Well tonight I had the wings from three fresh chickens that I wanted to try a new recipe with. It was so simple that I hardly trusted it to be very good, but it was amazing.
First, how to make wings from those sharp floppy bits you get when you order a cut-up.
Step one: I like to use my kitchen shears to cut the tip off. There's not much meat on it, so I usually either discard it or keep it to make stock. (You can just toss them in a bag and freeze them until stock-making time.) You just want to cut/hack your way through the first joint between the wing tip and the wing itself.
Now, bend the two sections backwards until the bone pops out and you can cut easily between the joints. Now you should have a drumette and a wing. (Note: with a sharp enough knife you could just hack through the joint, but this way ensures that there are no bone shards or loose bits of bone hanging around.)
So the recipe:
-3 lbs of wings (the great thing about our chickens is that it takes way fewer wings to make 3 lbs than typical wings, since there's so much meat on them!)
-1/3 cup honey
-1/2 cup soy sauce (a GMO-free version would be Bragg's Soy Seasoning and it has way more flavour, so you only need about a 1/4 cup or so. It can be found in the health food section of your grocery store. It's a safe assumption that most soy sauce is made from GMO soy, so be sure by using Braggs.) If you do use Bragg's or less liquid, compensate with some water to make enough sauce.
-6 cloves of garlic, minced. (I didn't have 6, so only used 4, but they were good and strong.)
-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix the sauce and marinate the wings in it for at least an hour.
Line a baking sheet with foil (maybe double-it's sticky!).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place wings on baking sheet and cook for 35-40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce.
Meanwhile, simmer remaining sauce until thickened.
Once wings are cooked, pour thickened sauce over them and let sit until cool enough to eat.
Mark, who is a bit of a wing connoisseur, could not believe how good these were. They actually tasted like chicken, rather than just being vehicles for wing sauce. haha. Anyway, they were gobbled up so quickly I just barely caught a picture of them before they were all gone. I plan on making a giant batch of these and freezing some to have ready to pop into the oven when I need them.
The vacuum packer has arrived, so as soon as we get bags, we'll be in the business of seriously selling pieces and you can make your own version of organic wings anytime you want! Price list coming soon.
