Buffalo Wing Pizza

I struggled with the name for this post. I wanted to call it "Man Pizza" because it definitely meets the definition of whatMatt considers man food. But I decided that "Man Pizza" wasn't descriptive enough. So here we go with Buffalo Wing Pizza!

I made this pizza with pre-made frozen popcorn chicken. I'm normally not too keen on frozen food, but we had a coupon for these and I decided to try them. They were actually really good! That being said, if you don't want to get frozen chicken, you could make your own buffalo wings with my recipe for Boneless Buffalo Wings or you could even grill some chicken and cut it in to strips.

Buffalo Wing Pizza
Makes: 1 large pizza

1 package pre-made pizza dough
1/3 cup wing sauce (such as Frank's)
8 oz package of shredded pizza cheese (mozzarella and cheddar blend)
2 oz crumbled blue cheese
8 oz popcorn chicken
8 oz bacon
Cornmeal

• On a surface coated with cornmeal, roll out the pizza dough. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet or pizza pan that has been lightly greased and coated with cornmeal. Set aside and allow the dough to rise for about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, crisp the bacon. See my Tips & Tricks about how to cook bacon. Once cooked, chop up the bacon then set aside.
• Cook the popcorn chicken according to the directions. Mine took about 20 minutes. Once cooked, chop up any pieces of chicken that are too big. You want them all to be bite sized.
• Prick the pizza dough with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming in the dough (FYI: this is called "docking").
• Spread the wing sauce evenly over the pizza dough. Feel free to use more or less, depending on how spicy you want it.
• Sprinkle the entire package of pizza cheese over the pizza. Top with blue cheese, then bacon, then the chicken. If you're really crazy (like my husband) you can even toss the chicken in some wing sauce before you put it on the pizza.
• Bake the pizza at 375° F for 25 - 30 minutes until the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown.
• Allow to cool for about 2 minutes before serving.

If you're not sure what to do with your left-over blue cheese, check out my recipe for Black & Bleu Cheeseburgers.

Asian Wings Two Ways

Matt and I love chicken wings. Whenever we eat them, I'll make half with buffalo sauce and half with some other kind of sauce. Because you can't make wings without at least some of them being buffalo style. I'm pretty sure that's sacrilege. The "other" half of the wings are usually something sweet like sweet chili, teriyaki, barbecue, etc. A few nights ago I was in the mood to try making my own sauce. So, I thought I'd give it a try!

The Wings:
I actually prefer to bake my wings. Which may seem weird, but I've actually found that they come out crispier when I bake them versus deep frying them.

15 chicken wings cut into separate wingettes and drumettes (30 pieces total)
Cooking spray

• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• Lay chicken wings in a single layer on a baking sheet then spray with a very thin layer of cooking spray. This will help make the wings crispy.
• Bake for 45 minutes.

If you're unfamiliar with separating chicken wings, here's a quick tutorial you can watch: How to Cut & Separate Chicken Wings into Sections for Buffalo Wings
Bonus: the guy's glasses are pretty epic. Enjoy.

Chinese Five Spice Wings:

These are actually so simple I'm almost embarrassed to call it a recipe. It's really more of an idea for a flavor combination than it is a recipe. Anyway, here you go:

1/2 Tsp Chinese Five Spice
10 Chicken wings (5 wingettes, 5 drumettes)

• In a large bowl, toss the cooked wings in Chinese Five Spice as soon as they come out of the oven.
• There is no second step. I just wanted another bullet point.
• I guess the next step could be to eat them. Yes. Eat them. Eaaat themmmmm.

Hoisin Glazed Wings:

If you've never had hoisin sauce, it's sometimes referred to as Chinese barbecue sauce. Though it tastes nothing like barbecue sauce. But you can use it in the same applications and it's relatively sweet. You can find it almost anywhere in the Asian section. I got mine at Walmart.

2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

10 Chicken wings (5 wingettes, 5 drumettes)

• In a large bowl, whisk together the Hoisin, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and honey.
• Toss the wings in the sauce as soon as they come out of the oven.
• Return the wings to the baking sheet and bake for another 5 minutes.

What to do with the other 10 chicken wings? Toss them in buffalo sauce!!!

Boneless Buffalo Wings

Here it is! You knew it was coming eventually! My recipe for boneless buffalo wings...

Not surprisingly, Matt asked me to make him buffalo wings for Father's Day haha. I've been perfecting this recipe over the last year. I've had a hard time finding the right amount of cornstarch to give the wings crunch without giving them a gritty texture. I've slowly adjusted the mixture of spices as well. Sometimes, it takes time and perseverance to perfect a recipe. Tonight was the night. These were perfect and I definitely won't be making any more changes.

Boneless Buffalo Wings
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1  1/2 Cups flour
1/2 Cup cornstarch
2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp cracked black pepper
1 Tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 Tsp paprika
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp milk

• Preheat deep fryer to 375° F.
• Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and paprika.
• Whip the eggs then combine with the milk.
• Trim the chicken breasts then cut into 1 inch cubes.
• Toss the chicken in the flour mixture, then toss in the egg wash, then toss in the flour mixture again. - You can toss the chicken in the egg wash and flour one more time if you like thicker breading. Matt and I prefer the breading to be a little bit on the thin side.
• Fry the chicken wings in the deep fryer until golden brown and cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. - Generally, when deep frying, your food will start to float to the top when it's cooked.
• Drain the chicken wings on a cooling rack over top of some newspaper to catch the grease. Allow to cool for about 2 minutes.
• Toss with your favorite sauce. We like Frank's Buffalo Sauce and Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce.

How not to grill

Erica, this post is for you.

One thing that I have learned about cooking and life in general is that you are going to fail sometimes. And it's ok. What's important is that you learn from your mistakes. Even with my years of experience in cooking, I still mess up (quite a bit). But I've never regretted any of my mistakes because they were all learning experiences. Today, I'll share one of those experiences with you.

A couple of weeks ago, we had some friends over for dinner. Matt and I love chicken wings so I decided that some wings on the grill would be delicious. I was so proud of myself. I made a delicious marinade of olive oil and garlic and marinated the wings all day. Once they were cooked, I was going to toss them in some buffalo sauce. These were going to be great.

I've made chicken wings at least 100 times in my life. However, I usually bake them. I've never grilled wings before. I know that I always bake wings at 375° F for 45 minutes. So, I figured since the grill is direct heat (which cooks food faster), I would cook them on medium and reduce the time to about 30 minutes. 

No.

My poor wings were obliterated. There was literally nothing left of them. They were charcoal haha. Good thing I made lots of pasta salad... So, next time I'm going to try low heat for about 15 - 20 minutes. I'll let you know how that turns out.