Totally Worth It

It started out innocently enough. These Vietnamese Style Spicy Caramel Chicken Wings caught my eye last month. We love Buffalo chicken wings around here, but I wanted something different. Making the caramel sauce was a trip. The sugar and water seizes up when you add the other ingredients. It's like a big science experiment gone haywire. Eventually, everything melted and the resulting liquid is used as a marinade.

Since I was going with a Vietnamese theme, I thought I'd turn the starch and salad into summer rolls. Using fresh herbs, lettuces, cucumber, scallion, carrot, red pepper, and cellophane noodles I rolled the ingredients into rice wrappers.

I made a ton. While they were chilling, I made a quick peanut sauce for dipping. Is it just me, or could you eat peanut sauce on everything? I do love anything involving peanuts.

The wings were fantastic. I will definitely make these again. If just to see caramel seize up and turn into scary rock candy. The taste and spice on these wings is incredible. After marinating, you bake them and reduce the marinade liquid to a glaze to toss the baked wings in.

My saucepan after the glaze reduced. Bummer, but totally worth it. It had to soak a while, but the sugar residue came off. These old Farberware classic stainless steal saucepansare indestructible. I was afraid it was a goner, but it's as good as new again. I've had my saucepan set over 30 years and my mom gave me her old set which is even older. I always recommend them to anyone looking for pans.