Come fly away...with Buffalo!

Before you read this, I know. I NEED to start taking more pictures. I will. I promise. This is still new to me! So here's my first recipe. So easy but soooo good.

As much as I love pizza, buffalo wings are my favorite food. I have been to the birthplace (Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY), I have had the best (Duffs in Toronto, Canada and Amherst, NY) and have been around NYC to find the best (I haven't found anything that beats Down the Hatch in the Village). My obsession with wings began in college, along with many other obsessions (beer for one). 25¢ wing night was a staple with my friends. Every Monday night, at Mcgillicuddys in New Paltz, NY, we would down a hundred wings, many pitchers of beer, watch some football, get some more drinks across the street then some how get to class the next day.

After school we wanted to keep up with wings. For the Stuperbowl, we would order from the Anchor Bar who would overnight the wings. All you need to do is heat them up. They were a great treat but at $1 per wing (after shipping) it was expensive. I decided there has to be a way to make your own.

It turns out it's one of the easiest recipes to make and out amazing wings. I first started off with just deep frying and coating them. They were good but the meat never really seemed done properly. They were cooked but still stringy. Then came my revelation, baking them first.


Super Easy and Delicious Buffalo Style Wings
Serves 7-10

Ingredients:
10Lbs (apprx 35) Chicken Wings (drummette and wing)
1 Bottle (12 Oz) Franks Original Red Hot
1 Cup (2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter
2 Quarts Canola or Peanut Oil
Frank's Xtra Red Hot to taste
Salt and Pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 375 deg.
2. Wash then separate the wing and drummette, and remove the wing tip (there is no edible meat there)
3. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper and a spray lubricated rack. Place the wings, skin side up, on the rack.
4. Lightly salt and pepper the chicken.
5. Place in the oven for about 40-45 minutes or until just starting to brown.
6. Put the oil in a large heavy pot or deep fryer and heat to 375 deg.
7. While the chicken is cooking, in a medium pot melt the butter and mix in the Frank's Red Hot. Add the Xtra Red hot to desired spiciness (really spicy, add 1/2 cup of the xtra red hot).
8. Take the wings out of the oven and let cool to room temperature.
9. 4-5 at a time, place the wings in the hot oil until a nice, dark golden brown (about 4-5 min). Make sure to keep the temperature up, not letting it fall below 350. If the temperature falls too much turn up the burner and reduce the amount of wings you put in the oil.
10. Remove the wings and briefly drain.
11. Add one batch of wings and 1/4 cup of the sauce in mixing bowl, cover and shake for 30 seconds.

Serve hot.

Do NOT put them in a gas oven to keep hot. When natural gas burns it emits water vapor which makes foods soggy. An electric oven is fine.

PIZZA!!! And tests. Yes, I'm a geek.

Man, I love pizza. My obsession with it goes back years. I remember the first pizza I tried to make from scratch. It was hard as a rock and had no taste. The thing is, through the years and different recipes, that didn't change. All of this was pre-Food Network.

Pretty quickly Good Eats became my favorite show and Alton Brown was the man. He had this way of making pizza crust like I've never seen before. Cold rising. So I try it. It's better but I still can't seem to get it right, at least not as fluffy and chewy like he has it. Although he does turn me on to instant yeast instead of Rapid Rise Yeast which happens to be a big eye opener. The search continues.

Somewhat recently and rather deflated with the choice of pizza crusts I have found I try that there interweb. A Google search for "The best pizza crust recipe" turns up a TON of hits. One catches my eye though, "Mitch's Basic Pizza Dough". After reading it I find it's a little different than the rest. It uses honey instead of sugar and, what surprised me more, uses All Purpose flour instead of Bread flour. It surprised me because everything I have read about pizza crust is that bread flour gives that chewiness that is so prized in crusts. So I give it a shot. It's actually really good. Has a nice rise, it's tasty, and crisps well. I do have to make some adjustments to the recipe since I use a stand mixer and in the recipe he uses a food processor and his hands.

I want to do some tests. Instead of AP flour I want to try it with bread flour. I make two identical doughs the same way, nothing different, except one is with AP and one with bread flour. The AP came out better than the last time I made it. It was fluffy and thin. The bread flour crust was interesting. It had a better taste and a better crisp when you bite in to it..the AP one had a little staleness in the bite. So in general I like qualities of both with the AP one being a bit better.

The next test? Mixing one cup bread flour with 2 cups AP (I only use 3 cups of flour as opposed to 3.5 in the recipe). After that sifting...will that make a difference?

When all is said and done I'll post my recipe..or what will probably be an altered Mitch's recipe

I'll let you know how it turns out.

PS - while creating this post I found out that Mitch has given props to his business partner's pizza crust who basically did what I am doing, except hundreds of times. She uses Semolina flour which IS the way you are supposed to do it. I will try that but I want to make a dough that most people can make with degrediants that they will most likely have.