Best Wings Ever?

My sis swears my wings are the best she’s ever had.  Ever?  I find it really hard to believe.  First, Hooters wings are just crazy awesome (don’t judge).  And have you had the goods at Outback Steakhouse?  Next level!  So when she looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Yes!  Your wings are the best I’ve ever had!”  I assigned myself with the task of getting this wing-ipe (wing + recipe?) down on paper for her, and well, everyone.  Just to be clear, I don’t believe that my wings are the best.  But I will say they are pretty bomb…..especially with a burning cold Blue Moon to wash ‘em down ;)

Michee’s Favorite Buffalo Wings (makes 12 pieces)

Wings

1 Dozen Fresh Whole Wings

Salt

Pepper

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Onion Powder

½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Sugar

1 Cup Flour

Oil for Frying

Buffalo Sauce

3 TB Butter

2 Garlic Cloves chopped fine

½ tsp Crushed Red Pepper

1 tsp Onion Powder

½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Chili Powder

½ tsp Smoked Paprika

¾ Cup of your favorite Louisiana style hot sauce

Honey

Salt

I know it can be easy to reach for that bag of frozen wings and drumettes.  If it is, go for it.  Just make sure to thaw them out and pat them dry before moving on.  Lay your wings out on a clean sheet tray or cutting board and season both sides evenly with Salt and Pepper.  In a small bowl, combine the Garlic and Onion Powders, Cayenne, Chili Powder, and Sugar.  Mix well and sprinkle evenly on both sides of your wings.  You may not use the entire mix depending on the size of your wings.  This just means make more wings!

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and toss your wings, 4 or 5 at a time, to coat.  You don’t want to cake it on, just a nice thin layer will do.  We’re looking for the slightest bit of crunch here.  Once covered, pat off the excess flour and place on a rack or paper towel lined sheet tray.  Let sit in your fridge for at least one hour.  This gives the seasoning time to penetrate the meat as well as have the flour adhere to the wing instead of fall into your fryer.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt your butter until the bubbles subside.  Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.  Do not let this burn.  Your sauce will be bitter.  If the garlic begins to brown too quickly, lower the heat or remove the pan from the flame to cool.  Once the garlic is translucent, add the Crushed Pepper, Onion Powder, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Powder, and Smoked Paprika.  Toast the spices for another minute then add your hot sauce.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Add enough honey to balance the sauce (you’ll know what I mean when you do it) and season to taste with Salt.  Honey is the great equalizer of the kitchen.  It provides a great mid-range note that can really bring out character and body in your food.  Now, this sauce will break.  Guaranteed.  So just before saucing, give it a good whisking to re-emulsify it.  As it cools, it will lose its tendency to break.

To finish, bring a pot of oil up to 360F.  Place your wings in one at a time.  Depending on the size of your pot, you may want to add 4 wings or 8 wings at a time.  Just don’t crowd your cooking vessel.  Doing this will drop your oil temperature, which in turn will force your wings to soak up the oil instead of cooking in it.  There’s a long explanation for this, but we’ll discuss another time.  Cook your wings for 7-8 minutes then set on a wire rack over some paper towels when done.  You can put this loaded rack into a warm oven to stay hot while you finish cooking the rest of your wings.  Be sure to let your oil return to 360F before adding another load.  When all your wings are done, spoon some of your sauce into the bottom of a large mixing bowl, drop in a few wings, spoon on more sauce (how much is entirely up to you), and toss to coat evenly.  Keep tossing, you want good coverage here.

Serve your delicious, crispy wings with your favorite ranch or blue cheese dressing and an extremely cold beer.  And don’t forget to call your sis over to help you take care of these bad boys.  I hope you enjoyed this recipe ‘cuz it was pretty fun to write.  And as always, if you ever find yourself lost in the kitchen, give us a shout and we’ll do our best to help you find your way :)  Belly…out!

Steak Me!

 “How do you cook your steak?”  I get this question all the time.  Here at Belly, we’ve dreamed up tons of ways to manipulate proteins.  Low and slow cook times, dry aging, and smoking (Mmmmmmm) to name a few.  But really, how much time are we willing to spend when we want to sit down to a proper steak dinner?  Not much time at all.  All we have to do is follow a few easy steps:

Quality

There’s a reason your steakhouse cut kills the local Sizzler time and time again.  Where you source your meat is extremely important.  You’ll need a steak with decent marbling, or a good amount of fat throughout the flesh.  You’ll also want to make sure the color is deep and matte looking.  Wet, shiny steaks are not properly hung to dry.  You’re buying water weight, which will actually steam in the pan instead of sear.  Find yourself a good butcher and feel free to ask questions.

Temper

As mentioned in the previous post, bringing your meat to room temp will keep your steak from turning to chalk on the surface while finishing the inside.  We want a beautiful, crusty brown exterior, but we also want a cooked interior.  By pulling your steak out an hour or so before cooking, we’re getting it closer to our desired finished temp without damaging the steak in the process.  You can’t lose, that is unless you’ve decided to leave your meat out for more than 4 hours.  Bad move, homie.

Season

Sorry, but I’ll never tell you exactly how much salt to use unless we’re baking.  Salt comes in many forms, brands, salinity levels, and flavors.  Not to mention, we all have our own taste when it comes to the zesty mineral.  What I will tell you is when to season.  I like dropping salt on my steak about 10 minutes before it’s going to hit the pan.  This draws out excess moisture from the surface.  Moisture that will turn sear into steam.  Right before you put your steak in the pan, dab it with dry paper towels then sprinkle on another thin layer of seasoning.  This way, you’ve used salt as both a tool and a flavor component.  Great job, chef!  Now you’re ready to cook.

Cook

You’ll need a hot stainless or cast iron pan.  Non-stick won’t give you the results you’re after.  There’s an entire scientific explanation involving the Maillard reaction for this.  But we’ll save that for…never.  A touch of oil will do just fine.  Once the pan and oil are up to heat, drop your steak in and leave it alone.  It doesn’t need to be massaged, caressed, poked, talked to, or even looked at.  It needs time with the pan.  Don’t get jealous, she’s gonna end up with you in the end ;)

Now, your steak has been going for a good two, maybe three minutes.  It’s time to intervene.  Using a spatula or cooking spoon, flip that steak over.  Your first side should have a sizzling brown crust.  And your mouth should now be watering.  But we’re not done yet!  Take a garlic clove and give it a quick smash with the flat of your knife.  Drop it in the pan along with a couple sprigs of thyme and a knob of butter.  Tilt your pan so that all of these things meet and flavor the butter.  After a few seconds, use a large spoon to baste your steak with the melted garlic-thyme butter sauce you just created.

Is it done?  Huh, is it?  Hey mister!

Knowing when a steak is done is usually reserved for full fledged Jedi.  Yes, these ARE the steaks we’re looking for.  How do you know if your steak is raw?  Poke your raw steak and you’ll know.  You’ve had an overcooked steak before, right?  We all have.  It’s rubbery and dense.  So now we have our two extremes.  Depending on where you want to end up, just find a point in between those two examples.  There are exact temperatures for doneness (rare: 125, mid-rare: 130, med: 140, well: 160), but cooking a steak doesn’t have to be about getting out your mad scientist gadgets.  It’ll take you a couple times, but once you start feeling for doneness, you’ll start to feel like you can see right through that steak.  The force is strong with you.  Just don’t go over to the dark side by burning your meat!

And for those thick slabs, feel free to finish them in a low oven.  It’ll keep the exterior from burning while it cooks through.   Don’t trip, you can thank me later.

Rest

So, I know it looks amazing and you’re really hungry.  But if you cut into that bad boy right out of the gate all of your hard work will be lost.  See, your steak is like a giant wet rag (okay, now you’re not hungry anymore).  But as you apply heat to protein it starts to tighten up.  This reaction leaves the moisture in the steak with few options.  Cutting it now will only give it the option of spilling out onto your cutting board, just like wringing out a wet rag.  Instead, tent it loosely with some foil and wait 5 to 10 minutes.  This gives the meat time to relax and allows those juices to settle back in.  You’ll be glad you did.  When you do cut it, make sure it’s against the grain.  Longer strands of protein will only take longer to chew.  And yes, that butter sauce tastes great on your cut steak.

I hope this entry has helped you.  And as always, if you find yourself lost in the kitchen, just hit us up and we’ll help you find your way.  Stay classy, Los Angeles!

Teach me the ways of the grill, Obi-Wan.

With Summer upon us, the urge to take the kitchen outdoors is met with excitement and well, a little hesitation.  The flame spitting grill can be a bit intimidating.  But armed with a few tips and techniques, you’ll look and feel like a pro while pleasing you and your guests with mass quantities of deliciousness.

The Grill

Charcoal or Gas, the grill is a beast that can wear many hats.  She’s an oven, a smoker, a lean mean burger searing machine.  All you need to do is learn how to set her up for each of these modes.

Heat  zones are your friend.  Really!

By creating zones on your grill, you’re setting yourself up for quick searing and quick evacuation of foods.  Hot heat is nice, but not when it burns your dinner.  Thick burgers, chicken, and sausage do well with an initial sear over super hot coals and then a slow finish over few or no coals.

To setup zones, simply place more of your hot coals on one side while placing fewer (or none) on the other.  This will allow you to sear off meats and move them over to the cooler side to finish at a slower pace.  On a gas grill, just turn on some of your burners while leaving others off.  Or you can turn them all on to sear and lower them to finish.

My grill is an oven?  You so crazy!

According to the Belly encyclopedia of cooking, an oven is any enclosed vessel capable of reaching a desired temperature in an effort to cook foods to your liking.  Simple enough.  So how do we accomplish this with a grill?  Easy.  Just scatter a half amount of glowing charcoal on one side of your rig.  If you’re using gas, just turn on one or two elements opposite from your food.  Get a balanced temperature inside your rig, insert your food on the cool side, and cover.  Drop a couple lumps of fresh coal on the glowing coals every 30-45 minutes to keep the heat going.  Yes, a thermometer on your grill and in your food is ideal, but you can still work without it.  After a couple runs you should be a seasoned pro.

So how much lighter fluid should I soak my coals in?

Let’s try none.  Chimney starters are a beautiful way to get your fire going.  They’re those steel cylinders you drop charcoal into and crumpled newspapers underneath.  I’m not a fan of newspaper because it creates a huge amount of ash and doesn’t really stay lit.  Instead, I use paper towels drizzled with a little cooking oil.  Just fill up your chimney with your preferred coal, tuck your dressed paper towels underneath, place the whole thing on top of your grill and give the paper a light.  Your coals should be ready for cooking in 40 minutes or so.

Always wait for the fire to die before dropping hot coals into your rig.  Cooking over flaming coals will destroy your food (a.k.a. burn your dinner).  You want gray coals that you can hold your hand over for at least 3-4 seconds.  Don’t forget to let the fire melt the gunk on your grates and to bust out the brush before dropping new food.  That old hot dog grease is not sexy…trust me.

In the words of Pauley Shore, “Hot on the outside, icesicle in the middle”.

Don’t let Pauley Shore down.  Just like in your home kitchen, temper meats before committing them to heat.  A super cold piece of meat will brown beautifully, but by the time the outside is done, you’ve got some serious rawness to deal with inside.  Our goal is to get the color on the outside to meet up with a juicy cooked interior at about the same time.  So feel free to pull your larger meats out of the cooler an hour or more before cooking.  But never leave any perishable foods out longer than 4 hours.

And now, a recipe to test your new found grilling skills…

Garlic & Herb Marinated Chicken

8 Chicken Thighs (Bone in, Skin on)

1 Bunch Sage

1 Bunch Parsley

4 Garlic Cloves

Olive Oil

1 TB Honey

Salt

Pepper

Clean and chop all of your herbs until you can’t chop no more.  Make a garlic paste by chopping your garlic, sprinkling it with salt, and then smashing it with the flat side of your blade until smooth.  Mix all of these together with honey and enough olive oil to form a thin paste.  This can all be accomplished in a food processor for those in the know.

Next, season both sides of your chicken with salt and pepper.  I can’t tell you how much cuz all chickens come in different shapes and sizes.  You’ll have to rely on your culinary expertise for this step.

Put your chicken in a zip-top bag and add the marinade.  Smoosh the bag around to distribute the goodness.  Yeah, I said smoosh.  Then squeeze as much air out as possible, seal the bag, place in a bowl or tray, and let sit in your fridge overnight.

The moment of truth!  While the coals are being lit, be sure to pull your chicken out of the fridge to come to room temp.  Light up that grill and create a hot zone on one side and a medium low zone on the other.  When you can stand the heat for more than 3 or 4 seconds with your hand an inch over the grill, it’s time to cook.

Lay your thighs skin side down over the hot side of the grill.  After that, just walk away.  Well, stick around.  Just don’t poke at the food.  Once the skin has a nice brown hue to it, flip the thighs.  Continue until brown then move the thighs to the lower heat zone to finish cooking.  You want an internal temp of 160 F before removing from the heat.  Pull your chicken off and cover with aluminum foil to finish cooking.  Let stand 10-15 minutes before digging in.  Serve with rice, veggies, chopped up in a wrap, or just straight up.  Yeah, it’s that good.

Happy Grilling!

-Belly of the Beast