Chicken Wings!

I had a pretty lazy day today. I felt real tired and a little uncomfortable. I am fortunate to have had today off, and now the weekend is ahead. Good news is, this is the LAST weekend Jim has to study before he takes the CA Bar Exam on Tuesday. It's a three day exam -- so I am dropping him off at his hotel on Sunday and will pick him up on Thursday when he's finished.

Here's how his last three months of studying have looked (and the three and a half years of law school before that). Good luck, Jimbo!!!!

 

And this is what I do to keep myself entertained while he studies....

 

I also took a picture of the high rises in the Marina, this is pretty much what we look at from our condo. Sweet view.

 

I started craving some chicken wings in the early afternoon, so per usual, we walked over to the grocery store and grabbed some chicken wings, milk, bread and deli meats so I could make Jim a few sandwiches for next week. He literally cannot be too prepared for this exam.

 

Here's how the sandwiches came out. They weren't anything fancy -- just some peppered turkey, provolone, spinach, mayo, mustard on Italian bread....6 of them. He loves the simple stuff.

 

 

Now onto my chicken wings. I looked up a few recipes online, because I knew I wanted to make them in the crockpot. You all know I don't love recipes, but I grabbed a few ideas for ingredients and timing, etc. I decided on the ingredients below.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Chicken Wings
• 1 cup Soy sauce
• 1 cup Water
• 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Pineapple juice
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt
• 1 tsp Ground Ginger

 

Now most recipes called for marinating the chicken wings in the fridge for a few hours, and then cook in the slow cooker for 4-5 hours. Since it was already after 12pm, I figured I would just toss it all in the crockpot -- I knew it would marinate and cook in plenty of time.

 

Here's a shot when I first put them in the crockpot and their progression as they cooked.

I initially intended on laying them out on this baking sheet and broiling them for a 10-15 minutes to get that sticky/crispy texture. However, as I took them out (about 5 1/2 hours), the meat was literally falling off the bone. I knew I needed to rethink this whole dinner idea.

 

So instead, I grabbed a "boil-in-a-bag" rice (I like to keep staples like that on hand) and some of the pineapple from the '1/2 cup pineapple juice' the original recipe intended. I used my hands to take ALL the chicken off the bone, and made a pile of the edible pieces.

 

I took out two bowls, divided up the bag of rice and the chicken and then added some 'au jus' from the crockpot and a few pineapple pieces for a garnish and flavor. It was delicious...and not to mention quite different for me!

 

I loved the spontaneity of this dish and the flavors were so amazing together.

 

I hope you enjoy this one! It was super simple to make - just took a little bit of time as most crockpot dishes do. This will be a good option once A and B are here.

Have a great weekend. See you next time!

xo,
Shaz

P.S. I am going to start adding a "flashback photo" with a caption to each of my blog posts. Here's one of Nicole, my friend Keyla (from Pepperdine) and I when we hiked Temescal Canyon in the Pacific Palisades near Malibu; early May 2010.