Yes, we’ve absolutely GOT to stay home over this lovely, sunny long spring weekend, dear friends – but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some indoors grilling! The good old oven can produce just as delicious a barbeque as an outdoors grill. And, since many of you might have difficulties these days obtaining the classical lamb leg or maybe even a turkey leg, you’ll want to go back to something you’ve already got in your freezer – like chicken wings, for example? They’ve become increasingly popular in recent years, and no wonder, since they’re easy to do, cheap, and enormously tasty!
At this point, I’ll confess I’d never tried to do chicken wings in the oven before myself until yesterday; I always used to do them in a frying pan covered with a lid. But, since it’s Easter, we all want something crispy from the oven, so I thought I’d just try and see what would come out of it – this lockdown has certainly made us all bolder in the kitchen!
Many online recipes will tell you to use baking powder in order to keep the skin crispy; and as I found out yesterday, this is absolutely true, dear friends! Also, you should start baking them at an unusually low temperature, about 125°C, and only later turn up the heat.
As for the side dish to go with the wings: you might find that doing chips in the oven at the same time as the chicken wings is difficult if not impossible, so the best solution is to do them in a fryer, if you’ve got one, or a frying pan; you can also do hash browns (available frozen at most supermarkets), though, which makes a nice change!
This will take a bit of time (about an hour), but by far not as much as a roast lamb; and anyway, we do need something to occupy ourselves with during this lockdown, don’t we?
Ingredients (for 2):
12-16 chicken wings (fresh or defrosted 2-3 hours before), salt, pepper, 2-3 tsp baking powder
If you’re doing frozen wings, defrost them a couple of hours before baking them. Then put the baking powder, salt and pepper on a plate and roll the wings in it. Put baking paper on a tray and place the wings on it. Pre-heat the oven to 125°C only.
Place the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Then raise the temperature to 220°C. After another 15 minutes, turn the wings around one by one on the tray (be careful not to burn yourself! you might, if you’re less used to oven baking, want to take out the tray – always with a pair of mittens or tea towels – and put it on the cooker to do this job), and bake for another 15 minutes; meanwhile, prepare a side dish of your choice, like chips or hash browns, in a frying pan.
Serve with a mixed salad and a choice of sauce bottles, from ketchup to barbecue sauce to sweet chili!
And if you want a nice Easter supper afterwards, how about doing some hard-boiled eggs and painting them yourself if, like us, you haven’t been able to obtain any ready painted ones? It’s great fun, believe me, and it’ll keep the whole family occupied!
Simply cook the eggs in boiling water for 5 minutes, cool them down under cold water and leave them there until they’re cool enough. Dry them, recruit every felt pen you’ve got in the house, and get creative!
Happy Easter, dear friends, and keep safe and healthy!
Roberta Franklin 