I LOVE meat. Vegetarians at this point, you might want to look away because this week, it’s all about meat.
Two of my favorite kinds of meat are chicken wings (preferably fried or as hot wings) and ribs (short rib, baby-back or spareribs). I could and would eat wings and ribs everyday if I wasn’t afraid that they would clog my arteries and kill me.
Hot Wings
My favorite style of wing is the “hot” wing. A hot wing is
a chicken wing section (wingette or drumette) that is generally deep-fried, unbreaded, and coated in vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce and butter. They are traditionally served hot, along with celery sticks and/or carrot sticks with blue cheese dressing for dipping. – Buffalo Wing, Wikipedia
When making hot wings, I like to deviate in two distinct ways from the standard way of cooking the wings. After seasoning the wings with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika, I line them on a baking rack over a baking sheet and back them in a 375® oven for 30-40 minutes, flipping them over around 15 to 20 minutes into the baking. While the wings are baking, I mix three different hot sauces (regular, chipotle and green jalapeno) with a tablespoon of butter and cook on the stove until well combined. I never measure how much of each I put into the sauce, but I’ve ordered them based on which one has the most to which has the least amount added to make the sauce delicious. If i had to guesstimate a ratio, I would say 80% regular, 15% chipotle and 5% green jalapeno. Once the wings have cooked through, I basted them in the sauce at least 2-3 times and baked for an additional 5 minutes between each basting. Each time you make them, these wings taste different every time I make them.
Baby Back Ribs (I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back!)
My favorite style of rib is barbecued. There are four distinct styles of barbecue Kansas City style, Memphis style, Texas style and Carolina style. Kansas style, which tends to be a thick tomato based sauce with quite a bit of brown sugar, is my favorite style of barbecue.
When making ribs, I always like to start with a making barbecue sauce at least one day in advance. This allows the flavors in the sauce to meld together and form a smooth sauce. For the ribs, I like to marinade them in a dry rub at least overnight. For this particular rack, I mixed two rubs, the Herb Coffee and Ancho Chicken rub, that I purchase from west elm Market a while ago. I baked the ribs in a 400® oven for 40 minutes, flipping them over around 15 to 20 minutes into the baking. After this, I basted them in the sauce at least 2-3 times and baked for an additional 8 minutes between each basting.
The wings and ribs were absolutely delicious and at the end of this baking spree, I had enough food for two for the whole week.
What are your favorite meats to cook and what style of cooking do you usually use to cook the meat? Vegetarians, if you made it this far, what are your favorite meat substitutes and how do you tend to cook it?
Savory Sweet Neat 