Hello my Foodie Friends!
With all of the indoor and outdoor entertaining we do this time of year, chicken wings can be a staple item to serve. So, how did Americans fall in love with the chicken wing? There is no glitzy or glamorous origin story behind America’s love for the chicken wing. It’s actually one of settling and convenience. Deep-fried chicken wings have long been a staple of Southern cooking. But the concept of cooking wings in peppery hot sauce was born in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, when co-owner Teressa Bellissimo cooked leftover wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends. The guys liked them so much that the Bellissimos put them on the menu the next day. Served with celery slices and bleu cheese sauce, “Buffalo Wings” were an instant hit. The rise of the chicken wing really had to do with timing. Cooking the whole bird was trendy in the sixties and seventies, but in the eighties U.S. consumers started preferring boneless-skinless breast meat, and wings became an inexpensive byproduct for chicken producers. There is one very important characteristic of chicken wings: It’s a great group food. A big plate of wings can be shared among many people. Wings are meant to be shared, and they come with a promise of spending time with someone — friends, family, a partner, our kids. That’s something we can all understand. Being together with people we love and enjoy — maybe that’s the true magic of the chicken wing.
Recently, our good friends hosted their 3rd Annual Wing Fest competition and Paula and I did not win. The young lady that won had an awesome wing sauce however. There is something special about having fun with people while all of you, no matter how classy, have sauce all over your hands, face and the front of your shirt. I love watching the reactions of the tasters when they bite into a very hot wing. The wing master at the grill has to handle putting the sauce on the chicken which is a thankless job all by itself. I supplied him with a Charcoal Companion 17” Sauce Mop. “Arrr, Arrr , Arrrr” It is a great tool to spread your sauces.
At Compliments to the Chef, we carry the Rosewood 17-Inch Sauce Mop by Charcoal Companion. This is an ideal tool for basting meats on the grill or in the smoker. The Sauce Mop is made with a Cotton mop-head that soaks up sauce or marinade for BBQing. It is made with a Rosewood handle that will stand up to everyday use. The Mop head washes out with soap and water. This basting mop makes it easy to prepare BBQing by soaking up the thinner sauces to baste over the meat. So host a competition in your neighborhood and stop by Compliments to the Chef located at 33 Railroad Place in Saratoga Springs, and tell us the results. I bet everyone will be a winner. In my neighborhood our competition will be talked about for one year until we go back to the drawing board and try again. We also carry a large assortment of cool tools to help you with your BBQ adventures. Remember my Foodie Friends, “Life Happens in the Kitchen” or outside while you are BBQing. Get a Sauce Mop and Mop up your Wing Sauce creations. Although we did not win the competition, here is the recipe that we used for the Wing Competition. It is delicious. We call it “Afterburner.”
Take Care,
John & Paula
