This is what passes for fine dining in the Gustatory Circuit these days. Also, it takes some practice to get that sauce-smear thing right.
One of the things I enjoy most about cooking is the creative problem-solving/engineering aspect of it. I have ingredients X, Y, and Z and want to eat something resembling dish D. Given what I know about flavors and cooking techniques, how can I get from X, Y, and Z to D?
I was driving home and decided I really wanted to have buffalo chicken wings for dinner.
D = an approximation of buffalo chicken wings
Solution 1: Heat frozen chicken wings and toss in store-bought buffalo sauce, both things we have on hand.
This solution was dismissed outright for being boring and borderline cheating. Save it for some other night when we’re working late and too lazy to cook. I got home a bit early today and I wanted to cook.
Solution 2: Do something with the package of chicken breasts that’s been defrosting in the fridge and needs to be used up within the next few days.
Making the chicken breasts into something wing-like would be easy enough: cut into wing-sized pieces, marinate, dredge, and pan-fry.
I’ve been on a marinade kick ever since the flavor episode of Worst Cooks in America and I’ve managed to crank out some pretty good ones in the last few weeks. Out came the Pyrex bowl and in went some olive oil, some hot sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, five crushed garlic cloves, red chili pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. It smelled and tasted terrific. In went the chicken pieces.
But what about the sauce? I did what any wandering home cook would do: look in the Joy of Cooking index.
Let’s see…chicken…chicken…more chicken…children? Oh, fun recipes for kids…back up…a-ha! Chicken, wings, buffalo. Page 80.
I’d always thought buffalo sauce was some complex concoction, but it turns out it has exactly three ingredients: butter, vinegar, and hot pepper sauce.
I did not have hot pepper sauce, and we’re down to a few drops of Tabasco. Time to improvise.
D1 = something approximating hot pepper sauce
I opened the fridge and eyed a container of leftover ancho chiles in adobo sauce.
Out came the food processor. In went three chiles, some generous squirts of ketchup, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Puree. Taste. Good front of mouth kick, nice spicy finish, but nothing in between. I hoped the butter would take care of that.
I melted 3-4 tablespoons of butter on low heat, then stirred in the mixture from the food processor along with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder (because I forgot to add garlic to the food processor). It was kind of chunky, but I didn’t feel like being fussy and straining it. The butter did round out the flavor nicely and also took down some of the heat.
I quickly dredged the chicken in some seasoned corn starch, then pan-fried them in my cast iron pan and laid them out on paper towels to drain. I served the sauce on the side with some celery sticks, baby carrots, and blue cheese dressing.
Buffalo chicken equation? Solved.