Wingin’ It: Buffalo Smokies as the Bills face the Ravens

Where there’s football, there’s food. There are many great options in the category of “traditional fare” but you might be in the mood for something different. Wingin’ It has you covered with a new Buffalo sauce-inspired recipe every week of the Buffalo Bills’ season. Get ready to win big in your kitchen as the Bills get ready for the Baltimore Ravens!

We’re going a little more traditional football fare this week with some smokies to go with whatever spread you’re throwing together. It’s perfect for this week too as the Bills took John “Smoke” Brown away from the Ravens and a big day from Smoke could be the deciding factor. Where there’s Smoke, there’s fire, right? Also, we’re adding a little fire to the smokies so the puns are literally delicious this week.

Buffalo Smokies

Serves: 6-10
Active Time: 20 min
Total Time: 50 min

Ingredients

2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp garlic power
1 Tbsp onion powder
¹⁄₂ tsp cinnamon
12 oz root beer
3 Tbsp mustard
1 ¹⁄₄ cups ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
¹⁄₂ cup hot sauce
28 oz package smokies (or two smaller packs)

Directions

1. Melt butter in large pot on MED/HIGH. Stir in garlic powder, onion powder, and cinnamon; cook 1 min.
2. Pour in root beer and stir in, allowing foam to break up (1-2 min).
3. Add mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, and hot sauce and stir in. Allow sauce to reduce some, about 8 min stirring frequently*.
4. Add smokies and bring to simmer. Stir occasionally until sauce is reduced to desired consistency (about 30 min)**.

Wingin’ It Tips

• *Keep an eye on your heat. You don’t want a rolling boil during this.
• **I did the sauce steps first to allow this to translate to a slow cooker super easily. Just reduce the sauce in step 4 until it’s BBQ sauce consistency (since you’re literally making a type of BBQ sauce). Then combine the sauce and smokies in the slow cooker the way you’d usually do it.

BONUS thing! Root beer? Really?

Yep. This week’s choice was all about knowing how things combine over a longer cooking time, like BBQ sauces tend to have. Butter and root beer combine for an excellent caramel-like profile that goes really well with these.

As an aside, the amount of hot sauce used steers toward a milder heat. However, before you go and up the heat, not only do the chosen ingredients result in a caramel flavor, they also lend themselves to being sticky like caramel. Mild heat that sticks with you can be plenty for a lot of people.