Sunday, February 13, 2011

Chicken Happens

For whatever reason, I'm all about the chicken these days.
There's a wonderful purveyor of spit-roasted chickens of the desirable type (local, free-range, tasty) at our farmers market, so we often get a whole or a half bird and save ourselves the trouble (and frequent doom) of roasting it ourselves.
But I'm getting my chicken mojo. I am. Chicken wings.
Nothing new here; I've talked about them before. But I discovered the amusing thing about roasting teeny, petite wings: They take as long to cook as a whole bird!
Anecdote: I once interviewed a marvelous artist for a story. She makes miniature ceramic vessels (teapots, urns), as detailed and fabulous as "real" pots. I made the stupid assumption that, because of their diminutive proportions, they would spend a lot less time firing in the kiln. No! She said that it's a physical process, that the porcelain "takes as long as it takes" to get done, no matter how small.
And so with the wings. They are teeny, but they need oven time.
OK, here's what we ate. Wings coated with grated Parmesan mixed with Dijon mustard. Baked, 350ºF for an hour. So yummy. In an homage to Buffalo wings, we served celery sticks, and since there was no hot sauce on the chicken, the blue cheese dip was mixed with Frank's RedHot sauce. Wow, that worked.

10 comments:

Greg said...

Gads they do take forever!

Chilebrown said...

I am impressed.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Chookie wings are delish for the whole family. The little tips go to the pets (raw) and you cook the rest.
You're right about the timing too, it does take an hour.

cookiecrumb said...

Greg: But you just pop them in and forget about them. Such good snacking.

Chilebrown: You are? Hm! I bet you like the idea of the cheese/mustard "glaze." It turns into a perfect crust.

Mouse: I know wings are in your menu rotation every so often. I love the approbation.
We don't do a raw diet for the dog here. I know it's very, well, I hate to say popular. But I know it's a big thing. The wings we buy have no tips... I hope they were put to good use elsewhere.

David said...

Please try the wings at Pier 15 in San Rafael...addictive and I need to replicate. Not too hot, some hney maybe?

cookiecrumb said...

David: OMG. I love Pier 15. I think I've had their wings, but it's been a long time. Thanks for the reminder! See you there.

Chilebrown said...

Just a follow up. I have never had wings take an hour. You know you could turn up your vessel. Low and slow does not work on little tiny wings. You knew that.

cookiecrumb said...

Chilebrown: I don't know much at all about roasting chicken. People continue to tease me. Can't help it. This works on the wings. (In this oven, for what it's worth.)

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Raw food for pets is trendy? Really? O wow, I'm with it, at last :)

cookiecrumb said...

Mouse: Raw food is downright culty among some people. I've been scolded for feeding kibbles! You are indeed with it, but not scoldy, no.