Saturday, September 11, 2010

Food challenge of the week: Pizza and Buffalo wings!

The food theme this week was American and I decided to try my hand at pizza making and buffalo wings. The pizza dough was really quick and easy to make and I used whatever leftovers I had in the fridge for the ingredients: namely ham/jalapenos/ mushroom/ shredded cheese & BBQ sauce as base.
 Pizza crust (adapted from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.
There were many variations of Buffalo wings recipes online but this one kinda stood out because it involved boiling and then broiling the chicken. I left the chicken in the broiler for a tad too long and they were a little hard but still tasted pretty good when mixed with the hot pepper sauce.

Baked Buffalo Wings (adapted from food.com)
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken wings
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup lousiana hot sauce (I used Frank's hot sauce)
1 tablespoon margarine

1. Fill a large pot half way with water and then add the first 4 ingredients.
2. Bring water mixture and wings to a boil and then boil for 15 minutes.
3. Transfer wings to an oven safe container coated with cooking spray. Bake wings on "Broil" (high) for 15 minutes on each side.(For crispier wings, cook longer on each side, maybe 20 minutes per side).
4. While waiting for wings, combine the Hot Sauce and Margarine in a microwave safe container and cook in microwave for 2 minutes or until melted. (You can cook the sauce longer for a thicker sauce).
5. When wings are done, shake 'em up with the sauce.

2 comments:

sugarlens said...

You are really good at this cooking thing. I am so impressed.

knickknacks said...

It's funny because hubby said the same thing! "Mmmm..I'm impressed!" Haha! He has had his fair share of horrible tasting meals from me! ;)