What is more work, with the least meat..

I swear it a toss up.


slab of ribs or chicken wings..

Both take time to prepare.Ribs take more time to cook,grill,smoke..Wings you have stand over & turn turn turn..

Then a whole lots of mess to eat..Sauce mess,bones mess.No meat on either so you have eat a ton of them..     

Oh, but what you DO get to eat is so, SO wonderful.

I have to say, chicken wings are my favorite....been that way since I learned the best part of the bird was the wing.

Well, I don't know if that's true or not, but it was the piece of chicken my beloved grandma ate. And she only ate it by default, I'm sure. She was an amazing woman, the one who taught me 99% of what I know about learning and loving about cooking. She cooked for my grandfather and uncles and other workers who toiled 24/7 during "hay cutting time" in Nebraska where my grandfather owned and operated an alfalfa dehydrating plant. When she made fried chicken (which was weekly, I'm sure) she would be in the kitchen cooking forever, then bring all the dishes to the big dining room table. All the men would attack those platters and bowls as if they had not eaten a huge meal in months. By the time Grandma had a chance to sit down to the table to eat the only pieces of chicken left on the platter were the wings.....and that's what she ate, without a single mention about how unfair it was. She accepted the fact with grace.

And that is why, to this day, the chicken wing is my very favorite piece of chicken. Grandma taught me to savor every tiny nibble of meat and skin to be found. I didn't realize for a long time that the reason she chose the wing as "her" piece was because it was all those big galoots left for her.

I've been away from here for a while, busy. However, there seems to be a notion that making chicken wings is time consuming. Not at all the way my mom taught us to make them. Like many people, we didn't have much $$$, and the wings in the 50s were the cheapest part of a chicken, so mom became inventive. She just spiced up some flour, rolled the wings in it, and baked them in a 400 F oven until they were crispy.

We always had rice which she put into the pan after taking the wings out. She scraped and mixed the (cooked) rice to sop up all the good stuff left in the pan. Chicken and rice is always a family favourite!

I put garlic granules, cayenne, black pepper and a bit of salt in the flour mix. Try them my way, scrumpdeli-icious!

I'm having wings tonight for supper ~ request of Dane.

I'll put frozen wing sections (only thing on sale) on the grill until cooked and all the fat is rendered off, then into BBQ sauce in a bowl to be stirred and tossed until coated.

Since it's cool, I think then I'll let them "sticky up" on a parchment lined sheet pan in the oven for about 10 minutes instead of getting the grill covered with the sauce.