Buffalo Chicken Wings

Ingredients

  • 4 pounds chicken wings, split at the joints, tips removed
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ¾ cup hot sauce (we used Frank’s RedHot original)
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, cut into equal pieces
  • 2 Tbsp. molasses
  • ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Take 2 baking sheets and line them with aluminum foil, spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray afterwards. Divide the chicken wings between the two lined sheets, sprinkling the kosher salt and black pepper onto the wings afterwards. Place one baking sheet on the middle rack and the other on the bottom rack. Cook for 30 minutes, then switch places with the baking sheets and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
  2. Near the end of the last 30 minutes on the cook time for the chicken wings, take a saucepan out and pour the hot sauce in, turning the heat up high enough for boiling to occur.
  3. Once the hot sauce is boiling, take the saucepan off the heat and stir one piece of butter in at a time, not adding more butter until the previous piece has melted.  Stir in the molasses and cayenne until combined. Place the cooked chicken wings in a large mixing bowl, pouring the sauce over them afterwards. Toss the chicken wings to coat and eat immediately afterwards.
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These wings were freaking delicious ! I thought that the molasses would create a sweet and spicy flavor but you don’t get any sweetness in the flavor. What sauce does stick to the chicken wings just creates a vinegar-y, slightly spicy flavor but if you take the remaining sauce and pour it over the chicken wings, then you get an addictively delicious spiciness to the wings ! These wings taste so good you’ll be fighting over them !

The buffalo sauce recipe came from Taste of Home.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Frank’s RedHot or Taste of Home.

Take care everybody !

Spicy Tofu Crumbles

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. extra-firm tofu, sliced 3/4″ thick
  • 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 Fresno chile, thinly sliced (we used two serrano peppers)
  • 3 Tbsp. soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
  • 2 Tbsp. mirin (we measured out 2 tablespoons after mixing together 2 tablespoons of unseasoned rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar)
  • 2 Tbsp. Sriracha or gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) (we used sriracha)
  • 2 Tbsps. unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tsp. finely grated fresh ginger

Directions

  1. Take a paper plate out and cover the plate with paper towels. Spread out the tofu slices across the paper towels so that they’re on a single layer, placing additional paper towels over the top of the tofu. Take your hands* and press down on the tofu, hard enough to press water out of the tofu but not so hard that you make the tofu fall apart.
  2. Take a large skillet out (we used a nonstick skillet but when possible, the original recipe suggests using a cast-iron skillet) and pour the vegetable oil in. Once the oil’s hot, lay the tofu slices down in the skillet for somewhere between seven to ten minutes or however long it takes for your tofu to get browned (it took us somewhere between 7 to 8 minutes), flipping the tofu once during that time. Once the browning’s complete, remove the tofu from the skillet and put it on a plate where it can cool off.
  3. While the tofu’s cooling down, take a medium-sized mixing bowl out and add the remaining ingredients to it, stirring to combine.
  4. Now that the tofu’s cooled down, crumble** the tofu until it’s been broken into small pieces and place it in the mixing bowl with the sauce, stirring the tofu until it’s fully coated in the sauce.

*We placed another cutting board on top of paper towel-covered tofu and placed enough heavy books on top to press the water out of the tofu.

**We decided to just cut the tofu into small cubes rather than crumble it.

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This is a flavor game-changer for tofu. Mommy said “this is some freaking delicious shit !”. Don’t get us wrong, the texture still won’t make you believe it’s crumbled meat but it tastes so good that you just don’t care ! There’s a lot of sauce that doesn’t get absorbed by the tofu but honestly, that sauce tasted so good we would’ve been happy to just drink it as is ! This would be great on a salad, mixed in with pasta, used in a sandwich, etc. We hope you love it as much as we did !

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Kimchi Creamed Collard Greens

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, cut into ¼-inch pieces (we used yellow onion)
  • ½ lb. bacon, cut into ¼-inch pieces (we used hickory smoked bacon)
  • 2 lb. stemmed collard greens, leaves cut into 2-inch pieces
  • ¼ cup sherry vinegar
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp. sorghum syrup or pure maple syrup (we used pure maple syrup)
  • ½ tsp. crushed red pepper
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup kimchi, finely chopped (we used spicy kimchi)

Directions

  1. Pour the oil into a large pot or Dutch oven (I used a Dutch oven) and set the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, toss in the onion and cook for 7 minutes or until the onion looks golden brown, stirring frequently. Now add in the bacon, continuing to stir frequently for 10 minutes or until the fat has rendered. Place the collard greens in the Dutch oven now, turning the heat up to medium-high afterwards. Stir the collards constantly for 4 minutes or until they look like they’re beginning to wilt. Pour the vinegar in and let it boil for 1 minute before mixing in the stock, water, syrup, crushed red pepper and a large pinch of salt. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and let it cook for 1 ½ hour or until the collard greens are very tender, stirring now and then during that time (for me, the greens didn’t take nearly that amount of time to get tender).
  2. While the collard greens are cooking, take a small saucepan out and pour the cream into it, setting the heat to medium. Let the cream cook for 10 minutes or until it’s reduced down by about one-third. Add the kimchi in, stirring just to combine and then take it off the heat.
  3. Once the collard greens are tender, mix in the kimchi cream and season with salt if you think it needs any extra.
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We love kimchi and we love collard greens so we had to try this out. We’re glad we did ‘cause we couldn’t stop eating this, it tasted that good ! The bacon adds a little bit of smokiness and has a little bit of crispy-chewiness that adds texture to the dish. The flavor of the kimchi does come through a little, adding a little funkiness (in a good way) to the dish and of course there’s a silky creaminess in the food thanks to the heavy cream.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Sweet Chile Hot Wings

Ingredients

  • 4 lbs. chicken wingettes and/or drummettes (we went for a mix of both)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
  • 1 cup honey
  • ¼-1/3 cup sriracha (I used 1/3 cup)
  • 3 Tbsp. roughly chopped cilantro, for garnish (we used whole leaves)

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Take 2 baking sheets and line them with aluminum foil, spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray afterwards. Divide the chicken wings between the two lined sheets, sprinkling the salt and pepper onto the wings afterwards. Place one baking sheet on the middle rack and the other on the bottom rack. Cook for 30 minutes, then switch places with the baking sheets and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
  2. While the chicken wings are cooking, take a large mixing bowl out and whisk together the soy sauce, honey and sriracha in it. Once the chicken wings are fully cooked, place them in the bowl, tossing to coat in the sauce. Place the chicken wings on a plate afterwards and sprinkle the cilantro on afterwards. Serve immediately.
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These wings live up to their name, there’s a really nice balance of sweet and spicy in it. The cilantro does add a nice freshness and works with the other flavors but if you don’t like cilantro then you can omit it and still have a tasty chicken wing on your hands !

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Cajun Mac And Cheese

Ingredients

  • ½ lb. andouille sausage, sliced
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ½ cup diced red bell pepper
  • ¼ cup diced yellow onion
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 ½ cups whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups cooked crawfish tails
  • 1 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese
  • 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
  • 8 ounces elbow macaroni, cooked
  • ½ cup thinly sliced green onion (we sliced ours on the bias)

Directions

  1. Take a large skillet out and add the sausage to it, setting the heat to medium-high. Stir the sausage around now and then for 5 to 7 minutes or until it looks browned. Take the sausage out of the skillet and place it on a plate for the time being.
  2. In the same skillet you just used, add the butter in and turn the heat down to medium. Once the butter’s melted, toss in the bell pepper and onion, stirring now and then for 3 minutes. Add the flour into the skillet, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Now whisk in the milk, continuing to whisk for another 5 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Stir the sausage, crawfish, Cajun seasoning and salt into the mixture just until everything’s mixed together. Take the skillet off the heat and move onto step 3.
  3. Stir the cheeses in until they’re melted, then mix in the pasta. Sprinkle the green onion over the top and enjoy !
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This is a delicious mac and cheese dish ! There’s a little bit of sweetness from the red bell pepper but the spices from the andouille sausage just balances it out perfectly. The green onion also adds a nice crunchy freshness to the dish. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did !

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !