Spicy Szechuan Chicken Wings with Summer Salad and Bruschetta

Feeling the summer heat? Are hot and spicy chicken wings the last thing on your mind right now? Maybe these chicken wings, still hot and spicy but served cold with a simple summer salad and some easy made Italian bruschetta would be just what the doctor ordered for dinner tonight. They are perfect for eating outside, served with a freezing cold beer.

These wings can equally well be served hot but if serving them cold as I have done, you will have to cook them at least a couple of hours in advance. The sauce which I have used is simply a 4oz pack of stir fry sauce but you can use sauce from a larger jar. This will be perfect for a pound, to a pound and a quarter, of chicken wings.

Put the sauce in to a large bowl and add the chicken wings. Stir carefully and well. If time permits, cover and refrigerate for an hour or so to marinate.

Preheat your oven to 400F/200C. Spread the wings out in a single layer on a large baking sheet or roasting tin. Cook for thirty-five minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, cover with foil and set aside to rest and cool.

Ingredients per Person for Salad and Bruschetta

1 Little Gem lettuce
1 large tomato
1/2 small onion
1 Ciabatta bread roll
1 clove of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wash the lettuce and roughly chop. Finely slice the onion and cut the tomato in to six segments. Season with salt and pepper, mix carefully together and arrange on a serving plate.

As the bruschetta is going to be served hot, we want everything else ready to serve before we prepare it. Lay your chicken wings therefore on a separate plate and scatter with some freshly torn basil leaves to garnish.

The Ciabatta roll should be halved horizontally. Preheat an overhead grill and toast the halves of the roll on both sides until beautifully golden. Lay them cut side up on a chopping board.

Peel the garlic clove and lightly crush it under the blade of a large knife. This simply helps to release the juices and impart the flavour in to the toast. Rub the garlic clove over both slices of toast and discard.

Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over the toast, season with salt and black pepper, arrange by the salad as shown and serve immediately.

Honey Roasted Chicken Wings and Vegetables

There are certain nights when we just can not face spending a great deal of time preparing dinner. We may have had a really hard day and just want to stick something in the oven to cook while we flop down in front of the TV, perhaps with a relaxing drink. The temptation in such instances is that we resort to microwaveable meals or similar and that the idea of home cooking is abandoned for the evening.

While nights such as these are often unavoidable, it does not mean that we have to forego our healthy, home-cooked evening meal. This honey roasted chicken wings and vegetables dish requires next to no preparation before it is stuck in the oven to cook, while you enjoy some well earned rest and relaxation.

Ingredients for Two People

12 chicken wings
6 small to medium potatoes
2 small red bell peppers or one normal size
1 medium white onion
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

The oven should be put on to preheat to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6.

The potatoes should be washed but not peeled. They should each then be chopped in half. The bell pepper(s) should be de-seeded and roughly chopped, while the onion is peeled and quartered.

The olive oil should be added to a large baking tray, the chicken wings arranged as shown and the vegetables scattered around them alternately. The items should be liberally seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper before the honey is drizzled evenly across the top. The tray should be put in to the oven for fifty minutes to an hour, depending upon how well browned you want your chicken wings to be.

When the cooking time has elapsed, the tray should be removed from the oven and the wings and vegetables divided evenly between two warmed plates.