It has came to my attention that we are serious slackers.  Honestly though we have a lot of cool stuff in the works so we have been putting all our energy and focus into those.  Yes they involve food and more importantly they involve large and I mean annoying the recycling guy with massive amounts of beer bottles level of booze.  Also, the major reason why if I was not hungover every weekend I would actually hit the gym instead of saying screw it and buying larger jeans.

One of the joys of not embracing sobriety is creativity starts flowing.  This is one of those ah ha moments.  At our house we are freaking addicted to wings and have made it a personal quest to find the best place in this town to find them and yes we have succeeded.  However; going out for wings is great but sitting around a fire pit with a grate cooking wings is even better.

So here we go…………

• 2 bottles of good pale ale beer (relax there are still four left in that six pack to drink)
• 2-4 cups of water
• 3 bay leaves
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 TB whole peppercorns
• Heavy pinch of cayenne (yes spicy food makes you feel alive but relax the heat is really muted)

So freaking hard from here….

• Add water and beer to sauce pan along with salt and sugar
• Heat until the salt and sugar has dissolved
• Kill heat and throw everything else in and let it cool back to room temperature (you can cheat and use the fridge or an ice bath if you are impatient).
• Add in chicken and throw in fridge covered up to eight hours.
• Throw on grill or oven bake like you normally do.
• We also prefer to rub our wings to bring out even more flavor and for that we just simply use one of either of these.

Serve and enjoy!

Seemed appropriate that we follow up a pulled pork recipe with a good sauce that could be made easily too.  Ok the sauce is killer (especially the next day) but the chicken is freaking awesome. 

This is really not BBQ because to me BBQ is low and slow cooking but everyone closely associates BBQ sauce as having a majority of the ingredients that are used in this dish so… “BBQ” it is.

Oh yeah and for the record I think we had to set a new record.  We decided hey it is fall and I have a passion for burning stuff (not like creepy arson guy and I just realize there is absolutely no way I can make that previous statement sound right so pray I never get arrested on arson charges because that statement would end me in jail.  However; the spin off Blog He Shanks She Cooks would be awesome).  Anyways back on track… so we build this killer fire pit and are having a blast with friends over drinking beer and b.s.ing.  Next thing we know the joyous Fire Department shows up saying someone is complaining about a smoke nuisance.  Now according to the fire department (who were polite and even turned down the offer of s’mores) even though the fire pit is legal if someone complains we have to put it out.  However; they cannot fine so from here on out the fire pit is going to be constantly running in hopes of annoying neighbors because that is what we do……

With this recipe we busted out our secret stash of booze, dug deep, and found Honey Crisp by Crispin.  Awesome drinking cider but everything is better with chipotles……

For this recipe you will need:

• 2 cups of Honey Crisp (regular cider would work too but try to find the Honey because it adds an awesome flavor and the added bonus is you will have a cup leftover for consumption)
• 1 cup of ketchup
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• salt/pepper
• small dash cayenne pepper
• 1 onion finely diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 2 chipotle in adobo diced
• teaspoon of fresh thyme
• teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
• teaspoon of paprika
• Canola oil and a tablespoon of butter

Steps to chicken success:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large pot over high heat melt the butter and oil.
3. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and then brown them in the oil/butter.
4. Remove and set aside.
5. Drain all but one tablespoon of oil/butter goodness.
6. Add in the onion and cook until softened (about 3-5 minutes).
7. Add in the garlic, chili powder, paprika, and chipotles and cook for 30 seconds.
8. Add in the cider and bring to a boil scraping the bottom.
9. Add in the ketchup, thyme, Worcestershire, paprika, cayenne, sugar, and chicken.
10. Throw in 400 degree oven uncovered until chicken is done.
11. If you want the sauce to be a little thicker once the chicken is done remove it and set aside.  Put the pan over a high burner and boil violently for a couple of minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

I LOVE wings.

We have this standing date with friends one night a week where we all hook up and either go out for dinner and drinks, or everyone comes over and we have a big ole’ cook out. I love going out. But with this perfect weather lately, I sure LOVE COOKING out. The past few times, I have bought a nice big package of chicken wings and apparently did them up right, because with Jeff on “grill” and me on “kitchen” we were lucky to get our hands on them. Jeff’s answer to that? “Next time don’t make them as good”.

Impossible for me because if it is any kind of meat on the grill – it had better be full of awesome or I am throwing it back. (Jeff may claim I am full of fluff and muffins – he is really just jealous that a girl can out cook him in the meat department.)

These make a GREAT Football Sunday snack by the way… hint hint.

Here are two of my go to rubs for grilled wings. (Based on a package of about 16 wings.) They are damn easy and even more they are damned tasty… tastier… more better then easy. JUST PLAIN FLIPPIN’ AWESOME.

Triple Chili Wings

3 Arbol peppers
2 Chipotle peppers
1 Ancho pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon granulated onion (or onion powder)
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
black pepper

Lay the wings out on a baking pan.

Grind the peppers and the spices and mix with the other ingredients.

Sprinkle half of the rub over the wings, pressing to adhere. Flip the wings and repeat with the rest of the rub. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for a minimum of 3 hours. Remove 30 minutes prior to grilling. While grilling squeeze with lime.

Rosemary Lemon Garlic Wings

Zest from 1 – 2 lemons
Juice of two lemons
4 T cooking oil (I like peanut the best…)
6 – 8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 – 2 sprigs of rosemary, minced
1 heaping teaspoon of dried rosemary crushed
1 t salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Combine the first 5 ingredients and mash well to incorporate flavors.

In a separate bowl, combine the last three ingredients and set aside.

Place wings in a large (gallon sized perhaps) zip lockable bag. Pour in the lemon juice mixture and seal bag. Shake, massage, toss, manhandle, knock about, thwack and/or roughhouse that chicken to get it all evenly coated. Push the air out of the bad and reseal. Refrigerate for one hour. Remove wings from bag and lay out on a baking pan. Sprinkle the 2nd mixture over the wings, turning to coat evenly. Cover and return to refrigerator for a minimum of one hour. Remove 30 minutes prior to grilling.

Be sure you get your hands on a few for yourself if you are grilling them. I don’t care if you have to thwart your friends and family with the hose to do so. It will all be worth it.

By the way, these wings are part of the #GoJunkFood quest to take your every day run of the mill quick bar food and put your own spin on it. This was a throw down started by my good friends Elle and Chris. This time more contestants threw their hats in the ring and can I just say YUM! Be sure and check them out:

Elle at Elle’s New England kitchen
Paula at The Dragons Kitchen
Chris at Blog Well Done
Renee at Flamingo Musings
Judy at No Fear Entertaining

P.S. The photos are of the lemon rosemary wings. The chili ones went so fast I didn’t have a chance.

Yes you read this right…..this is Jeff posting.  I know it has been over three months but let us face it when Spring hits you have to take some time off and enjoy it.  Ok that is a load of b.s. truth be told I have been getting slaughtered at work between more responsibility and moving to a larger department (ok not much bigger people wise but a larger footprint which equates to cooler toys with same pay).

Fear not though I have been a grilling fool who sometimes drags a camera out to shoot.  However, I have been very lacking in the photography department (as evident by a plating picture that has overexposed rice).  However, my personal goal is to at least shoot a couple times a week relax and unwind (beats my other vices which will eventually kill me).  I also know garden updates went over really well last year so hopefully the ground can actually dry out enough that I can drag the camera out there without needing waders or a kayak.

Hmmm well unless you want to be bored to tears with talk of Cisco, VLANs, EIGRP, and all other joys of networking I am going to lob the ball to you and simply ask what has everyone else been up to????

For this recipe you will need:

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 habanero
• 1/2 white onion
• 2 shallots
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup combined of chives/thyme/parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• Couple whole cloves
• 4 allspice berries (about 1/2 teaspoon in powder)

Steps to success:

1. Combine everything in a food pro (blender would work too)
2. Spin until a semi-chunky mess.
3. Pour over chicken.
4. Hmmmm….ok now it gets difficult….throw into the fridge for 4-6 hours and bake at 400 for 40 minutes or grill it up.

p.s. yes I know grammar and spelling still sucks and if it would have been perfect people would be calling foul……

One of my favorite new places to visit for ethnic culinary goodies is Al-Khyam Bakery & Grocery in Chicago. They bake the best pita I have ever had in my entire life! They supply pita to most of the restaurants here in Chicago that charge you a buck a pita – here, I get 6 for a buck. Oh sweet pita loving gods! I wonder if they offer a 12 step pita recovery program…

But I digress… last trip there I found my oldest dearest addictions…… one I had not seen in about 2 years – as it is NOT easy to find. Moghrabieh. Or maybe better known to you as Lebanese cous cous. Or maybe not even known to you at all which kinda makes this THE COOLEST BLOG POST EVER!

The addiction started a long long time ago with simple Moroccan couscous – made from semolina wheat, it is about the size of a pin head. Super easy to prepare and versatile. I then moved on to the beautiful pearl variety – also known as Israeli couscous. This variety is made of hard baked wheat and are about the size of a peppercorn, and it is said is pretty close to orzo… I like to saute it in a little ghee / butter before adding my veggies and broth so it gets a nice golden color and nutty toasted taste. Then one day I happened upon the Lebanese couscous variety. So. Freaking. Good. Also known as Moghrabieh, and are about 1/4 ” in diameter. I like to treat it as if it were little dumplings, or even risotto. This couscous variety takes patience… and if you suffer even SLIGHTLY from shiny object syndrome – is not a dish for you to even attempt. YesIAmLookingAtYouJeff…

The typical Chicken Paprikash is browned and then simmered covered in wine and broth till very tender. Then a dollop of sour cream makes it the feel good meal of the century. But sometimes I want that spicy smoky paprika taste on some crispy & juicy chicken. Save the simmering for another cold and blustery day NEXT WINTER!

What came first? The chicken or the rub?

Combine the following:

3 T smoked paprika
1 T kosher salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 t garlic powder
1 t cayenne powder
1/2 t pepper

You also need:

1 whole roasting chicken (3-4 #), but you can easily use quarters.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Rinse chicken under cold water and pat dry.

Gently loosen the skin from the chicken. Rub half the seasoning underneath the skin where possible. Rub the rest on the surface of the skin. Take any left over rub and sprinkle inside the cavity.

Place chicken in shallow roasting pan and place in oven.

While the chicken is roasting (which it will for about 45 minutes or until it is 165°) start the Moghrabieh. Which requires the following:

1 T olive oil
1 small sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 C Moghrabieh
3-4 cups chicken stock
juice of 1 lemon
2 T butter
1/2 cup fresh parsley (I used dried but it was all I had…)
Salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to taste.

Heat olive oil in saucepan and saute moghrabieh till slightly golden. Add the onions and garlic and continue to saute till soft.

Add 1/2 of the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Stir often. This is where your risotto skills will come into play so put down your blackberry, ignore the tv, stop playing video games… or guess what – MOGHRABIEH FAIL!

When you notice most of the broth has been absorbed, add about 1/2 c more. As I explained before – they have a bit of a dumpling texture to them… I did mention that right?… anyway… some people like mushy dumplings, some like them a little more firm. So in between adding the rest of the broth, be sure to taste and STOP when you like what you have. This can take up to 30 minutes… SO you there with the severe ADD – pop some fish oil before you attempt!

CHECK THAT CHICKEN! I bet it is done… Let sit for 10 minutes…

Okay… once you have achieved perfect moghrabieh status, stir in the butter, lemon juice, parsley, salt & pepper. Serve sprinkled with crushed red chili flakes, some more parsley and top with a nice big piece of chicken paprika. YUM!