Aggie's Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Next to scotch, my dear friend Aggie loved nothing better than Teriyaki Chicken Wings! We were friends for over 25 years and over those years ate a lot of chicken wings. Every Thursday night we would meet at her apartment in Jamaica Plain and start with a little taste of scotch. Aggie loved her scotch! Sometimes we would have Chex-Mix with our cocktail and then roll into the chicken wings. Occasionally shrimp cocktail or deviled eggs would be added to the menu, and in the early days Aggie would make English Muffin Crab Cakes-easy to make and very yummy!

Aggie passed away on October 21, 2011, one month to the day after her 91st birthday.

Here she is on her 89th birthday!

AGGIE'S TERIYAKI CHICKEN WINGS

Ingredients:
About 16 chicken wings
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. hot pepper flake
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder (not garlic salt)
3 Tbsp. agave nectar or honey
1/4 cup olive oil

Preparation:
Mix the marinade together in a large bowl until well blended. Add the chicken wings (pluck any stray feathers off the wings before you drop them in). Thoroughly coat the wings and let sit for 1 hour in the marinade at room temperature. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put marinated chicken wings in a large baking dish in one layer, so the wings do not overlap. Cover with foil, bake for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake for another hour. Stir carefully so as not to break the skin every 20 minutes to ensure that wings are coated evenly with the marinade. Remove foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes until sauce becomes mahogany colored and somewhat sticky. Take out of oven and drizzle with a little more agave nectar or honey. These wings are best warm, but can also be served at room temp. If you are making them a day ahead, reheat on low oven for about 30 minutes before serving.

Aggie's 3 favorite foods: shrimp cocktail, deviled eggs and teriyaki chicken wings.

The only thing missing here is the scotch!

Deviled Eggs

Many of you may not use a recipe to devil eggs, but here are a couple of tips:
To hard boil eggs, place eggs in one layer in saucepan. Cover with cool water to just about 1 inch over eggs. Do not cover saucepan. Slowly bring to a boil. When the water begins to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes. Pour off into a collander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. If you over-cook or over-boil the eggs they get very hard and the yolks can turn greenish...not very appetizing! Eggs can be peeled and eaten right away or you can turn them into egg-salad, deviled eggs, or chop to add to salads. For deviled eggs I like to add a little salt/pepper, and curry powder; not too much seasoning as I love the eggy flavor. Mixing a tablespoon of sour cream (or nonfat greek-style yogurt) with the mayo also gives a nice tang. Decorate the eggs with various toppings: small pieces of roasted red pepper, chopped chives or tarragon, black or green olive slices, pickled asparagus, or a twist on the old stand-by, sprinkle with smoked paprika. I am so happy that eggs are back on the "healthy" to eat list of foods.

Aggie's recipe for English Muffin Crab Cakes

aka Crabby Bites

Ingredients:
6 English muffins, split
Small jar (5 oz.) Old English Cheese spread (Once the cheese is gone, these make great glasses, especially for a sip of Ginger Brandy!)
3 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1 can crabmeat, drained, flaked
Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange split muffines, cut side up, on a baking pan lined with foil.
In a medium bowl, mash cheese spread with butter, mayo, onion powder, and garlic powder. Stir in the crabmeat. Spread evenly over the split muffins. Bake for 10 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Cut into quarters and serve warm.

These are so easy to make and also freeze well so can be made ahead of time. To freeze, cool thorougly and then wrap in plastic wrap. Reheat either in microwave (that was Aggie's method) or once thawed warm in low oven until bubbly again.

This is the cake we served on Aggie's 89th birthday. Everything does not always have to be home-made or made from scratch. This cake was made at the local Stop and Shop decorated with a picture of Aggie enjoying the last drops of a Guinness when we were together in Ireland.

Slainte! (pronounced slancha, which in Gaelic means Cheers!)

In keeping with the chicken theme, next I will share with you my recipe for Roasted Chicken Parisian-style. Roasting a chicken makes me feel good and I love the side-benefit of bones to make stock.  Hope it makes you feel good, too!

Stay tuned...