Cook with Us #24 - Strawberry BBQ Wings with Creamy Blue Cheese

Hello, my fellow Steemians! I was so honored to advance in the @docsmith @cookwithus Knife Challenge. This week it's an iron chef like competition featuring four mystery ingredients. Tea, chicken, strawberries, and tomatoes. Almost immediately I thought I could make some bbq sauce and serve it with some great air fried wings. The sweetness of the strawberries really come together with the other flavors to make a dynamite bbq sauce. It is both sweet and savory with some added heat. I'm also going to be making some blue cheese dressing. Wings originated in the Buffalo area most likely at the anchor bar but there are many origin stories. The most regarded story is that the owner of the anchor mistakenly got an order of wings instead of breasts and decided to do something with them. One night close to "last call" her son asked for some late night snacks for him and his friends. She decided to deep fry the wings and in a stroke of genius decided to slather them with hot pepper sauce. The "buffalo wing" was born and bar fare has never been the same. Buffalo was able to hold on to this dish until the mid-1980's when the dish exploded across the country and many variations were made like bbq wings.

Ingredients
4 lbs of chicken wings
Salt and Pepper
Tablespoon of vegetable oil
For the sauce:
4 cups strawberries sliced
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 English breakfast tea bags
2 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
1 large Garlic clove minced
2 Tablespoons of honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Sriracha to taste
For Blue Cheese:
1 cup of crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup of buttermilk
3/4 cup of plain greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon of white vinegar
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

To begin cut and hull strawberries. Brew 2 cups of English breakfast and combine in a small saucepan. Cook on medium heat until just boiling and remove from heat and let cool. Reserve a half cup of berry tea. Drain and place strawberries in a large food processor or blender. Place the rest of the ingredients in with strawberries and berry tea. Blend until smooth. Place mixture in a saucepan and cook on medium-low heat until the sauce reduces by half, stirring frequently. Place aside.

After defrosting the wings, you must dry off any excess water. I get a couple paper towels and make a bed to place wings on and put some on top of wings and press down. Transfer wings to a plastic bag and add one tablespoon of cooking oil, close and shake. Place wings in pre-heated air fryer fat side up and season with salt and pepper and cook for 20 mins on 360 degrees. Flip wings and cook for another 15 mins. Now you want to turn up your fryer to 400 degrees and cook for about 10 mins. If you don't like your wings extra crispy you can skip this last step.

For the blue cheese, all you have to do is combine the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate. You'll want to make the dressing a couple hours before the wings because the flavors will have a chance to come together better. If you want creamier dressing you can add a 1/2 cup of mayo, this of course adds some extra calories. You can also adjust the amount of blue cheese crumbles but I like my blue cheese to be full of cheese. Place wings and sauce in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Serve wings with the blue cheese dressing.

Alright, that's all I've got this time around. Let me know how you liked the wings. Bon Appetit! - @slowcookingchef

Kitchen music: The Postal Service - Give Up(Deluxe 10th Anniversary)