While living in Melbourne, TGI Fridays was a favourite Friday night venue to ease into the weekend. My order was always Buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing, celery crudites and a couple of Pina Coladas. Perfect.

Buffalo wings are a bit of a favourite in our house too, however, after doing them to death we decided to branch out with the help of dad’s favourite food blogger, after me, Chef John from Food Wishes. Chef John says he is going to save the world one chicken wing at a time, and I’m telling you, he just might do it.

Chef John has some wonderfully creative and distinctly American flavour combinations. Tonight was his honey mustard wings however his peanut butter and jelly wings are also delightfully delicious.

Serves 4

Wings
6 chicken wings, halved into the wing and the drumette
2 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tbs American yellow mustard
3 tbs honey
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce, such as Tabasco
Salt
Pepper

Firecrackers
4 spring roll wrappers
200g crab meat, picked
100g prawns, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup corn kernels
2 green shallots, finely sliced
1 long red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup aioli
2 tbs Tabasco

Potato Skins
4 waxy potatoes, quartered length ways
2 bacon rashers, finely chopped
4 tbs pickled jalapenos, finely chopped
1 cup of cheese, grated
Oil for frying

Crudites
2 carrots
3 celery sticks
80g blue cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Paul Newman’s Ranch Dressing

First get your marinade for the wing happening. Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

Next make your blue cheese dressing. Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined. Set aside.

To get the wings ready, place in a plastic bag with some oil, toss to coat. Place on a baking tray and lightly season with salt and pepper. Place in 180 degree oven for 30 minutes.

For your potato skins, place in a microwave steamer container with a few tablespoons of water and cook in the microwave, on high, until tender. Once cooked, leave to dry and cool. Once cool cut a little bit of the flesh away to make room for your toppings and then in a large fry pan shallow fry these until golden on each side. Once fried, lightly salt and then place on a baking try, skin side down ready for topping and grilling. In that same fry pan, cook up your bacon until crispy and set aside.

Now to make your firecracker filling, combine crab, prawn, chilli, shallots, corn and salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Leave this in the fridge until you are ready to roll. Next combine your aioli with the Tabasco and set aside.

Next you will need to peel and cut your crudite vegetables into 1cm wide by about 7cm long batons. These can now be plated along with the blue cheese sauce and kept in the fridge, covered until serving.

When the wings are 5 minutes from ready, top your potato skins with the bacon, jalapenos and cheese. Once the wings come out drizzle over the mustard wing sauce and leave to sit, tossing occasionally until serving. Now you can put your potato skins in to reheat and melt the cheese.

Once the wings are marinating and the potatoes are heating you can start to heat a large frypan over medium with enough oil to come about half way up the firecrackers. Now you can roll your firecrackers. Place the square wrapper on a diagonal in front of you, place a quarter of the crab filling in a long sausage shape in the middle. Fold the horizontal corners in, then the bottom corner in, and then roll the rest of the way, sealing the final tip with a dab of water. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown and warmed through.

Now everything can be served. This is a great idea for a relaxed dinner part where people can pick and choose and use their hands. I also still think it’s a great way to start the weekend. Have a great weekend!