Chicken Wings

When I met husband nobody told me about chicken wings. They were this appetizer that people ordered at restaurants that never made sense to me because hello, there's hardly any meat on them. If you had told me then that 14 years later I'd crave them during the week...I'd have called you a liar. My husband has a knack for always getting them when they're on sale, he's taught me how to cook them in the deep fryer, the foreman, and a friend of ours taught me how to make them taste like they'd been fried while baking them. They're forgiving if you leave them in the oven too long, you can season them with anything, and if you really screw it up you can drown them in hot sauce, ranch or bleu cheese dressing. They're kind of awesome in case, like me, you didn't know. They're such a common meal in our house that blogging about them has never seemed necessary. However, every once in a while they come out so amazing that you find yourself wanting to eat all of them and save none for your husband. Tonight was one of those nights.

First, let me talk about technique. I would say that 90% of the wings we make are baked. Sounds crazy, I know, but I think we've kind of perfected it. I have an old 10x13 metal pan that I cover in foil and I place a cooling rack on top of it. The wings go on the cooling rack and the whole thing goes in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour. When they come out, they're crisp and delicious. If you want them crunchier, you can spray them with cooking oil first.

Second, the seasoning. You really can't go wrong here, however you want them to taste. I'm sharing with you my staples. I like to season each side with a different seasoning.

This is Rancher Steak Seasoning. I've only used it on actual steaks once. I love it on chicken.

Next up is Chesapeake Bay. What is actually in this? I don't know. I've never looked it up. This is interchangeable with any kind of Cajun seasoning, in my opinion. I use this on chicken, pork, hamburgers, potatoes, broccoli, green beans - it's good on everything.

Lastly, you have Chef's Choice Lemon Pepper.

This is special. It actually goes on after the wings are finished. Take them out of the oven and sprinkle on both sides. Your mouth will thank you for it.

Do you have a favorite chicken wing?

Sausage, Veggie, Sweet Potato Hash

We eat lots of chicken in our house. Usually I don't mind it. Chicken is pretty versatile and I can pretty much make whatever style meal I want. I just wasn't feeling it today. I remembered my sister sharing something about a kielbasa potato hash and I decided I'd try to make something like that and started pulling stuff out.

I started with two sweet potatoes and a medium sized yellow onion.

 Then I grabbed some white mushrooms

 And some frozen, chopped green pepper

We had 3 hot Italian sausage links in the freezer, so I defrosted those and chopped them into about 1 inch slices. I added those to my cast iron skillet.

I added a little olive oil to my big skillet, put it on medium heat, and then added the chopped sweet potato.

I seasoned the sweet potatoes with turmeric, thyme, seasoned salt, and pepper. Yum.
Once the sausage was cooked through I removed it from the pan and added the mushrooms, chopped onion, and green peppers.

I let that saute in the oil leftover from the sausage. Smelled so amazing. Smelled even better when I added about 2 cloves of minced garlic. Garlic makes everything better.

It's time to put it all together. Add the sausage to the sweet potatoes.

Add the veggie mix to the sausage and potatoes.

Stir it all up and add your last seasoning, lemon pepper. This isn't just any lemon pepper. It's Chef's Choice. We affectionately call it the Lemon Crack in our household. His parents bought it for us and I don't know what we're going to do when we run out. We'll have to drive home to East Chicago just to buy some more (our lovely Fort Wayne Kroger doesn't carry it, I've checked).

Delicious, low glycemic, paleo meal. We don't follow a paleo diet, but I've been trying to cut down on processed, high glycemic foods. This will be my go to recipe for that in the future! I think it'd also be really good to crack a couple eggs in it and scramble them around what's in the pan. Maybe add some fresh salsa to the top. The possibilities are endless!