Wingin' It Football Style

When the NFL playoffs start my husband craves wings...there is something about football and wings that just go together like biscuits and gravy. Well instead of purchasing the overpriced, extremely fattening and greasy wings...I chose to make them myself. How hard could it be? Turns out, it wasn't hard at all.

First you want to come up with an easy appetizer that you can entertain with before you serve up the delicious wings. Then choose which kind of wings you want to make. I decided I definitely wanted to do buffalo wings but wanted another option as well, I settled on sesame-soy sauce wings.

When you go to the grocery store you can either purchase regular wings or you can choose drumettes, which I did. I chose two packs of 30 drumettes for each flavor. Then the next most important part is your marinade and giving your wings enough time to marinate.

My easy appetizer was homemade raspberry jam and brie.

I served this on a beautiful cutting board, sliced some pieces of brie and placed a small dollop of jam on top with thin crackers...yum!

Sesame-Soy Sauce Wings
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp of freshly crushed ginger
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 fresh lemon (juiced)
salt
pepper
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 Tbsp olive oil
sesame seeds for garnish

Place wings in a deep bowl and pour over soy sauce, ginger, garlic, lemon and cilantro. Use your hands to coat the marinade all over the wings. Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate and let marinate for two hours. After the first hour re-mix to make sure the marinade is coating each wing evenly.

While those wings are marinading start the other set of wings:

Buffalo Wings
2 cups hot sauce
2 Tbsp worchestire sauce
cayenne pepper
salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

With the next batch of wings, place them in another deep bowl and pour over one cup of the hot sauce, worchestire and salt. Use your hands to make sure they have coated the wings, then cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge for two hours. Same as the first batch, after one hour re-coat the wings. Once the buffalo wings are done, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes on 350 degrees.

Bleu Cheese Sauce
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1 Tsp white wine vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 minced shallot
1 clove of minced garlic
1/4 lb bleu cheese
salt
pepper
celery sticks

While your wings are marinating, make your bleu cheese dip. Mix all the ingredients together and let merry in the fridge until ready to serve. Super easy! If you think the sauce is too thick, add more sour cream/mayo to thin it out.

Once the sesame wings are done marinading, place them on a greased baking sheet  and pour agave nectar on top to create a sticky sauce while they bake. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

When the buffalo wings are done, pour the remaining hot sauce on top and coat evenly. When the sesame wings are done baking sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Once all wings are cooled place on two platters for serving.

Simple Salad
arugula
dried cranberries
roughly chopped walnuts
goat cheese

For a simple salad with your hearty wings, mix all these ingredients together. Make sure to wash your arugula and get rid of the root. Add as much of the nuts, cheese and cranberries as you like. Serve with a simple lemony-olive oil dressing and voila a meal that will please any football watchin' man as well as his better half.

Enjoy! xoxo Lo