• Wingin’ it in the kitchen - on a budget

    Posted on February 15th, 2009 Saver Queen 10 comments

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    Eating vegetarian is a great way to cut back on your grocery bill amongst rising food costs.  Swapping meat for dried beans, lentils and tofu is a strategy that will not only stretch your grocery budget, it will provide nutrition, can lead to weight loss, and if you are not used to eating vegetarian, experimenting with veggie cuisine will lead you to discover exciting new flavours in the kitchen.

    But if you are going to eat meat, cheap cuts such bone-in chicken, like drumsticks and wings, are economical choices.

    On Saturday, Josh and I hit up our local farmer’s market, this time remembering to bring our cloth bags and coffee mugs to fill with fair trade coffee. One thing I love about our new home is the proximity to the market - only a 5 minute walk. There we bought 10 large chicken wings.  While chicken wings are normally quite cheap, we paid more for ours because they were from a local organic farm, however the wings were deliciously meaty. 

    Chicken wings are much less expensive that boneless, skinless breasts, but if you are concerned about consuming dark meat and skin, with a higher fat content than white meat, simply try to balance your meals with vegetables and whole grains.  If you are restricting your meat consumption, a little dark meat here and there won’t hurt you.

    The recipe below for chicken wings is also a lot healthier, not to mention cheaper, than eating out at a pub or even home deep-frying.  We used Alton Brown’s no-deep-fry recipe.  Think that baked chicken wings inevitably sacrifice flavour and crispiness?  They do not!  Our wings came out perfectly - fully cooked, with nice crispy skin on the outside, and delicious, juicy, moist meat on the inside.  Far better in fact, than any deep fried wing I’ve ever eaten.

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    The wing process is pretty easy and all the prep work can be done in advance if you are looking to serve these for a party.  Essentially, you butcher your wings, steam them in a basket for 10 minutes and set them in the fridge for an hour. Then, you bake them in the oven for 40 minutes and coat. The steaming is a valuable technique that eliminates a great deal of the fat, and prevents smoking in the oven.

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    I recommend that in addition to following the recipe below, courtesy of the Food Network, you watch the show - Alton does a great job of showing how to easily butcher a chicken wing, and besides, he’s cool.

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    My only complaint was that we did not have any hot sauce, so we opted to create our own concoction using butter and barbeque sauce.  Our sauce turned out much runnier than it really should have been.  We put an extra dish of sauce on the table for dipping. 

     

    Ingredients

    • 12 whole chicken wings
    • 3 ounces unsalted butter
    • 1 small clove garlic, minced
    • 1/4 cup hot sauce
    • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

    Directions

    Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

    Remove the tips of the wings and discard or save for making stock. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

    Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

    Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

    While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter in a small bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

    Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

    The Saver Queen

    Groceries, Recipes
     

    10 responses to “Wingin’ it in the kitchen - on a budget”

    1. Diana February 15th, 2009 at 18:33

      Your wings look great! I have to say I saw Alton’s wing episode and have used that for baking mine since. It really works well.

      How is it going in Guelph? I haven’t been out to the farmer’s market there in forever.

    2. CanadianSaver February 15th, 2009 at 18:40

      I LOVE chicken wings too!

      Do you really find wings cheap? I find them extremely expensive… Could it be an east coast thing??

    3. Saver Queen February 15th, 2009 at 18:48

      @Diana - so far I am enjoying Guelph, thanks for asking. It is definitely a big change from Toronto and I am still getting used to how quiet things are - I am also finding it a bit difficult to really get connected with the community here, but I’m working on it. I love the farmer’s market! I look forward to more local produce in the summer! Where are you from?

      @Canadian Saver - check out the big party packs - the club size - and see if they are still expensive. They are certainly cheap here. But then again Canada does seem to have big regional differences in terms of prices and groceries. The ones we got were so meaty and filling that we only needed 5 each (half a wing pieces)

    4. Diana February 15th, 2009 at 18:53

      I’m from Toronto but lived in Guelph for about a year when I was young and foolish. I actually live 5 minutes from where I grew up as a child.

      It’s fantastic out there in the spring and summer especially when the markets have so much activity.

    5. Kaycee February 15th, 2009 at 22:21

      That looks so good. Chicken wings, thighs and drums are super cheap here too. I can usually get them for less than $1/pound or a whole chicken for .59/lb. I don’t even bother with boneless skinless chicken breasts anymore. I think that as long as you watch your portion size and don’t deep fry them, you can eat fatty dark meat without weight gain.

    6. Saver Queen February 15th, 2009 at 23:12

      Kaycee - I tend to agree. In fact I find most recipes where I would use boneless skinless chicken breasts, I can easily replace with chickpeas, tofu, or other beans and veggies. I don’t think dark meat is anything to be afraid of if you eat it sparingly and like you say, don’t deep fry it.

    7. noble pig February 16th, 2009 at 00:14

      Looks yummy. I love wings and yes they are very economical.

    8. Dawn February 16th, 2009 at 15:55

      Great idea - and thanks for the recipe. I’m an Alton fan too!

      I also like chicken thighs - same idea, extremely cheap and very tasty. They are my favorite cut now.

    9. jill February 26th, 2009 at 19:43

      The wings look really yummy! I loveeee chicken wings but I have never tried cooking chicken wings before, just coz some of my chicken has come out half cooked before. Yikes! But the idea of steaming them prior to baking them means I will not have to worry about the whole uncooked business! And I didn’t know wings were cheaper! I should go check that out here.

    10. Saver Queen » Blog Archive » How much should your food really cost? March 10th, 2009 at 11:49

      [...] my post, “Wingin’ it on a budget” I mentioned that I paid a much higher price to get organic, humanely-raised chicken from a local [...]

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