Ain't No Thang But A (Cajun Smoked) Chicken Wing

I know - two posts in one day, right?  Today was just one of those delicious meal type days that are worthy of such attention.

After lunching, Scott turned his attention to dinner.  He had wanted to smoke the chicken wings we had in the freezer for some time, and today turned out to be that some time.  So after thawing, he threw on the rub that had also graced the pork butt on Easter (after adding cayenne pepper and cumin to give it that heat he wanted) and loaded the wings into the smoker.

The good thing about wings is that they don't take a great deal of time (unlike the twelve-ish hours that the pork butt took), so by five, dinner was about on the table.

Scott was going for heat - and boy howdy, did he get it!  I am glad that I picked up a jar of blue cheese at the store (I am quite confident that I could make my own, but time was running short, and I hadn't researched a recipe before heading out on errands), as its coolness was quite needed every few bites.  The wings were spicy, sweet, and just all around tasty.  Now, I honestly am pretty lukewarm about chicken (except in the friend and pie varieties; I think I've mentioned that before), but these were delicious.

The crust was perfect - is your mouth watering yet?

The biggest surprise, though, was the onion.  Scott took one of the beautiful onions we received from our CSA this week and made a "French onion."  When I asked him what that meant, he told me to just take a bite and see if I could guess what he did to it.

I took a bite.

Wow - it tasted exactly like French onion soup - except without the soup!

I was a little too busy eating to remember everything he said, but apparently, he put the onion in foil and then poured some beer into the foil.  Then, after coring out the middle of the onion (maybe he did this first), he added a little beef bullion and threw that into the smoker as well.  

This was my best picture of the onion.
By the time Scott explained it to me, I had eaten it.
And a cold beer helps control the heat from the wings.

Ever the one to plan for the possibility that the entire Russian navy might come to dinner, Scott also made a little potato and onion hash that was a nice foil to the intensity of the wings.  I was, of course, stuffed to the gills but a very happy camper.

I am very fortunate to be able to know what a full belly feels like, and in this past week of devastating weather throughout the Midwest, I think about how much we all can do to help one ensure that others do not go hungry (as well as the many other ways that we can help our fellow beings).  The cities of Chandler and Gilbert here in the East Valley are having a friendly food drive competition (the losing council has to wear shirts that announce its "love" for the other council, from what I gather), but a simple thing that anyone can do is to just pick up an extra can or two of food on each trip to the grocery store and then store those extras away.  When a bag or box is full, the nearest food bank will most certainly welcome it, and there will never be the pinch in the pocketbook for an excuse.