Sonoran Chicken Wings

These tasty wings are perfect for your Super Bowl party or even as a main course! Even though they are baked, they are crispy and taste like they have been fried. The sauce provides a rich coating similar to a batter and the flavors are well balanced--just the right amount of sweet, tang, and spice. These will go fast so you might want to make two batches. Yum!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chicken wings (about 20 wings)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups Jorge's Sonoran BBQ Sauce

Method

1. Pre-heat convection oven to 350ºF (375ºF if oven is not convection).
2. Rinse the wings thoroughly in cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
3. In a large mixing bowl, toss the wings with the vegetable oil and ample amounts of salt and pepper.
4. Arrange wings, skin side down, on a pre-greased, rimmed baking sheet.
5. Cook wings on the middle rack in the oven for 30 minutes.
6. Remove wings and flip over to other side.
7. Put wings back in the oven and cook for another 20 minutes.
8. Remove wings from oven and toss with the BBQ sauce in a large mixing bowl. Coat the wings thoroughly with the sauce.
9. Arrange wings on the baking sheet and return to the oven, cooking for another five minutes.
10. Remove the wings, plate, and enjoy!

Serves six. No, who are we kidding, serves three or four tops!

Sonoran BBQ Sauce

The inspiration for this sauce hit me when I decided one day to make a Sonoran version of chicken wings. I wanted a sauce that embraced local chiles and produced a sweet, tangy, and spicy blanket for coating the chicken wings. I also wanted to make something versatile enough that I could use when I'm grilling. This sauce has it all and is pretty tasty for being sugar-free, low-carb, and gluten-free. If you taste the sauce alone, you might think it too spicy. But if you use it to coat any kind of meat for grilling, the spice fades nicely into the background. I think you will find all sorts of ways to use this sauce. I recommend it for chicken wings or skewers. Yum!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic sliced
• 1/4 cup mild Santa Cruz chile powder
• 2 tsp Mole Ole! spice from World Spice
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you are spice averse)
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock (recommend the Better Than Bouillon gluten-free base)
• 3 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 15 drops liquid Stevia Clear Sweet Drops (available at Whole Foods or online)

Method

1. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions for 10 to 12 minutes until translucent.
2. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute more.
3. Add chicken stock, chile powder, Mole Ole!, cumin, cayenne pepper, and vinegar.
4. Bring sauce to a boil and simmer, covered, on low for 20 minutes.
5. Remove sauce from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
6. Pour sauce into a blender and add the liquid Stevia. Puree until smooth. Sauce will be thick!

Makes about two cups.

Faux-tato Pancakes

I recently changed my eating habits over the past several months and am focusing on low-carb (or no carb) and gluten free options. For me, it was a decision to lose weight and get healthier and I've been having great success at it. One of the foods I have reluctantly chosen to give up has been potatoes. I've never been over-the-moon about potatoes but, you know, when you can't have something you start craving it--and boy, have I been craving potatoes!

As I now have focused my eating to just meat, vegetables, and dairy, I have discovered how versatile spaghetti squash can be. It has a wonderful sweet taste and can serve as a foundation for a variety of different foods and yes, even replacing potatoes! So it occurred to me one day, what if you could replicate a potato pancake using spaghetti squash? Well, it turns out you can and they are just absolutely fabulous! This low carb, gluten-free substitute to potatoes works quite well. So after several nearly successful attempts, I have settled on the following combinations and recipe to provide a tasty substitute to the potato pancake.

I recommend serving these with a soft-poached egg, sprinkled with black sea salt, and a dollop of sour cream. Yum!

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 small spaghetti squash (about 2 1/2 cups cooked)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup chopped cooked bacon
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or bacon fat
• 3 tablespoons almond flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sour cream for topping

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF convection or 400ºF non-convection.
2. To cook the spaghetti squash, use a two-pronged meat fork or something similar to poke several holes in the squash. Cook the squash in a 375ºF oven for one hour. Let cool for 20 minutes. Using an oven mitt, hold the squash and cut off the stem end. Slice in half, stem to end. Clean out the seeds using a spoon. Use a fork and scrape out the insides of the squash onto paper towel. Dry the squash as best as possible and measure out your amount.
3. In a medium mixing bowl combine the egg, squash, green onions, bacon, cheese, almond flour, and butter and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
4. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the squash mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten to make 4-inch pancakes. Although the picture, see below, only shows four pancakes, you should be able to get six pancakes per cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Immediately serve one or two pancakes per serving topped with sour cream and/or a soft poached egg.

Makes six pancakes

Russian Ragout

Many good ideas are the result of serendipity or happy accidents. Such is the case with this recipe. I started out wanting to make a veal goulash but, through lack of one key ingredient, laziness to go to the store (I'm sure you can relate), and the need to get dinner on the table, I got creative. Now the creative process for me with food goes either one way or the other--stunning success or miserable failure. There are rarely moments in between. Needless to say, I feel this came out on the success side of my creative spectrum. Granted, this dish leans more to the Hungarian style goulash and probably could be called a goulash instead of a ragout. Semantics aside, Russian Ragout slides off the tongue more easily. I hope you enjoy this dish. I would serve it with or over potatoes, sauerkraut, or even in a sourdough bread bowl. Yum!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 2 pounds cubed pork (use boneless pork chops--better value)
• 14 ounces sliced yellow onions (about two small or one large sliced in 1/4" slices from stem to root)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic (3 to 4 cloves)
• 6 peeled and seeded ripe vine tomatoes, chopped
• 1/3 cup vodka
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups mushroom broth (recommend Better Than Bouillon Mushroom Base)
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (crushed using a mortar and pestle or chopped)
• 2 teaspoons paprika 
• 1 cup full-fat sour cream
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsely 

Method

1. First, soak the porcini mushrooms in the boiling water for at least 15 minutes (don't boil the mushrooms, though). Save the water.
2. Heat the butter in a heavy pot over medium-high heat.
3. Working in batches, brown the pork in the butter. Add salt and pepper to taste as you go.
4. Add the onions to the meat and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add the vodka to deglaze the pot.
6. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
7. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms with liquid, broth, salt and black pepper and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
9. Remove the meat from the pot (Really? YES! I know it's a pain but it keeps the meat from getting tough) with a slotted spoon and set aside.
10. Bring sauce to a boil and reduce by half (about 15 - 20 minutes).
11. Reduce heat to medium and using a large whisk, mix in the sour cream to the sauce.
12. Add the meat back to the pot along with the fennel seeds and paprika.
13. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes.
14. Serve in bowls, over sauerkraut, or over potatoes with chopped parseley.

Serves six to eight.

Fudgy Bacon Chipotle Brownies

Well, the Holidays are over and we're into the doldrums of January. I performed my annual gluttonous duty last month and consumed my fair share of sweet, gooey treats and morsels. But having lived the austere diet I routinely set for myself in January, my mind is drifting back to chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! So I dug back through my recipe archive and resurrected an old friend--my fudgy bacon chipotle brownie recipe! Mmmmm. This warm, luscious, hug of a brownie will shake off your winter doldrums and caress your taste buds back to happiness. The smokey flavor from the bacon and spice from the chipotle pepper swirl in your mouth with the rich chocolate to create a heavenly choir of chocolate hymns the angels above would adore! I love these brownies with espresso or a deep roast black coffee. For breakfast? Sure! After all, they do have BACON! Yum!

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 slices thick-cut, hickory smoked bacon, chopped
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce minced (remove most of the sauce before mincing)
• 6 ounces unsalted butter
• 3 ounces (2/3 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for pan
• 2 cups fine granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 ounces (3/4 cup) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 350˚F with rack positioned in the center of the oven.
2. Cook bacon in a pot over medium heat until just crispy for about 10 minutes. Remove pot from the heat. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and drain over paper towels. Drain grease from pot. 
3. Using some of the bacon grease and about 1/4 cup of flour, grease and flour a 9” x 9” metal baking pan tapping out the excess flour.
4. Return the pot to stove and melt butter over medium heat.
5. Remove pot from the heat and whisk in the sugar, eggs and vanilla until sugar dissolves.
6. Stir in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, starting slowly to keep the ingredients from flying out of the pot and stirring more vigorously as you go.
7. Stir until the batter is smooth and uniform, about 1 minute.
8. Stir in the bacon and chipotle pepper.
9. Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan, smoothing it so it fills the pan evenly.
10. Bake until a toothpick or a skewer inserted 3/4 inch into the center of the brownies comes out with just a few moist clumps clinging to it, about 40 minutes.
11. Let the brownies cool completely in the pan on a rack.

Serves 16

Jorge's Chile Tucson

One of my favorite Mexican dishes is Chile Colorado--chunks of tender beef in a deep, red chile sauce. Since returning to Tucson, I have tried several versions of this fabulous dish from numerous restaurants in town. From deconstructing the most flavorful varieties, I have developed this recipe which holds true to the roots of this dish. This is not what people would consider "spicy," however, you can moderate the heat based on the number of chile seeds from guajillo chili pods you include in the dish. This recipe embraces the Sonoran cooking ingredients available locally and relies heavily on the thicking and deep chile taste from dried Santa Cruz red chiles. I have tried several different methods of cooking this dish and have found that low-and-slow is the best method which is why I strongly recommend using a crock pot. Yum!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of stew beef 
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cups beef broth (recommend the Better Than Bouillon paste)
• 1/2 cup mild Santa Cruz red chile powder 
• 1 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tbl. whole cumin seeds
• 3 whole Guajillo chile pods
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tbl. chimichurri spice 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Using kitchen scissors, cut the stems off the chile pods and open the pods by cutting lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Leave a few if you want some spice to the dish.
2. Cut the chile pods into 1/2 inch strips and heat, with the cumin seeds, in pan over medium heat to release the flavors about two minutes.
3. Combine all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low temperature for about six to seven hours.
4. Serve with flour tortillas and topped with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Serves four to six.