Chicken wing sauce

This home-canned chicken wing sauce is a good first step towards making healthier pub and bar-style food at home.

You may wish to try it with browned chicken tenders (breast strips) instead of wings to make it even healthier.

The recipe writers suggest, “Spoon the ready-to-use sauce over browned chicken pieces and simmer or bake until done.”

Match those sauced-up chicken tenders up with some baked fries or hot air fries (yes, there is such a thing, we kid you not), some home-made oven-baked or air-fried onion rings, a salad with some home-made low-cal ranch on it, and, of course, a pint or glass of your favourite tipple along with a good movie on the tube and you are good to go for party night in that’s easy on the budget AND waistline.

But of course, it’s ALL about the wing sauce, and this is a finger-lickin’ one!

The recipe

Jar size choices: 125 ml (1/2 cup / 4 oz) OR quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 8 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 8 quarter-litre (half-pint / 250 ml / 8 oz / 1 cup) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (1/2 inch)

Processing time: Either size jar 15 minutes

Chicken wing sauce

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 30 mins

Yield: 8 quarter-litre (half-pint / 250 ml / 8 oz / 1 cup) jars

Serving size: 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

Calories: 22

Fat: 0 g

Ingredients

2½ litres of tomatoes peeled, cored and chopped (10 cups / 80 oz)
200 g chopped onion (2 cups / 7 oz)
50 g brown sugar (1/3 cup / 2 oz) OR ½ teaspoon liquid stevia
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
375 ml white vinegar (1½ cups / 12 oz)
4 teaspoons salt OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Instructions

Prepare the tomatoes.
Put into a large pot (at least 4 litres / quart).
Peel and chop the onion.
Add to pot.
Add the sugar (or stevia) and the cayenne.
Bring to a boil uncovered.
Lower to a gentle boil and let simmer uncovered until onion has softened -- about 30 minutes.
Remove from heat, let cool a bit.
Purée in batches in a blender or food processor.
Return mixture to pot.
Add all the remaining ingredients from the vinegar downwards.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer and let simmer uncovered until the consistency of a somewhat thin ketchup -- about an hour.
Ladle sauce into heated jars, leaving 2 cm (1/2 inch) headspace.
Debubble, adjust headspace.
Wipe jar rims.
Put lids on.
Process in a water bath or steam canner.
Process jars for 15 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For salt substitute, non-bitter, non-clouding Herbamare Sodium-Free was used.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

Recipe notes

For the tomatoes, you will need to start with 3 kg (6.5 lbs) of whole tomatoes. That’s about 15 Roma-type tomatoes.
You could start with 2 1/2 litres of canned tomato (crushed or diced, home-canned or purchased) instead.
The book says, “If you prefer a sauce with more ‘heat’, feel free to add 2 to 3 tablespoons of your favourite hot sauce along with the vinegar and spices.”
This is an ideal mixture to use a heat diffuser with during the second hour-long simmering phase to avoid bottom scorching.

Recipe source

Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 368.

Modifications made:

Sugar and salt-free alternative choices
Worked out equivalencies for starting from canned tomato

The writers suggest, “Use this delicious, shelf-stable tomato sauce as a dipping sauce with grilled chicken wings or as a time-saving ingredient. Spoon the ready-to-use sauce over browned chicken pieces and simmer or bake until done.”

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per two tablespoons:

22 calories, 223 mg sodium

Sugar and salt-free version

Per two tablespoons:

19 calories, 76 mg sodium

* Nutrition info provided by http://caloriecount.about.com