Kid Friendly Baked Buffalo Wings

I thought I’d won the lottery the day I saw 5 kilos of chicken wings at the supermarket marked down to only a couple of dollars. Even though they’re a lot of bone, they’re really tasty and this kid friendly baked Buffalo Wings recipe is a great way to serve them the whole family will love.

I’ve had the ‘real’ thing both here in Australia and in the US but I’m the only one who loves the heat from a traditional Buffalo hot sauce. I had to come up with something tasty that wouldn’t be so spicy.

The wings were intact so I set about splitting them into thirds. The dogs got the tips so they thought it was Christmas. They’re really easy to cut up. It’s just a matter of bending back the wing and cutting through the skin.

Next, in a plastic bag, combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper.

Throw the chicken wings into the bag and coat well with the flour mixture.

Place the wings on an oven tray lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 20 minutes in a 180 deg C oven. (You could also put the wings on a rack to allow any fat to drip away.)

I could’ve taken these a bit further because I do prefer them well done and really crispy but they were still crispy just a little pale.

The next thing is to make your Buffalo sauce. You’ll find all of these ingredients in your pantry and there’s no spicy ingredients whatsoever. If you do like it spicy, by all means add your hot sauce at this stage. 

After you’ve made your sauce, pour over the baked wings and serve.

I served mine with a side of sour cream but you could make a traditional Blue Cheese dip to serve with them or a Ranch dressing. Whatever you like really. They were perfect for a cold night and there was plenty of finger lickin’ going on.

Recipe

• chicken wings
• plain flour
• 1 tbs paprika
• salt & pepper

Buffalo Sauce:

• 125gm butter, melted
• 1 1/2 tbs white vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt & pepper

1. In a plastic bag, combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper and add wings ensuring they are coated well with flour.
2. Place chicken wings on an oven tray lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 20 minutes in a 180 deg C oven.
3. For the sauce, combine all ingredients and pour over the hot, baked wings.
4. Serve with sour cream, Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing.

NB: You could use this Buffalo sauce with any part of the chicken.

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

There are times when, as a last resort, we do buy takeaway. I refuse to spend in excess of $40 for hamburgers (you know the ones I mean) that taste and look terrible or a pizza that tastes like it could’ve been cooked on a cardboard base. My ‘go to’ takeaway meal is a roasted, rotisserie chicken from the supermarket because I know I can get at least 3 meals from it including this easy Chicken Noodle Soup.

Make your own stock

You may remember the homemade chicken stock I made recently? This the last meal I can get from my roast chicken. I can make a roast chicken dinner, chicken and salad, chicken pies, chicken sandwiches or rolls, a chicken pasta dish or many other things from the roast chicken. Once the meat has been used, I make a chicken stock from the carcass. The stock be either frozen and used in many other dishes or made into a homemade chicken soup.

Add a few vegetables like an onion, carrot and celery, a few fresh or dried herbs and water to the chicken carcass, that’s basically your soup made. It’s so full of flavour and tastes nothing like a ready made stock.

All you need to do is return the stock to the stove.  Add any leftover chicken meat, frozen or fresh chopped vegetables, any kind of pasta you like (I used spaghetti pasta). Heat until the pasta is cooked. That’s it! 

If you don’t have access to freshly made stock, you can always use chicken stock cubes or powder.  Ready made liquid chicken stock is also good but I don’t like paying for water. It pays to have these things in the pantry to curb last minute takeaway temptations. Served with bread, this meal will fill hungry tummies.

Make chicken stock from a rotisserie chicken

I’m not the kind of person who usually slaves over a hot stove making my own stocks but I do love the flavour of homemade stock. It is so easy to make your own chicken stock from a rotisserie chicken and here’s how.

There’s not usually much leftover from a store bought supermarket chicken. I can usually get about 3 or 4 meals from just one chicken. When it gets to this stage, I know it’s ready to be made into stock.

I remove any meat left and save it for sandwiches, pies, a mornay sauce or soup and remove any seasoning (stuffing).

Recipe

Into a saucepan I cover the carcass with water and add a large chopped carrot, an onion (no need to remove the skin), celery (if I have it), dried herbs like thyme and salt and pepper.

Boil for about 15 to 20 minutes and strain into a sieve ensuring you have a bowl to catch all the stock. You can also do this in the slow cooker on low for about 2 hours. (Don’t worry. I’ve strained the stock straight over the sink a couple times right down the drain.)

Your stock is now ready to be used for any dish. It’s that easy. You can put 1 cup quantities in a ziplock bag and freeze for dishes down the track. Freeze into ice cube trays or the whole lot into a freezable container. I was planning soup for this lot so I kept it in the fridge until the next day when I made soup. Homemade stock has such a wonderful, deep, rich flavour. I normally use stock powder but there really is no comparison. You should give it a try sometime.

Slow Cooker Savoury Chicken

I don’t know how it happens sometimes but I find an ingredient in my fridge or pantry and wonder how it got there. That’s how I stumbled across this Slow Cooker Savoury Chicken.

 

I would never have bought it. I know I sometimes get ingredients from family, friends or neighbours when they can’t use them. Why not? If they don’t want them, save them going to waste, I take them. (My sister is often cleaning out her pantry so I take what she can’t use.)

I can’t remember exactly where or when I got this jar of breakfast marmalade. We’re not really toast eaters here other than for Vegemite on toast. This marmalade was never going to get used on toast so I wondered how else I could use.

I remember I made this 4 Ingredient Apricot Chicken using just apricot jam so I thought I’d try the marmalade in a slow cooker chicken dish. Marmalade isn’t very sweet so it actually made the dish taste quite savoury.

 

I used up some red capsicum I had plus sliced an onion and put them on the bottom of the slow cooker.

 

Next, I put the chicken legs in a plastic bag with a couple tablespoons of plain flour, salt and pepper and made sure they were well coated. As the chicken cooks, the flour will help create the sauce.

 

In a bit of extra virgin olive oil, fry the chicken legs until golden. You don’t have to do this but I think frying the meat before putting in the slow cooker helps add a nice flavour. They’re now making slow cookers with a browning plate built in. When my slow cookers eventually go, I’ll make sure I get one of those.

 

Put the chicken in the slow cooker with 1 cup of chicken stock, the marmalade and set and forget. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours, or until chicken is cooked through.

 

Serve on top of rice, pasta or mashed potato as I did with a side of vegetables. What a warm, hearty, tasty meal this was and one I’ll remember. I may even need to buy marmalade all the time now. You can use any meat like pork or turkey or any kind of marmalade. You can use other kinds of jams as well but they might be a little sweeter than this dish was. Never look past those hard to use ingredients. You can always find a use for them in some way.

 

Recipe

• chicken legs or thighs (or pork, turkey)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 capsicum, diced (or other vegetables like carrot, sweet potato etc)
• 1/2 cup breakfast marmalade (or other flavoured marmalade)
• 2 tbs plain flour, for dredging
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock

1. Add the sliced onion and red capsicum to the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. In a plastic bag, add flour, salt and pepper and the chicken and toss until well coated.
3. In a pan, add the olive oil and brown the chicken until golden.
4. Add to the slow cooker.
5. In the cup of chicken stock, add marmalade and stir well until mixed through and add to the slow cooker.
6. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours or until chicken is cooked through. (This recipe can be cooked in the oven or the stove top.)
7. Serve with mashed potato, pasta or rice and a side of vegetables.

 

Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

To begin, no chickens were ‘herded’ in the making of this pie! It sounded a bit silly at first to call this easy peasy meal a Shepherd’s Pie. A traditional Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb (or beef) mince but this particular night I had chicken mince and not a lot else to go with it other than a whole heap of vegetables. Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie was the best option.

To start, get some potatoes on to boil and brown an onion and the chicken mince in a pan.

Add whatever vegetables you have. I added grated zucchini and carrot and chopped capsicum.

Once the vegetables have slightly softened, add a sprinkling of flour, salt and pepper and a cup of chicken stock. Allow that to thicken and pour into a shallow baking dish.

Top with mashed potato. You can pipe it on, if you have time or if you’re like me and always in a hurry, I just run a fork along the top before popping in the oven.

Bake in the oven until crunchy and golden on top.

This is such a tasty dish and a great one for the whole family. Even my fussy lot devoured it. Something to do with my daughter loving chicken I think. If it involves chicken and potato, I’m on a winner with her.

Don’t forget the sauce! I love tomato sauce (ketchup) on any kind of pie. 

Print

Chicken & Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

A quick and easy mid week meal that the whole family will love using plain chicken mince, leftover vegetables and topped with creamy mashed potato.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 6

Author Anne

Ingredients

• chicken mince
• carrot grated
• zucchini grated
• capsicum chopped
• brown onion chopped
• extra virgin olive oil for frying
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• potatoes boiled and mashed with seasoning, milk and butter
• 1 tbs plain flour
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock

Instructions

1. Brown onion in a little olive oil.
2. Next, brown chicken mince.
3. Add vegetables, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Sprinkle 1 tbs plain flour on top and stir until well combined.
5. Add 1 cup chicken stock and stir until sauce is thickened.
6. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture in a baking dish.
7. Top with mashed potato and using a fork, make a pattern in the top of the potato.
8. Bake in a 170 deg C oven until brown on top.

Recipe Notes

You can use any kind of ground meat in this recipe.
Change the potato to sweet potato, mashed pumpkin, or other root vegetable.
You could also adapt this for the slow cooker except the mashed potato won't be brown on top. Put all the chicken and vegetable ingredients in to cook for 3 hours on high. Add mashed or thinly sliced potato and cook on high for a further 1 hour.

 

22 recipes using pulled meat

Pulled meat seems to be very popular these days. It’s a great alternative to cooking meat that might be a cheaper cut and the slower you cook it, the more tender it becomes so you can ‘pull’ it. Pulling the meat means you just grab two forks and start pulling it apart until it appears shredded. I love it in both summer and winter. It’s usually cooked in the slow cooker so you don’t heat up the kitchen. You can serve it in tortillas, on bread rolls, in tacos, topping nachos, with salad or cold on sandwiches. In winter time, it’s a hearty main meal served with all sorts of sides like mashed potatoes, rice, pasta, in stuffed potatoes, in enchiladas or burritos, in a savoury pie or with a huge side of crusty bread. A little goes a long way and you can use any kind of meat like pork, beef, chicken, leg ham, duck or lamb. Just remember, the cheaper the cut, the better. I hope you find some inspiration from this wonderful selection of recipes.

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Crockpot Honey Mustard Pulled Chicken

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Mexican Pulled Chicken

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Pulled Pork Nachos

Slow Cooked Pulled Brisket

Jerk Pulled Pork with Sweet Corn Cakes

Pulled Pork Sliders

Slow Cooked Shredded Beef Ragu Pasta

Slow Cooker Mexican Beef for Enchiladas

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Shredded Mexican Beef Burritos

Shredded Beef Chilli Con Carne

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Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken

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