hey look at this sauce i made

As you would know if you read my other blog (http://thingsmikedoesontuesday.blogspot.com) on tuesdays I go over to donny k's for some wings. The first time was pretty disorganized and wasn't exactly a smash hit. Week two went better, but the problems with our system (we didn't have a system) were becoming apparent. Big Ben, the consummate thinker that he is, suggested that each week we would each bring a different item that is required to have wing night. This was pretty much instantly agreed upon. Later he further suggested that the person who's week it was to bring sauces would also make their own sauce and then every 4 weeks (1 full cycle) a winner would be decided and they would get a month off from bringing sauce (or maybe from bringing anything, it's somewhat unclear to me). As you may have guessed from the title, this was my week to bring sauce.

THAT'S A GOOD LOOKING WING!

As you know, anytime I have to cook/bake something (goddaughter's birthday cake for example) my first step is always to contact El Fuego. He tragically didn't have any wing sauce recipes, but had experimented with the craft a bit. He had a couple tips for me (mainly, use more chipotles) and then it was off to put my 10,000 hours of googling to use. I had decided right away that I wanted to do some kind of spicy barbecue. When we would go to Mugsy's for wings, spicy bbq tended to be the favorite and during the first two wing nights some manner of spicy bbq was a big hit. After a bit of looking I found this recipe. It seemed solid enough and El Fuego agreed. So I gathered the supplies and got to getting.

It was clear pretty early on that it wasn't going to be as thick as I wanted, so I ended up putting it on the stove and reducing it down. It was also clear that the 1/4 cup of chipotle puree it called for wasn't enough, so I put it all in. I also upped the amount of brown sugar as well as adding some dr pepper.

And the verdict? It seemed to be a hit, I wasn't as happy with it as I hoped, but I learned enough so that I think next time around I'll knock it out of the park. So far we've only had 2 nights of homemade sauces, me and Big Ben. He made the classic buffalo sauce and it was quite enjoyable. It was pretty much exactly what I would want if I went to a bar and ordered hot wings. Thing is, I would never go and order just plain hot wings. I guess we'll know in two weeks if I was the winner (stay tuned!).