Cumin wings on sweet potato spinach salad

 

I love chicken wings...and so I bought some. I was too lazy to mince garlic for some honey garlic wings (plus I can't really eat the honey right now) so I went with my next favorite flavor which is curry/cumin wings. There was a random sweet potato in my fridge so this got worked in as well.

Chicken Wings

Cumin

Soy sauce

Coconut sugar (or any sugar you want....I just used a slight pinch though normally I'd probably use a tbsp or two)

Salad:

Gouda cheese

Sweet potato - cubed and pan seared in butter

Spinach

Dressing:

Grainy mustard

Olive oil

Cider vinegar

a couple drops of Stevia (plant based, zero glycemic index, sweetener)

It was a nice hearty salad. The sweet potato was filling when paired with some meat. Yum.

Soy Sauce Wings

My favorite kind of chicken growing up was soy sauce chicken. I could eat a couple bowls of rice with it. So why not make it for my favorite part of a chicken only: the wings!

Marinade:
Light soy sauce (for the saltiness)
Dark soy sauce (for the dark golden color)
Brown sugar
Rice Wine
Cinnamon
Pepper
Ginger
Garlic

I didn't have these on hand, but would be great to add into the marinade as well:
Star anise
Green onion
Chinese five spice powder

Key is to cook it on medium low heat (30 min to cook)...never past a simmer or the wings dry out. You can use the same marinade on a whole chicken, just be sure to flip the chicken every 15 minutes (~1.25 hrs total). The delicious marinade doesn't have to go to waste either...you can strain it and freeze the liquid for use the next time...just re-add the ginger, garlic, star anise, etc. The flavors just get richer with time. YUM.

Wings!

I <3 chicken wings. Big time. I could never turn down an offer of wings. There's so many ways and recipes to marinate them and it just so happens I also love trying out different flavors. An easy way to prepare wings is to marinate them in a baggie then freeze it. When you want to use it, just defrost and cook...it's perfect whether you pan fry, BBQ, bake or smoke it.

I bought a big package of wings from Costco yesterday. After roughly dividing them into three bags, I prepared the marinades. They are (from left bag to right):

Left:
The Quick BBQ Marinade

Center:
Curry/Garam Masala mix
Cumin
Paprika
Sugar
Salt

Right:
Date honey
Soy Sauce (light and dark)
Garlic
Sesame Oil

Can't wait to eat these!

Quick BBQ Marinade

I've only made BBQ sauce from scratch once. It's a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. And like most people, we don't have that kind of time. So this is my quick BBQ marinade:

Store bought BBQ sauce
Ketchup
Sriracha

In whatever combination you find tasty.
So far...it works every time to produce tasty wings or ribs.