Ninja Foodi: Sriracha BBQ Chicken Wings (from raw frozen!)

This was the first item I made in the Ninja Foodi using both the pressure and air fryer features. In retrospect, it tastes as though I should have marinated the frozen chicken wings first, as they were bland and tasteless without the BBQ sauce that I added later in the air crisping step of this recipe. The crazy part is cooking frozen meat to perfectly cooked in the Ninja Foodi.

The cooking times on this recipe needs additional testing. After the pressure cooking phase, the wings were done. Any air frying would have added additional heat and time, making these somewhat dried out but "looking" the part of being broiled or fried. Total cooking time is too long if you want the outcome to be tender but crispy chicken wings.

TheFoodening Blog - Ninja Foodi Sriracha BBQ Chicken Wings

Recipe adapted from the basic Ninja Foodi cookbook that came with the unit.

Recipe: Fail

This is a fail because total cooking time is 40+ minutes -- the same amount of time that an oven-based recipe uses to get chicken to a minimum 165 F.

The original recipe calls for frozen chicken breasts which much denser than chicken wings. The cook time could have been halved for each step: PC and AF. And, the chicken, while frozen and raw, could have been marinated at least a half hour before cooking. The "fixed" directions, time, and temps are noted below.

Ingredients

2 lb raw chicken wings
1-2 c BBQ sauce (I used Trader Joe's Sriracha BBQ sauce)
1 c water
additional sriracha sauce, optional for more spicy

Add 1 c of bbq sauce and chicken wings to a resealable plastic bag or food storage container. Let the wings marinate for 30 minutes or longer in the fridge. In my first attempt, I did not marinate before cooking and applied the sauce at the Air Crisper step.

Pressure Cooker Directions

Place fry basket in pot. Add water to pot and chicken to fry basket. Select "Pressure" and "Hi". Set timer for 10 minutes. Start.

10 minutes natural release, then quick release.

Remove pressure cooking lid.

Air Crisper Directions

Select "Broil", Temp to 400 F, and Time for 10-15 minutes.

Toss or use a silicone pastry brush to apply more BBQ sauce to the wings.

Check at 5 minute intervals to see how crispy the wings are getting. Serve with additional BBQ sauce.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

This recipe ratio turned out tasting very good. There were a few changes to how I did this. The first being the lack of apple juice (one cup). I substituted one cup of unsweetened apple butter (made from winesap apples) plus one cup of water. Also, I didn't toss the cooking liquid from the crockpot, instead I reserved it to a pot and simmered it until it had the consistency of barbecue sauce again. This yielded 2.5 cups of sauce. The cut of pork that was used is called "country pork rib", and you can get this in a large multipack from Costco. It's the same cut style of pork that I use for my kimchi pork soup. The only onions in this batch is what is in the BBQ sauce.

Total prep/cooking time: 8 hours
Yields: 1 quart pulled pork (for 2 lbs of meat)

TheFoodening Blog - pulled pork

Ingredients

2-3 lbs boneless country pork rib

1 c unsweetened apple juice, or 1 c unsweetened apple butter plus 1 c water

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 c BBQ sauce (I used Trader Joe's Kansas City BBQ sauce)

Directions

In the crockpot, place pork on the bottom. Cover with cloves, apple butter, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and barbecue sauce. Add the water to the bottom (don't wash off the stuff on top of the pork).

Set the crockpot to high for 2 hours. Then, set the crockpot to low for 4 hours. After the 6 hour mark, drain the crockpot of its liquid to a separate pot, leaving a half inch of liquid at the bottom of the crockpot. Cook pork for an additional hour. Turn off heat and use two forks to shred the pork.

In the separate pot with the cooking liquid, simmer the liquid on low heat until it has more than reduced by half of its liquid volume. It should be somewhat runnier than the barbecue sauce that went into it but thick enough that it isn't watery.

Take a half cup of the reduced sauce and pour it over the shredded pork. Stir to combine. 

If you made the hamburger buns from the previous post, split those in half and place a good amount of pulled pork on the bottom bun and cover it with the top bun. Enjoy!

TheFoodening Blog - pulled pork on a homemade bun

Note: If you don't have a crockpot or slow cooker, you can also use a dutch oven and bake the pork until tender for 4 hours at 325 F. 

Marinade for Mushroom Kabobs

Originally I thought about using this marinade for both the brown (cremini) and white mushrooms, but ended up just using the brown mushrooms with red and green bell peppers. I only have aged balsamic vinegar and it seemed a waste to use a tasting vinegar for a marinade so I used half balsamic and half rice vinegar for the vinegar part.

The Foodening Blog - grilled mushroom and vegetable kabobs

Makes: 9 skewers (using 10" bamboo skewers)

Ingredients

8 oz brown cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed
8 oz grape or cherry tomatoes
1 large red bell pepper, sliced into 1" pieces
1 large green bell pepper, sliced into 1" pieces
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Combine all items in a resealable container. Shake to coat everything with the marinade. Refrigerate for an hour or until ready to use.

To grill:

Stab vegetables and mushrooms in an alternating order (for variety!). Grill vegetables for 10-15 minutes, rotating at the half way mark until the mushrooms are done. The bell peppers can be slightly charred.

Asian BBQ Pork Spare Ribs

This recipe tasted OK. How the pork gets cooked probably needs some work and/or tweaking as they came out a little tough to eat. Overall, from an aesthetic perspective, they looked great and social media post-worthy. I was looking to do something different than how pork spare ribs are traditionally served up, e.g., as dim sum small plate (steamed with black beans) or as grilled ribs with an Asian-flavored sauce slathered onto it.

The Foodening Blog: Asian BBQ Short Ribs

While I had a jar of hoisin sauce in the pantry, for once, I made hoisin sauce from scratch for this dish. You can get these short ribs at any Asian grocery store butcher counter. These were already cut to 1" - 1.5" size, and if you were going to make the dim sum short ribs recipe, you'd need these cut to the 1" size. Onward.

Ingredients

2-3 lbs pork short ribs

1/4 c white vinegar

2 tsp sea salt

Marinade Ingredients
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 c light soy sauce
1/2 c unbleached cane sugar
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c lemon juice, or fresh juice from 1 lemon plus its zest
3 tbsp raw honey
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp fresh garlic, finely chopped

Garnish

2 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted
green onion, white part (optional)

Directions

Start by bringing a large pot of water to boil with salt and vinegar. Add pork ribs, bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sugar, ketchup, lemon juice, honey, ginger, and garlic. Whisk to combine.

Place cooked ribs in a large ziplock bag (or food storage container with a lid). Pour on the marinade and marinate for up to 6 hours or overnight.

Grill ribs until the ribs are slightly charred. -or- if using an oven broiler, broil meat until slightly charred

Simple BBQ Sauce

In an earlier post, I made a spicy homemade catsup. I used that in this recipe. It came out sweeter than I had expected and not as spicy or earthy/smoked as I had hoped. I used this as a basting sauce for roasted chicken legs. Overall, tasty. I'd probably add a lot more smoked chipotle powder to it the next time around.

Yield: about a cup

Ingredients

1 c homemade ketchup
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground red chili flakes
up to 2 tbsp smoked chipotle powder (optional)

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for about five minutes until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

For baked chicken parts:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Baste chicken with sauce and bake for an hour. Flip the parts over on the half hour mark and baste again with the sauce.