Wingin’ It: Cody Caviar for Bills at Dolphins

Can you believe it? Season 5 of Wingin’ It! Where has the time gone? For any newcomers, here’s the premise. It’s hungry work being a fan of the Buffalo Bills. Every week of the regular season and postseason, Buffalo Rumblings brings you a recipe to try out with a “Buffalo” twist.

This week’s recipe comes courtesy of Nora. The idea was introduced by Nora’s husband Matt, but he made it absolutely clear this is her recipe. Professionally, I want to make sure he’s noted for reaching out to me—but let’s get back to Nora who was not only kind enough to share her recipe card, but made sure I had amazing pictures of it to attach (see below).

Nora brings us a vegetarian chip dip known as Texas or cowboy caviar. As Bills fans, there’s only one cowboy we should ever bring up in discussion, which is how our Buffalo version got its name. Would William Cody enjoy this recipe? Who knows, but I never turn down the chance for a naming gag.

Cody Caviar

Makes: A lot
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 40 min

Ingredients

¹⁄₄ cup hot sauce
¹⁄₄ cup apple cider vinegar
¹⁄₂ olive oil
1 stick unsalted butter
¹⁄₂ cup sugar
1 can black beans (all canned items roughly 15 oz size)
1 can black-eyed peas
1 can corn (shoepeg preferred, but might be hard to find in WNY)
Celery
Red onion
Hot pepper
Sweet pepper
Green olives

1. Add hot sauce, vinegar, olive oil, and butter to a medium saucepan on LOW; stir to combine until butter is melted.
2. Stir in sugar until thoroughly combined; remove from heat.
3. Open, drain, and rinse canned items, allowing time to drain before placing in a large mixing bowl.
4. Chop celery, onion, peppers, and green olives; add all to mixing bowl. Note: I’m not being super specific on how much of these items you want to use or how small to chop them. Aim for at least “corn size” or smaller on the chop, and customize the amounts to what you like. I have some general ideas in the pictures below.
5. Pour sauce over items in the mixing bowl and stir.
6. Serve with chips or your favorite item to dip with. See below for storage information.

Wingin’ It Tips and Prep Gallery

Grid View

Our first two pictures are Nora’s recipe card. Being candid, feel free to make her version. There’s a lot of care to balance ingredients. I think this will be at least as enjoyable as mine, and it likely has at least one advantage—which is storage. I used half the butter and half the olive oil to steer it more towards a wing sauce flavor profile.

I knew going into it that this would likely create a refrigeration issue. The butter will congeal when cooled so if you’re not bringing Cody Caviar right to the tailgate to share, you’ll need to gently warm it before serving to stir the butter in. Nora’s version shouldn’t have that issue. You can also use my version with all oil rather than the butter swap.

For quantities, you can see what I used. About three stalks of celery (minus the ends), most of a large red onion, and three cherry peppers for the hotter varity. Unpictured, I used a similar amount of a sweeter pepper, and about a handful of green olives.

I have a picture in there showing you a large mixing/storage bowl with a bamboo spoon. That should give a basic idea of just how much this makes. It’ll go quick, but it’s a lot.