baked spanish chicken wings with almond sauce

Considering that, for the past several months, I’ve been instantly dismissing recipes that call for a substantial amount of red wine, it was really odd that I was drawn to making chicken wings, of all things, marinated in red wine. Really, I don’t get it. And it’s not that I don’t like dishes with red wine, it’s just that it’s so prevalent in the winter and I’m tired of braising and stewing everything in it because every dish starts to blur into the last.
But let me tell you, it’s a good thing these little wings came into my life. It’s a good thing that I just happened to have an old bottle of wine that I couldn’t really remember when it was from (hey, it at least didn’t smell like nail polish remover, so I feel okay about it) and figured this would be a good use for it. It’s a good thing that despite loving aioli, I put my foot down about not serving these wings with it. It seems like I get sucked into making it for about every single tapas dish I make and holy crap this almond sauce was good. It’s also a good thing that chicken wings were on sale. Seriously, why are they normally so expensive?? Thighs will be like 89¢ a pound and lousy wings will be $5 a pound. Stupid. (Like I’m really qualified to discuss the validity of chicken’s pricing structure.)
I finally took the initiative to stop washing my hair with shampoo. Omg I’m so paleo. But wait, I’ve been a dirty hippie for way longer than any of you no-pooing paleobandwagoners. Back when I used to dye my hair wacky colors, I didn’t wash my hair for months! And I wore patchouli! I still do. I love it. Now I just add drops to my lotion so that it’s not so overt… But after I decided that I needed to grow up a little bit, I was a little more regular with shampoo. I actually had this really awesome commercial no-poo that made my hair gloriously curly/wavy, but it was super expensive. And now that I’m in Colorado, there’s not much hope in my hair holding a curl, so I just had been using a regular shampoo about once every 5 days. My hair’s real long, so I was able to justify my hatred of showers washing it often because of that. But being in the mood of newyearnewyous after my successful January Whole30, I thought that February would be a good time to set aside my never-ending bottles of shampoo and conditioner (washing it not often is incidentally very economical) and try this whole homemade no-poo thing. Uh, it’s awesome. I don’t know why everyone says your hair is greasy for a couple weeks after switching. Maybe for those once-a-day washers. Mine is fine. I don’t know what this has to do with food, other than that it’s gross and not appetizing at all.
We had a giant snow storm. Snowpocalypse, if you will. I’m very supportive of tacking on “Gate” to scandals of any type, as well as “pocalypse” to any mildly disastrous disaster. Generally I’m pretty way too cool to use most cultural conventions, but sure do like those. Especially “gate”. It cracks me up. Don’t talk to me about zombie apocalypses, though. I’ll hate you instantly. I also don’t like adding “sauce” to an adjective. Exhibit A) “awesomesauce”.
baked spanish chicken wings
wings adapted from Gourmet

wings
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 1/2 pounds of chicken wings

1. Mix together first 6 ingredients in a large ziplock bag or in a bowl. Add wings, toss to coat evenly. Squeeze the air out of and seal the bag or if using a bowl, put a layer of plastic wrap on top so that it’s touching the surface of the marinade. Refrigerate overnight.

2. When you’re ready to make these, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Lay out the wings on a baking sheet, pouring marinade on top. Place on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 25 minutes.

3. Crank up the oven to broil. Leaving the rack in the same spot, broil for 4 minutes, or until skin is nice and browned and crispy.

almond sauce
3 oz raw almonds (you can also use roasted almonds and omit step 1., but they’re not as tasty)
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup parsley
2 garlic cloves
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper
1/2 cup broth or water

1. In a small sauté pan, heat 1-2 tablespoons oil over medium high heat. Add your almonds and toss until they’re a nice golden brown, being careful not to burn them (I almost did!). Transfer to a food processor.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to your food processor, drizzling in the rest of the olive oil if you’ve got one of those tops to your processor. Purée until very smooth. Add more broth or water if it’s too thick. Adjust seasonings to taste.

I hope you think this almond sauce is as wonderful as I did. And the wings, too. The leftovers were like the highlight of my day for the following few days.