The chicken wing dilemma...

Jeff and I LOVE ourselves some chicken wings! Last night we did an 'appies' evening after Aubrey went to bed....one of my favourite ways to eat dinner....a little of this a little of that!

Here's the dilemma....

We have in the past bought the box from the grocery store for about $10-15 and you get about 20 wings.  The problem is when you read the side of the box and it says 40% meat protein; you know there is a problem... they are "pumped"; for lack of a better word.  This is where they are submerged in seasoned water and frozen; this also makes them weigh more....so you're paying for water!  Have you ever noticed when you're cooking them a ton of liquid comes out and they shrink.....yes; pumped. To me they have a "not quite right" texture.  

We could do "take out" but they are truly an arm and a leg (Montana's makes the   best when we're in for a splurge....$20 for about 16 wings!!!) and delivery chains do not make a tasty one (to our standards anyways)!!! 

So never to just reveal something like this without having a new and improved option....here's what we do...

We go to Costco and buy a pack of wings (we were buying their already seasoned kind but it has flour in it and I do gluten-free (GF)).  This pack of wings will do 3 snack sizes that will feed two of us or two meal portions, that again each portion will feed two of us.  I divide them into ziplock baggies and just add in my seasoning;  Chilli powder, garlic salt, salt, pepper, corn meal, corn flour. (You can be pretty creative with what flavours you like) 

Seal the bags and make sure they are well coated.  Tonight we cooked one bag and froze the other two bags flat in the freezer.  Now the 5 minutes of prep work will allow us to have wings ready in about 35 minutes whenever we should want them (400F convection on a parchment paper lined baking sheet)

I would never of done this in the past...the thought of raw chicken wings was daunting but I realized I didn't need a fryer to make delicious wings and I could control what was on them!

I should mention the price too; the packs vary in price; but this one was $18 and we got 6 snack size portions or 4 meals...very good when we're speaking of wings....no pumping here!!!!