffalo chicken dip, crab dip, chili dip, some cheesy bacon dip.

This last time was our Wing Off,  the winner from last time, Andy, won with his crap dip.

I have NEVER made wings before.  I am also not a huGe fan of wings.  I will eat them, but I don't get a craving for them.  We dont' have a fryer, so we baked ours, Gary essentially fried his in the oven with oil and butter, thus causing the smoke alarm to go biserk.   I made a Caribbean Chicken wing and he made a Sriracha chicken wing.  We also had several versions of teriyaki chicken wings, bbq wings and ghastly garlic wings.  It was a nice variety of sweet and spicy.  I was not pleased with mine, but Gary's were great, as were the ghastly garlic.

Winner: My Hubs! Yeah, next cook off is at our house.  We also won the coveted trophy.

The First Place Prize

Recipe for Honey Sriracha Wings:

Ingredients

For the Wings:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
• 2 pounds chicken wings, split at the joints, tips removed
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Ingredients

For the Sauce:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup honey, plus more for drizzling
• 1/4 cup Sriracha (Asian chile sauce)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat a large rimmed baking sheet with vegetable oil. Dry the chicken wings with paper towels and place in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, the melted butter, granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Pour the mixture over the wings and toss well to coat. Spread the wings in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the wings until browned and crisp, 45 to 55 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add the honey, Sriracha, soy sauce and lime juice and stir until the mixture bubbles gently. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Carefully remove the wings from the baking sheet and transfer to a large bowl. Pour the warm sauce over the wings and gently toss to coat. Transfer the wings to a serving platter and drizzle with morehoney; serve with lime wedges.