FRIDAY
{Asian} Hot Wings | Blue Cheese-Yogurt Sauce | Carrot & Celery Sticks
Friday night! We made it.
The night baseball game, originally scheduled for this past Wednesday was cancelled at the last minute & rescheduled for tonight…Friday night baseball under the lights!! Certainly a big deal for our Junior players…playing on a “real” field, lights, dugouts, a huge, glowing scoreboard. The boys played this evening at Albert Field {home of the San Rafael Pacifics, an independent minor league team} located in downtown San Rafael, CA. First pitch was scheduled for 7:00pm but the boys needed to arrive for warm-up at 6:00pm. Which meant that {due to Friday evening traffic heading out of San Francisco} we needed to depart for the game no later than 5:15pm, right after picking up Michael from the ferry at 5:00pm. Let’s see…school pick-up at 3:00pm, home by 3:20…leaving again by 4:45pm. And, what about dinner? Well, Friday + baseball + family + friends = Tailgate…and so we did! After a morning filled with paperwork {on other matters}, laundry, etc. I finally came to the tailgate solution for dinner shortly before I needed to go get the children from school, which meant I needed to be VERY efficient in what little time I had to pull this together.
Consulting the chicken wing recipe I {originally} had on this evening’s menu…Crispy Baked chicken Wings…I knew I had to get the wings in the oven before I left for school pick up {I could deal with the various sauces when I got home…after all I had a whole hour and 20 minutes}. No problem! Wings were prepped and in the oven in under 15 minutes…off I went to get the kids. Returning home, I had the mindset of a 4-star general on a combat mission…precise timing was going to be the key to my success! While the wings baked I set out getting the ingredients together for each of the two sauces I would be preparing, beginning with the Buffalo sauce: melted butter {√}, cayenne pepper {√}, freshly ground black pepper {√}, kosher salt {√}, hot pepper sauce {?*^t!}. I reached into the refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of Tabasco…EMPTY!!! I don’t know about your home, but we have invisible trolls living with us. These little devils are the guilty ones responsible for leaving empty milk containers in the refrigerator, empty toilet paper rolls on the holder, empty paper towel rolls on the dispenser, etc. Now, I have never seen them but I know they must exist because when I ask my three, darling, teenage children about these matters, they look at me and respond {almost in unison}…”it wasn’t me”. Trolls or not, it didn’t matter at this point, the Buffalo sauce wasn’t happening & the wings were in the oven. The clock ticking, I grabbed my iPad and began searching for a Plan B. It didn’t take long for me to stumble across this recipe for Asian Hot Wings and, with full bottles of both the main ingredients {sriracha & sambal oelek} in my pantry, I decided this recipe was my escape route. Here is how it all turned out… {Note: this last-minute delay prompted my decision to focus my time and energy on just one sauce, rather than two this evening…a wise decision as I ended up running out of the house without a moment to spare}
Asian Hot Wings {adapted from Bon Appetit.com}
Wings:
- 5 pounds {roughly 60} chicken wings
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2-3 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Sauce:
- 1½ cups sriracha*
- 2-3 tablespoons sambal oelek or other asian chili sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 sticks cold butter cut into pieces
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Set a wire rack inside two large rimmed baking sheets lined with foil. Place the wings and the next three ingredients in a large bowl, tossing well to coat. Divide wings between prepared racks and spread out in a single layer. Bake wings until cooked through and skin is crispy, 45-50 minutes. When finished, remove wings to a large mixing bowl to await sauce.
- While the wings cook, prepare the sauce. In a saucepan, bring sriracha, sambal oelek and vinegar to a boil. Whisk in cold butter gradually. When all of the butter has been incorporated into the sauce, remove saucepan from heat and pour sauce over waiting wings in bowl. Serve warm.
As for the Blue Cheese-Yogurt Sauce…it turned out OK but nothing special {I won’t be making that one again}. I would have liked to try the cucumber, sour cream dipping sauce that was part of the hot wing recipe I followed but, alas, I had neither the sour cream nor the cucumber. Here is our dinner all packed up and ready to go…
We brought 60 wings with us tonight and nothing was left-over {not even a single carrot stick…not even the below-average blue cheese sauce}. The wings received rave reviews & I will definitely be making those again!
As for the baseball game, it was so much fun to watch but a nail-biter! Don’t Duke & Tuffy look stressed as they check out all of the action?
The first pitch was thrown at 7:00pm. At 9:30pm, the game was tied up 6-6 in the 6th inning. The game finished at 9:50pm with our boys winning 7-6! More baseball is in our future this weekend with games both tomorrow & Sunday.
Hope you have a lovely weekend & check back tomorrow for next week’s dinner menu {I just can’t squeeze that one in tonight}!
