Buffalo Hot Wings

We love hot wings, but have you taken your family out for wings recently? You need a small loan to pay for the number of the little darlings it takes to feed everyone. Now when you have a family of Sasquatches like I do it is a real financial challenge.
So I set out to make my own. I have made them in the past but the problem was getting so many made and everyone fed at one time. I began with my typical research and after reading many recipes came up with this recipe that works GREAT and feeds everyone at the same time.

To feed my 6 grown Sasquatches and then 2 more Sasquatch friends I purchased 50 whole wings and after cleaning them and cutting them into their little parts I had 100 wings. Believe it or not we only had about 15 wings left after dinner. Shocking I know.

make sure you buy the Franks Original NOT the wing sauce.


Buffalo Hot Wings

Place all the cut up wings in a large bowl. We are going to marinate the wings for 8-24 hours before cooking them. Using FRANKS  RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce (this is the best) add just enough sauce to lightly coat the wings in the bowl. You don't want them swimming in the sauce just lightly coated. Then place them in a large zip lock bag. Place about 25 wing pieces per bag. Now Put a good coating of Cajun Seasoning (I used Ragin Cajun) and about half the amount of garlic powder over the wings then close the bag and shake and mix the wings with the cajun seasoning and place in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours.
When you are ready to cook them place a large heavy dutch oven or deep fryer (however you plan to fry your wings) over a flame and fill the pot half full with oil of your choice.  Bring the oil to 350 degrees. You want to try and keep the temperature of the oil as close to 350 degrees as you can during cooking. Layer three paper towels on counter and place the chicken pieces out on the paper towels (this is to absorb the liquid that may have collected on them.) You don't want to wipe them off because you will wipe away the seasoning. Just roll them over the paper towel and stack them. I separate them into piles of drummettes and wingettes because they cook for different times. You should have already cut these up. The wing tip should be discarded and the drummette and wingette separated from each other.



 Fry in batches depending on how large your pan is 6-8 at a time. You will fry the drummettes at 350 degrees for about 8 to 10 minutes (depending on the size of them.) and you will fry the wingettes about 8 minutes. Once they are fried drain and set aside. I drained mine and then place them in two seperate baking dishes. Once you have fried ALL your wings in batches and place in baking dishes set aside your pot of oil and make your wing sauce.

Turn oven on to 325 degrees

Hot Wing Sauce- This amount was perfect for the large amount of wings I made. It doesn't make a lot so you decide whether you want to half it or not.

1 23oz bottle of Franks Hot sauce
2 sticks of butter
2-4 good dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Place in sauce pan and heat to melt butter and combine.

Pour the sauce over the wings in the baking dishes and mix thoroughly to coat evenly. Place pans in heated oven for 15 minutes to heat the wings back up and to adhere the sauce to the wings. Once heated give them another good stir to coat them with the sauce on the bottom of the baking dishes. SERVE!

 

Shrimp Etouffee

Shrimp Etouffee.............what can I say......YUM! I lived down in the New Orleans area for a few years 21 or so years ago. My first son was born down there. Louisiana is an experience like none. You truly feel like you have left the country in many ways. The deep history and culture that exists down there is amazing. I will be honest with you I'm glad I don't live there anymore (the heat and humidity are terrible) but I'm also glad I got to spend a few years there to experience what Louisiana (New Orleans in particular) had to offer.
The food is a culinary dream. It is the best southern eating to be had. The fresh fish and shrimp (crawfish too) are amazing. I will be honest I was never able to make myself suck the head off a boiled crawfish.....just couldn't do it folks. I did however have wonderful food and experiences. Etouffee was one of my favorite foods. I was never much on the Gumbo or sucking the crawfish heads but give me a good bowl of Shrimp (or Crawfish) Etouffee and I was very content.
Basically Etouffee roughly translates to smothered, stewed, or braised. Etouffee translates to wonderful to me. I can't give direct credit for my recipe to any one person as I spent many hours reading recipes and putting together what appeared to be the best from them all. There are going to be some loyal Etouffee lovers who will not like some of what I put in mine as it breaks with tradition but adds up to wonderful. As you can imagine any one culture with deep roots in cooking and recipes might not appreciate having them altered. But good is good. Now I am going to try a couple of different things the next time I make this. Not because this wasn't great because it was GREAT! Just because I want to see what adding a couple of different ingredients I read about will do. For instance the "to add tomatoes" or not is a debate. I read a few recipes with Worcestershire sauce in them but I didn't use it. I also used clam juice. Horror of horrors for any native Louisianan. They aren't big into clams down there but they love a good oyster. The reason for the clam juice is I didn't want to hassle with making shrimp stock and so I used clam juice. Guess what it worked great. So if you are from Louisiana and I have irritated your sense of cooking loyalty I humbly apologize for that but I don't apologize for this great dish. Here's what I did......

THE SECRET TO A GOOD ETOUFFEE IS A GOOD ROUX. VERY IMPORTANT!

Shrimp Etouffee- Serves 10-12 generous (don't forget I feed a family of Sasquatches. Plus we like leftovers.)
Before I start cooking the etouffee I put my rice in my rice cooker and get it cooking. You want plenty of white rice to pour you shrimp etouffee over.

2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 red bell pepper, diced (how small is a personal thing. I prefer my pieces really small.)
1 orange (whatever color you want. I'm not a big green bell pepper person so I never use them.) bell pepper,diced.
2 Cups celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped (I will probably add more next time. But this amount was good.)
4 Cups onion, diced.
1 Cup bacon, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped parsley
1 1/2-2 Cups beer (I used Coors light because that is what I had.)
4 Cups clam juice
4 Cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
3 1/2 Tbl. Cajun Seasoning (I used Ragin' Cajun brand)
2 Cap fulls of crab/shrimp boil (this is spicy. Add more to taste. I used Zatarain's boil)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp. salt (to taste. check for seasoning at the end and then add this.)
good pinch of cayenne pepper
2 pounds shrimp (I purchased fresh caught never frozen shrimp. I had to clean and devein them.)

In a heavy stock pot placed over med-high heat add the bacon and cook till just done. Remove bacon and leave bacon drippings in pan. Turn heat down to med. and add both sticks of butter. After butter has melted add the flour and stir. It will seem thick and weird for a while as it cooks and starts to loosen up the bacon residue on bottom of the pan. After all that lifts it will thin out some. Stir constantly while the roux cooks and browns. This is very important to how your etouffee comes out. You don't want to cook your roux too quickly or under cook it or burn it. If you under cook it you lose a lot of flavor. If you over cook it your etouffee will taste burnt. So low and slow. This can take 15-30 minutes depending on your stove and pot etc... Stir constantly till it is a rich caramel color (or little darker than the color of peanut butter.) Once it hits the stage of browing it will go quickly so be alert. Once it hits this stage add in your bells peppers, onion, celery (this is considered the "Holy Trinity" in Louisiana cooking.) Add the garlic, cooked bacon and parsley. Stir this all around in the roux and cook for a couple of minutes. Then deglaze your pan with the beer and add all the clam juice and chicken broth. Stir to get roux dissolved and then add bay leaves, cajun seasoning, shrimp boil, white pepper, ceyanne and stir. Save the salt for later. Right now it will taste highly seasoned but the flavors mellow a lot during cooking. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer slowly for about 30 minutes stirring often as the veggies will have a tendency to sink to the bottom and you don't want them to stick. While this is simmering clean your shrimp and I cut each one up into a bite size peice. Your sauce will thicken to a wonderful gravy consistency. Once your there throw in the raw cleaned shrimp and allow to cook another 10 minutes or so. Then taste for salt. I did add 1 tsp. of salt and ended up salting it again after if was on my rice. Just follow your taste buds here.
Thats it kids. Shrimp Etouffe. I'm going to play around with it some by adding the tomatoes (very little) and maybe a dash of Worcestershire sauce (my sister-in-law would be proud. She loves her some Worcestershire sauce. Sending the love to Sandra.)
Anyway serve over cooked white rice. We had this with some fresh baked artisan bread with a great Wisconsin butter and cold beer. Was a great meal.

Cajun Blackened Chicken Alfredo

The first time I had Cajun Chicken Alfredo was at a great little diner not far from my house. OMG!!!! was it delish. I happen to love pasta Alfredo so this was just a beautiful twist on what is a wonderful perfect dish to begin with.
I have to give credit to the inspiration for this version to Guy Fieri from Food Network. His recipe inspired me to create one that works for our family. I would say the same to you. Take it love it and make it your own. We had this with the Cheddar biscuits I have listed on my blog and a cold glass of white wine. It made for a wonderful meal.

Again as always I double this for my growing family of Sasquatches. Enjoy!

Cajun Chicken Alfredo- Serves 4 (whaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaa)
Kosher salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts ( you can blacken and cook these whole or cut up into bite size pieces and blacken and cook. If you cut them up you wont have to use the oven to finish cooking them.)
1 Cup of blackening spice (whatever floats your boat. We like Paul Prudhommes blackening seasoning mix. We like all his products. You can't go wrong with Chef Paul.)
Drizzle of olive oil
2 Tbl. olive oil
3 Tbl. chopped garlic
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil (optional)
(I don't add this but you can throw in some chopped bell pepper if it suits your taste)
1/4 cup white wine (to deglaze the pan. Don't skip the wine if you can help it. Wine is a great flavor component. If you just can't use it deglaze with a little chicken broth.)
3 Cups heavy cream
3/4 Cup (more to your liking) grated Parmesan cheese (use the good stuff if you can, it is much better than the stuff in the plastic bottle.)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 pound cooked fettuccine noodles (any noodle you like will work.)

chopped green onions (for garnish. I will be honest, I don't do this often. I don't have to worry about my Sasquatches liking what I cook. They don't need bumped up eye appeal.)



If you are going to cook the chicken breasts whole then turn your oven on to 350 degrees.
Put your pasta water onto boil.
Leaving whole or slice chicken into bite size pieces and coat in blackening seasoning. In cast iron skillet add a little olive oil. Not too much as the chicken wont blacken properly if you put too much. Just enough so that the chicken won't stick. Heat the cast iron skillet up over high heat and then add the chicken. If whole you will cook it till it blackens and then turn (it wont cook through so after it is blackened on both sides you will have to take the pan and put it in the oven for 8-10 minutes to finish cooking the chicken.) When done slice on bias and set aside. If you are cooking the pieces then just cook them till they are dark and remove to a bowl and set aside till later.
Add 2 Tbl. olive oil to a large pot and fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes(you would also add the bell pepper if using at this time.) Then add the sun dried tomatoes and chicken pieces. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Add in the heavy cream and simmer to reduce the cream by 1/4 to 1/2.  When the sauce is the consistency you like add in 1/2-3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When pasta is done drain and add to the pan of sauce and toss together. Add cheese to taste.