Sharon Kurtzman
I love football. It’s one of my favorite spectator sports. And it’s almost time for Super Bowl LI. My father was a Giants fan and I’m a Jersey girl and a daddy’s girl, so I love the Giants, too. However, my team won’t be on the field this year. Even though I plan on watching, I know my attention will be more focused on kitchen maneuvers than field maneuvers.
What’s a Super Bowl without a spread?
I don’t mean a points spread. My sights will be set on the buffet. The first dish that comes to my mind when I think of the Super Bowl is chicken wings. Spicy Buffalo wings are my favorite game day grub. Heck, they’re my favorite on any random Tuesday, too.
For years, I’ve made my own Buffalo wings using a tried-and-true recipe that I’d found on the Internet.
However, after my big 5-0 birthday, I slowly started tweaking some favorite recipes in an effort for Hubby and me to eat healthier. Not even my wing recipe was safe. In the end, I substituted avocado for butter and made sure my wings were always baked, not fried.
My adjusted recipe was a big hit with my family. Last year, I wrote about my chicken wing experiment on my blog in an essay called “The Sneaky Chef.”
I’ll definitely be making my Buffalo wings on Super Bowl Sunday. And now you can, too, because here’s the recipe:
Buffalo Chicken Wings
Adapted from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/buffalo-wings-0
Ingredients
4 pounds chicken wings, split wings and discard tips
3 packets Buttermilk Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (in powdered form)
½ of one very ripe avocado
1 tablespoon of avocado oil
½ cup Frank’s Red Hot
Juice of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a large pan with cooking spray. Make sure your pan is big enough to hold all the wings without too much crowding. Sprinkle two of the ranch dressing packets on top of the wings and toss until they’re well-coated. Bake for 35 minutes.
While the chicken is in the oven scoop the avocado into a bowl and mash with a fork. You should have no problem mashing, because it should be that ripe. Mix the mashed avocado with the hot sauce, lemon juice, and the one remaining packet of ranch dressing. Whisk the ingredients until smooth. Make sure the bowl you’re working with is big enough to hold all the chicken wings.
Now back to the oven. After 35 minutes, remove the wings from the oven and use tongs to add the wings to the bowl of sauce. Toss them in the sauce. Again, make sure they’re well-coated. Before returning the wings into the pan, pour off all but ¼ cup of the pan juices that accumulated during cooking. The little bit of juice left in the pan will help prevent the wings from sticking. Pour the wings and the sauce into the pan. Place the wings back in the oven for approximately 50 minutes, turning them over midway through cooking. The wings should be slightly browned when you take them out of the oven.
Serve the wings hot with ranch or blue cheese dressing on the side. I like to add celery and carrot sticks, too.
And remember, may the best team win. Enjoy!