POPEYE'S GHOST WINGS

As some of you may know I am a full pledged card carrying Chilehead. My garden is full of exotic chile pepper plants. One of these plants has the reputation and pedigree of being one of the hottest peppers in the world. This is the infamous Ghost pepper. This pepper will make grown men (me) cry with its blistering heat. When I found out the fast food chain Popeye's has a ghost pepper chicken wing, I got excited. Normally I stay away from fast food but today I will make an exception. These wings were cooked to order. I have to admit they were kind of tasty. Crispy, salty, slightly oily crust that covered a tiny well cooked morsel of chicken meat tasted pretty good. But... I kept waiting for the bite and sting of the almighty Ghost pepper. Seriously when I cut open a pepper at home my eyes start to water from the fumes. This wing did not even raise an eyebrow in the heat department. There was a very slight hint or promise of warmth in the back of my throat. I would be generous to rate this wing mild on the heat scale. This was a fail in the Ghost pepper department. Here is another example of false marketing. Maybe they should call them Un-Ghost Wings.

BUFFALO TOM'S GOURMET HOT SAUCE

The Wing Ding Day was a tasty fun day. Take a look at Buffalo Tom's sauce review. It may be the sauce you are looking for.                         Read Review Here.

ANCIENT FIRE WING SAUCE

“Fire in the Hole!” We have a wing sauce from ‘Buen Apetito; ‘Ancient Fire Wing Sauce”, that will satisfy any heat seeker with flavor and fire power. The hot sauce challenged need not proceed on this journey. This wing sauce is rocket fueled with habanero and cayenne peppers. The pepper heat is flavored with orange juice and orange peels. Habanero peppers do have a fruity taste and oranges will compliment this unique concoction.

It has been raining cats & dogs here in sunny California so we will be cooking our wings in the oven. The wings were separated and the tips removed. A dusting of salt & pepper will season.  Then place wings on a cookie rack on a foil lined baking sheet. To a 375 degree oven  for an hour and turning once should brown your wings nicely. Toss your hot and cooked wings in a sauce lined bowl. Serve immediately and wait for the fire alarm to go off.
  Buen Apetito once again has created a fun and tasty sauce for us heat seeking adventurers. The Orange flavor works with the habanero peppers to create a pepper lovers treat.  When you combine habanero and cayenne the heat meter will tip to 3.5 stars out of 5. My mouth is still on fire. It burns so good.

Buen Apetito
4 Chaplin Street
Waterville, Maine, 04901
(207) - 861 - 4649

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS

The Bay Area is alive with 'Worlds Series' fever. The Giants have won the first two games and everybody is excited. This is a great reason to makes some bacon wrapped chicken lollipops. It just so happens we have some home cured, applewood smoked bacon for this endeavor. Chicken drummetes will be 'frenched' to form a sort of lollipop. Sliced bacon will be wrapped around this drummete and all will be smoked with a combination of apple and hickory wood.

A sharp knife is crucial to form these lollipops. Slice all around the wing joint. Pull and scrape the meat down the bone and pull over tip. After the first one is completed it gets a lot easier. Use your favorite rub to season the meat. Wrap the drummette with a thin slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. The 'Chile Grill' was the perfect vehicle to hold these adult lollipops.

The smoker was set to 230 -250 degrees and wood was added to the fire. Our appetizers were smoked for an hour and one half. Oh man, did these baby's smell good. A little drizzle of our favorite barbeque sauce of the moment was the finishing touch. We will be sitting on the edge of the couch rooting for the Giants. Bacon wrapped chicken lollipops will be the perfect rally snack. Go Giants!

BENITO'S WING-A-DING DAY

Buffalo wings are a staple food at the Chilebrown household. There are so many variations and techniques to prepare this simple dish. There is a common theme involved in this preparation. Butter and hot sauce are the similarities in our numerous wing dishes. Today we are using two sauces from ‘Benito’s Hot Sauces’. Benito’s makes wonderful hot sauces using organic ingredients and no salt. We have ‘Old Bricktucky Cayenne and Mango Habanero’. We will rub some chicken wings with some ‘Survival Spice’ and grill them over a medium hot mesquite fire. They will then take a bath in some butter and hot sauce. Simple, but delicious!


Benito’s Mango Habanero has been described as a ‘tropical garden in your mouth’. This sauce has Mangos, habaneros, vegetables and lime juice. This sauce is sweet with Mango flavor and only has a medium pepper bite despite the habanero peppers. Benito has the skills to combine just the right amount of ingredients with lime juice. No salt is in this sauce. The same goes for the Bricktucky Cayenne. This sauce is very complex. There is a lot of flavor going on here. Cinnamon, Cayenne, vinegar, tomatoes, paprika and vinegar are some of the ingredients. The heat level on this sauce is going a small notch over the medium level. This sauce will be perfect for our wings.

The wings were cooked and then dipped in the two butter and sauce combinations. The Mango Habanero wings were on the sweet side. The flavor was of mango and onions with a warming effect from the habanero peppers. The butter made these flavors rich and decadent. The Bricktucky was my favorite. This sauce was finger licking good. There were so many components that jumped all over your taste buds. Cayenne pepper warmed your tongue while a hint of cinnamon grabbed your curiosity. It was like I could taste the tomato’s and onions separately but they melted with all the other ingredients. When this sauce was applied to the smoky wings, a marriage in Heaven was created.


Benito’s makes a lot of wonderful sauces. They are a welcome addition to our pantry. Chicken wings are just one of the uses for these sauces. We served our wings on a plate with extra dipping hot sauce. Some carrots, celery and blue cheese dressing accompanied these chicken appendages. We served a side dish of Asparagus, fava bean and pasta. It was a perfect spring day.

Benitos Hot Sauces

MAN V FOOD

It is kinda funny that our TV is usually on PBS or the Food Network. Most of our Boob Tube viewing revolves around food. Why is that funny? Because we are food FREAKS!!!! We like to watch a show called, "Man V Food". It is entertaining to us. We like to watch the Host consume a Trencherman's weight of food. He usually finds a local eating challenge and goes for it. He recently went to SmokeEaters and we followed. This challenge was to eat 12 chicken wings doused in a "Crazy Stupid" amount of pepper and Habanero powder. You have to eat the 12 wings in 10 minutes with no liquid refreshments, no napkins and no brains. After you consume this throne of pain, you have to lick your hands and wait five minutes. If you still have a pulse, You will receive a T-shirt and get your picture on the wall.

That is no problem for Ms. Goofy. She was game and was ready to rumble. We were on a Meat Adventure to Dittmers anyway. This place was right around the corner. Well it was 12 minutes away by the Shinken Speck.

GPS. We arrived to a full house. SmokeEaters is right next to the campus of San Jose State University. This is the perfect location for Wings , Big Screens, Beer and Chicken Wings. There were so many T.V. screens that you actually had to pay attention sort of. There were no monitors on the Food Network.

We had to focus on the Wings. We were not ready for the challenge that SmokeEaters offered. We tried the 'Most Hottest' that they offered on their menu. These wings had crazy names such as "Inferno", "4 Alarm", "Traditional Death". "Nuclear", "Atomic". "Traditional".and"Mild".

Our choice of wings was Inferno and Atomic. The Atomic wings were syrupy sweet. Ms. Goofy did not like them. They were too full of honey with a little hint of Tabasco. They should be classified maybe as gateway wings. We were a little hesitant to try the Inferno Wings.

The Inferno Wings looked like the Atomic wings. Were these wings the promise of their name.? Would we be gasping for air? I took a bite. They were not as sweet as the Atomic wings. Whoops, the back of throat needed a cough to be cleared. Is this the End ? Yes, at first bite the Inferno wings do grab your attention. This burn did not last. It was tasty. I think maybe I tasted some Habanero. Ms. Goofy was able to stomach the Inferno, and actually did enjoy these wings. If you happened to watch this episode of 'Man V Food', Adam looked like he was ready to meet the Grim Reaper. This was not our experience.

We later found out that the Wings for the Hellfire Challenge have a ton of habanero powder added.They have to be specially ordered. You do not need to take the challenge to order this death warrant of wings. We had fun visiting and tasting the wings and refreshments offered at 'SmokeEaters'. You need to take the Challenge. Your taste buds and sanity will be aroused. I will leave that up to You!

BACON REVUE (WOLFSEN'S) & HOT WINGS

Today in the Bacon theater we have a guest Director. His name is Zachary. He has the bloodlines of a true champion. He is in the eighth grade and he likes to listen to Van Halen. He claims that all his Fathers friends are 'Meat Freaks'. He is the son of the infamous Dr. Biggles. We welcome him to the bacon tasting circle. The bacon was cooked outside on the Weber. The second act is some Hot Wings with Biggles Buck Tooth Revenge Sauce.

Some bacon was picked up at Wolfsen's in Gustine California. They did not have any slab bacon, so a pound of sliced was purchased. The bacon will be cooked on my new Cowboy Wok. It is recommended to cook bacon on the Wok to help cure the pan. We can kill two birds with one stone. The Weber was fired up with one of my favorite "Man Toys", the blow torch. When you fire up mesquite charcoal with a blow torch, you need to step back. The sparks were flying every which way. I need to purchase some safety goggles and a fire proof suit. I did not set anything on fire except the charcoal. The Cowboy Wok fits perfectly in the Weber. The Wok was placed in the Weber and the bacon was fried. Zachary became impatient because of his desire to taste the cured pork belly delights. The bacon was cooked and drained on some paper towels. The Wok was removed and a cast iron cooking grate was the replacement. Some wings were then cooked to taste some Biggles Buck Tooth Revenge.

The Wolfsen's bacon crisped up really nice. We were all in agreement about the good quality of this bacon. At first bite you noticed a hint of sweetness. The smoke was present but not overpowering. The balance was just right. This was proven by Zachary's consumption of piece after piece of bacon. This bacon is a good 'Work Horse' bacon. There is nothing that really reaches out and grabs you. It is just very pleasant with a good balance of sweet and smoke. Today's bacon will receive 4 stars out of 5.

The wings were only dressed with salt and pepper. Dr. Biggles was Manning the Que. He turned and coddled these chicken parts. When they were browned and done to almost perfection, We doused a couple in 'Biggles Bucktooth Revenge'. It was time to try some of this Devil Burners sauce. Twenty four hours mellowed out this sauce of the Ages. You could actually eat some with out experiencing numbness. Once again the all important balance was what we were trying to achieve. It was definitely hot and not for the weak.The onions and garlic shined through. The molasses rounded out the punch. Bucktooth Revenge had a kick and flavor that cannot be beat. Look for "Biggles Bucktooth Revenge" at your local specialty and grocery stores in the future.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Price: 4.99/pd

Where: Wolfsen's Meat & Sausage
358 South Ave.
Gustine, California
209-854-6456

Thanks Zachary and welcome to the the 'Inner Circle of Bacon'. Thankyou Revererend Biggles for all the photos. You can view a couple more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/7295452@N03/sets/72157607945510375/

HOOTERS

Ms. Goofy and I were passing through Rancho Cordova Califronia today. It was close to lunch time and Ms. Goofy and I were parched and a little hungry. We passed by a Hooters. Hooters is a nation wide chain that just so happens to have famous chicken wings. I asked Ms. Goofy if she would like to sample some of these tasty delights. She was game. Oh boy!, I love good chicken wings.

We walked into the establishment and were immediately greeted by a very, very cheerful staff. What a breath of fresh air to have employees that are happy and upbeat. We bellied up to the bar and were greeted by a very healthy and cheerful bartendress. She went out of her way to make our lunch and visit enjoyable. We ordered a couple of beverages and some wings that were called "911 wings". These were not the hottest wings on the menu. Ms. Goofy and I wanted a little rest since our Bhut Jolokia experience.

These wings definately had a little punch. We enjoyed them. On the way home our lips were burning so good. I would recomend Hooters and their famous wings to everyone.

HOOTERS

10750 Olson Dr.

Rancho Cordova, Ca. 95670

916 635=2449