I can’t believe they’re not chicken wings

Kinda ugly, aren’t they? Despite their somewhat dubious looks, these are a tasty and unexpected compromise for the chicken wing battle that wages in our house. My husband loves chicken wings. Their high-fat, low-meat ratio makes them a less than healthy snack. He likes the spicy sauce and finger-lickin’ properties of wings. I don’t care about the mess, I just want him to live long enough to shovel snow well into retirement. We seemed deadlocked on this issue. Then fate intervened.

I was making what would turn out to be a disappointing batch of butter chicken. Being out of chicken breast I was forced to debone thighs for the curry. I’m not very good at this fiddley task and produced half a dozen thigh bones with too much meat to throw out. I would normally use them for soup stock, but noticed that they looked a bit like drumettes. So, I tossed them in Andrew’s favourite Buffalo wing sauce and baked them up.

Can skinless, badly butchered chicken thighs make a suitable substitute for wings? “They were deee-lish,” Andrew says. “A little more meaty than wings, but slightly more manageable.” Did he feel cheated? “No. I would have put a little more sauce on them, but that’s a difference of opinion.”

I was thrilled with our new agreement until I read the ingredient list on his wing sauce. It’s got enough salt to de-ice the roads. When I mentioned this, Andrew protested. He likes salty, fatty things and says if I keep fiddling with his treats, he’ll end up with the equivalent of a tofu hotdog.

He should be so lucky.