Lesson III | Cranky Jimmy

Lesson III - broiling stuff

She walked over to the cupboard and ripping the doors open, she gasped when she saw the mixing bowls. She smiled when she saw the huge one. She liked the huge one. It had so many uses… but today it was maybe a little too big (if that was possible) for what she was looking for. So she grabbed the next biggest one and walked over to the counter with the chicken wings, all cooked and naked, just waiting for her. She grabbed a handful and thrust them into the bowl. She had her fave BBQ sauce handy, so she playfully splashed 2 spoonfuls of the sticky sauce onto the naked wings. Picking up the bowl, she swirled and flipped the bowl in a flying ecstasy of chicken meat and sticky sauce. Finally, all of the wings were coated in the sticky sauce and she placed them on the cookie sheet, but not before spanking one of them with the spoon. She laid them all out side by each and then dusted them with a little Cranky Jimmy’s. Almost all of the flavours are good on wings, but today it was Medium to give them a little kick. Then she moved the oven rack to the top spot and put the oven on low broil. Putting in the cookie sheet, she closed the door and waited. After a few minutes she checked on them and the were just starting to sizzle… a little more… her breathing got heavy… a little more… she wanted to keep going but she knew she had to stop so she turned the oven off and closed the door, keeping the heat in. After a few minutes she turned it back on and then off again once all of the wings started to sizzle, and then closed the door to keep the heat in. After a few minutes she pulled them out of the hot oven and then flipped each one over and dusted with some more Medium. Back into the oven on low broil, sizzle and then turn off, sizzle and turn off. She was working herself into quite a frenzy now, but she still had a little left to do. She pulled them out, and back into the big bowl. Playfully, she splashed 2 more spoonfuls of sauce and swirled and flipped in another orgy of chicken meat and sticky, sticky sauce. She laid them out again on the cookie sheet, back into the oven, low broil twice each side and then she was done. She served them up with some ranch dressing with a dash of Cranky Jimmy’s Cajun in it, and they watched the big game.

This lesson is all about broiling. There are different types of broil and different levels. A chicken wing for example is best with the on/off method, where you want the sauce to bake on the wing and make it a little crispy whereas cheese on a lasagna or pizza is better with just a full on broil so you get the nice crispy cheese on top. If you’ve been following along, this blog is about cooking everyday regular food using techniques, tips and tricks that elevate it to the next level, and then enjoying it with the soul that you love. As always, I will try to give a sexy narrative and then a recap in plain English at the end. I will rate each episode with Hubba Hubba points, from 1 to 5, 1 being not much effort, not much reward, and 5 being I hope you brought your asthma inhaler, you’re gonna need it!

First of all, good chicken wings start with good chicken wings. If you buy the frozen P*nty’s wings then I can’t help you. Fresh, split, tip removed wings are about the same price and the difference in flavour is beyond compare. See our website for the different ways to cook the wings - deep fry, pan fry, oven, smoker - and then finish them off this way. You will have a sticky, crispy wing that will blow your mind.

If you do this correctly, you will have a nice sticky, crispy wing and you will not find any better anywhere. If you like it drenched in sauce like they do at the pub, you can resauce after broiling and serve, and underneath all that sauce it will be pure perfection. If you think on, off, on, off etc. is too much work, you can bake them on low, maybe around 225 F and the sauce will bake on and get sticky, but you won’t get it as crispy as you would with the sizzle from the broil. You need that localized heat to make it really crispy. If you leave the broil on too long, the sauce will burn, be warned. You want it to just sizzle and then turn it off. And the broil renders out those pockets of fat and leaves you with nice, moist meat under that crispy crust. Also, you could use an air fryer to crisp up the wings, that's a good substitute, probably better than baking. I chose to do this lesson with chicken wings on broil to show a different technique for broiling other than just full on broil crisping cheese... we use the on/off method on our pork ribs to get a nice crispy bark on them. Our air fryer is too small to fit a rack of ribs - and we could only fit 6 chicken wings at a time, so for us broiling is faster, but you do you. So, even if you don't broil your chicken wings, or ribs, this lesson may give you an aha moment somewhere down the road. But you have to find that balance of effort vs. reward. Do you like to get lucky? Or is a foot rub good enough for you…? Do your wings or whatever you are broiling accordingly.

We deep fried these wings for 5 minutes at 350 F. Normally, if we weren’t broiling them, then we would do 6 minutes to make sure they are fully cooked (especially some of the bigger drums), but then they start to get dry. We want to keep them moist inside, so we only do 5 minutes, and then they finish cooking on broil.

You don’t need a lot of sauce at the start. You can add more at the end if you like them really saucy, but you want a thin base to start with.

This is nice and evenly coated. This about all you want to start with. It will bake into a nice crispy base, like an extra skin.

We lay them all out, side by side and then dust them with our fave Cranky Jimmy’s flavour. Today it was Medium, but Jalapeno Maple or Cajun are really good as well. Pretty much any Cranky's flavour will work.

What the finished product looks like, if you just sizzle and turn off each side twice, resauce, and then just sizzle and turn off twice each side again. If you like to drench them in sauce, now you can go to town. The sauce will stick to the wing now.

Just a closer view of the wings. See the blacker areas? That’s what you want to see, just a little bit, as that is caramelization and those spots are nice and crispy. If you leave the broil on too long, then the sauce will burn and the whole wing will be black (and bitter). Just sizzle and off. Let the heat do the work. If you just bake, you don’t get the dark areas like this, you don’t get the localized heat, but it’s a good substitute if on/off, on off is too much work.

You can broil lots of things, like garlic bread, but most things you broil involve cheese – pizza, lasagna, Easy Scallop Potatoes. Speaking of… here’s a shot of the broil on some Easy Scallop Potatoes, which we will be doing in a couple of lessons.

This is from a low broil where the cheese got nice and brown and crispy, and then we added ANOTHER layer of cheese and crisped that up to what you see here… cheesy perfection. If you put the broil on high, you will burn the cheese right under the element and the stuff to the sides will not even be brown yet.

If you can master the double layer of crispy cheese, then this is worth 1 Hubba Hubba point.