Spicy Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing
Sadly, I can't eat these with the same abandon I used to but they're still on the menu and that's all that counts. This is a quick modified version of classic "Buffalo Chicken Wings," using original Franks® Red Hot® sauce. The difference: almost no fat. By eliminating the butter and frying and by removing all traces of excess chicken fat and most of the skin, calories are reduced significantly. The blue cheese dressing makes a nice accompaniment (notice I didn't say side dish) to these Spicy Buffalo Chicken Wings.
Tip: The recipe calls for you to use one cup of hot sauce to dip the wings in but start out with a half cup so you don't contaminate the whole cup. You can use any leftovers to pour over baked wings.
From mom's lips to your ears: Go on an ingredient goose chase if that's what it takes to get Maytag blue cheese. Why Maytag? It's the best. It's produced right here in the U.S. of A. smack dab in the middle of Iowa by the Maytag family whose been making it since 1941. Sixty years of making the same cheese and you know it's gotta be good. The cheese is creamy, crumbly, perfectly balanced and consistent. The best blue cheese you can get stateside. Sure it's a little more expensive but why bother using bland or inferior blue cheese in blue cheese dressing?
If the Queen's coming for dinner: Serve something else. Queens never pick up food with their fingers or watch football games.
Serves 4
Ingredients
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| 1/2 | cup flour |
| 1/4 | teaspoon Kosher salt |
| black pepper to taste | |
| 16 | chicken wings, fat, tips and skin removed |
| 1 | cup bottled hot sauce such as Franks® Red Hot® sauce |
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Preheat oven to 400°. In a large plastic food bag, combine flour, salt and pepper. Shake until salt and pepper are evenly distributed. Add chicken wings and shake until wings are evenly coated with flour. Pour wings into a mesh strainer and gently shake off excess flour. |
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Place hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip chicken wings one at a time into hot sauce until evenly coated and place in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been misted with olive oil spray. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once at the halfway point. Serve immediately. |
Blue Cheese Dressing
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| 1/4 | cup crumbled blue cheese (finest quality) |
| 1/4 | cup buttermilk |
| 1/4 | cup plain low-fat yogurt |
| 2 | teaspoons distilled white vinegar |
| 1/2 | teaspoon sugar |
| # | coarse grained salt, cracked black pepper to taste |
| 2 | tablespoons roughly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley (optional) |
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In small, non-reactive mixing bowl, combine blue cheese, buttermilk and yogurt. Using a fork, mix and mash until cheese is pea sized. Stir in vinegar, sugar, salt and parsley. Mix until thoroughly combined. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. |