Champion’s Showcase: Lily, Tegan & Ali Wing King III

This year at the 3rd Annual Wing King Competition, we saw two new things. A group effort winning the Wing King trophy. AND it was the first time where both the trophy and the People’s Choice Award was taken by the same winner(s)! DAMN!!! BOLLYHOOD takes it all!Lily, Tegan and Ali, BigBite tips it’s hat off to you ladies! Congrats!

Here’s what these hot mama’s had to say in the Champion’s Showcase:
United by the belief that 3 chicks are better than 1- the pwwc (philadelphia womens wing collective) was established in early Spring 2011. While all of the founding members were up to their elbows in flour, pickles, and chocolate, as soon as the infamous CLUCK  of the wingKind resonated down the alleys of philadelphia, we wiped our hands on our aprons and were off to find the best wings for the job.

Not wanting anyone to be intimidated by the power of pwwc focusing on one wing, we decided to create three wings – and decided with our powers combined the great hen from above would bless us with at least one golden egg.

Like any collaborative, there were scratches along our path-but we puffed up our breasts and carried on to decide upon 3 final wing flavors, a spicy date, a wildflower honey serrano, and an indian tandoori wing.

The idea: The tandoori idea immediately resonated with the collective as one of our members had recently won another food competition with indian inspired baked goods. (Props to Lily who snatched the Cupcake Wars win with her indian style cupcakes. Watch her in action). We developed the ingredients and receipes- there were fingers in every pot- brining, marinating, roasting.

The Recipe: For the day of Wing King III, we split the wing preparation with co-coo Lily, wiping the yogurt marinade off the BOLLYHOOD and baking those wings to perfection, co-coo Ali, blending the roasted tomato sauce and whipping up the yogurt cucumber side sauce, and co-coo Tegan pinching this and sprinkling that for the perfect balance of spicy, salty, and delish.

As a last minute decision- we tasted the juicy flavorful wings and decided that instead of grilling them- a quick broil would really bring out the perfect goodness. Lily sat crouched on a small pot, watching the perfectly spiced-blessed wings like a proud mother- waiting for the split second to get that perfect char and hopefully avoiding the dreaded buurrrnn.

Next: The womens wing collective couldn’t be any prouder to win  the 3rd Annual WingKing, 2011- and hope to bring the WingQueen back in 2012.We believe in feeding, eating, and supporting our food sisters, and occasionally taking that pecking hen (even with the sash)……grabbing by her throat and roasting her to perfection… licking our fingers all the way. Who Runs the World????Watch the Wing king awards ceremonies here.

Champion’s Showcase: Alex, Wing King III

Alex R, (from our Wing Ring Series) not only placed in 2nd during the 2nd Annual Philly Chili Bowl, but also kept that same seat for the 3rd Annual Wing King Competition, with his latin wings know as KARIBBEAN KRAKEN.

Here’s his self proclaimed 2nd place portrait!Here’s what he had to say for his highlight in the Champion’s Showcase:
BACK to BACK second place wins!! I wasn’t lying when I told you I AM NOT PLAYIN! I may talk big game, but dammit I bring the pain! First I want to thank my wife Kim for being my support in this new tasty adventure BigBite has allowed us to take.

If you haven’t heard by now, my latest creation out of this culinary master’s lab has once again proven to be a monstrosity of a hit. The Albino Rhino Chili was proof that I could run with the big dogs, but the Karibbean Kraken Chicken Wings solidified this mad scientist as a contender to that First Place Trophy! Big ups to ladies from “Bollyhood” for the win. After hearing that he was again, named the 2nd place winner of his 2nd BigBite event

My recipe: For those who wanted to know how it went down – I’ll let you in on a few secrets. The Karibbean Kraken starts with wings marinated overnight in garlic, onion and citrus.

Its topped with a tomato based sauce made with the finest Puerto Rican Sugar Cane Rum, a touch of brown sugar, a taste of Guava, a splash of Pineapple Juice, a bit of coconut milk and a drop of smoke. You then hit it with some spices like Adobo, sazón, dry mustard and garlic (just to mention a few), simmered to perfection with Poblano and Serrano peppers; finished with a kick from some Cajun style three pepper hot sauce.

Finally all baked to perfection and garnished with pineapple chunks. Simply a beast!

Next: Be afraid because the next monster I’ll unleash will leave you wanting more. I promise you will love it and be terrified at the same time. I don’t do this for bragging rights, no no silly, I do this for you. For those who enjoy the sensation of the unknown as a tasty treat; to the risk takers and the thrill seekers wanting to part from the norm; to those who take the rhino by the horn and say: “I will eat you and I will LOVE IT!!!”

Once Again I thank you for giving me the opportunity to unleash yet another crazy concoction and letting me be a part of such a great event.

-Alex R.

Champion’s Showcase: Jack, Wing King III

Jack K. placed 3rd in the 3rd Annual Wing King Competition, with his wings named SPICY DELIGHT. Jack and his girlfriend enjoy their platter full of his competitiors’ wings before the judging deliberation…Here’s what he had to say for his highlight in the Champion’s Showcase:
How do I describe my 2011 Wing King III experience? It was spicy and delightful.  The people, food, location and beer all came together perfectly and made for a great experience.  I was impressed with the smooth execution of both the wing competition and the kick ass party.  I also want to give a nod to whoever made the deviled eggs, he or she deserved a ribbon too. 

How I ended up in the event: I learned of the event and was encouraged to enter the night before it took place, by last year’s Wing King winner, Charlie and his Wing Queen, Melissa.  After talking up my recipe to Charlie over the course of the evening, I had to at least wake up the next morning and give it a try.  Cooking my wings was actually a somewhat long, painstaking process and it felt great to be rewarded for that work with the 3rd prize win.  My recipe: My Spicy Delight recipe is meant to capture the classic buffalo flavor, but also take it up a notch with a crispy texture and more spiciness. 

To start off, I pan-fried my wings in Peanut Oil.  I don’t have one, but I suppose a deep fryer would work just fine.  Before they were released to the grease, I rubbed the wings with a mixture of lemon-pepper salt, garlic powder, onion powder and crushed red pepper.  Ideally, no salt needs to be added because the cayenne sauce is already salty enough.
After the wings fried up, I placed them on a paper bag to allow some of the grease to drain off.  Then the wings went into a sauce made up of cayenne hot sauce, habanero peppers, chopped parsley, minced garlic, and pepper.  After they are dip into the sauce, the wings were lined up on a baking pan and put into the oven.  Baking makes the sauce crisp up, which to me is the best part.  If I could do it again, I would probably bake the wings at a higher temperature for more of a char.  Overall though, I think the recipe turned out well. 

Next: Although the Wing King III shirts in my size were sold out, I was able to get an old Philly Chilly Bowl tee, and now I have something else to look forward to before the 4th Annual Wing King, 2012.  I’m ready for some chili.  As for Wing King 2012, I hope to return and prove that I’m not a one-hit wonder. 

Thanks to all for making this a great event. 

-Jack K.

Champion’s Showcase

As part of our love for our talented winners, BigBite is going just one step further with showing off our winners! After all the time, sweat and effort spent working on perfecting their recipes, we think it’s fair that we highlight them just a little bit more. The Champion’s Showcase is an open forum where BigBite winners (3rd, 2nd and 1st place winners, as well as People’s Choice Award winners) can share their thoughts on the event, their experiences with their entries, and share their recipes of their oh-so-good winning food. This makes for more good reads!

3rd Annual WING KING

Sowwees…we’ve been on vacation!

We are way past due on the 3rd Annual Wing King recap. That’s what happens when Philly is at the brink of going from a chilly and rainy spring to a summer filled with heat waves, bbq’s, beach trips, pool hang outs and other random fun, summa-time events!

So to fill those of you in who missed BigBite’s epic 3^rd Annual Wing King, here’s the low down! On Saturday May 28^th, 2011 BigBite came hard with its third installment of Philly’s best hidden gem, and wing-cellent chicken wing cooking competition.

BigBite hosted Wing King III at the one and only original location, the Cave on Carpenter…aka, BigBite’s own, Phil’s house. A total of 17 wings were entered (yes, all the Wing Ring-ers followed through and brought the heat!), ranging from all types of flavors, textures, and sizes. We can certainly say, people really stepped their game up this year.

See the quirky, creative and funny names given to these oh sooo good wangs!(We apologize in advance for the video quality and length. We could use a video editor. Email us if interested.)

In addition to these funny names, we  also couldn’t ask for a better line-up of judges for this event, so thank to (in order) Drew (CityPaper’s Mealticket blooger and Editor), Joe (People’s Republic Food Cart owner), Tom (Philly’s WingQuest blogger), Lily (Executive Director to COOK, Philly’s soon-to-open kitchen/classroom) and Ace (food enthusiast)!

They sat in that spring-time heat for at least two hours hands deep in wing sauce, and piles of suckling bones, while keeping a smile on their faces. But they trucked through it.Our judges were observant, detailed, and expressive! Thank you all for your time, stomachs and comments!

BigBite took soo much pleasure in watching folks have a good time…mostly because they were eating away! We gotta say, people were getting down and dirty with dem wangs, partly due to how awesome our plates were! What a beauty!Great for separating the pleothra of wings availabe, but even better for holding more food than your average bbq plate. Brilliant!

The more wings and fermented juices flowed, the more the anticipation grew. Who was going to take the People’s Choice Award (an additional judging round where spectators can throw in their two cents and vote for their favorite wing)?? And who was going to take that trophy to be named the 2011 WING KING?

Before we get to that though, BigBite wants to thanks our Sponsors who made it to our sweet (ice cold) t-shirts!

Our DJ, Shiz Le RoqJon Garr, who has officially given us a Wing King Anthem,“I finished all the food on my plate….I’m still hungrrryyy…”

And our photographers who took some awesome flicks. See some Wing King photos by these beautiful people; Ashton ,Teresa, Drew and Nadia. 

Ok. Now on to the fun stuff. The Ceremony! Check out our un-edited video (again, taking applicants) of the 3^rd, 2^nd and the People’s Choice Winners.

3^rd Annual Wing King 3^rd Place Winner: SPICY DELIGHT  3rd Annual Wing King 2^nd Place Winner: KARRIBEAN KRACKINFor the final judging all we have to say is watch this. The winner also took home the People’s Choice Award!Thanks to our video man for getting deep into the crowd to catch all of the action!

Thanks to Chicken with an elaborate Wing King trophy dance

And of course congratulations to Lily, Tegan and Ally for sweeping the People Choice Award AND the crown for the 3^rd Annual Wing King (QUEEN) win! You ladies really blew us away! Who run the world!?!

Side note: Lily Fischer (Wing King winner) was also the winner of the recent Cupcake Wars: Bollywood editions. Girl is taking over the city! Winner of Wing King and Cupcake Wars…killing it. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on her deeelicious treats. You should get your hands on them too at, A Cupcake Wonderland!!

So that wraps up the 2011 Wing King Competition. Thank you All for your support, love and appetites. Without your supports we wouldn’t be able to do it.

More photos can be found on our facebook page: facebook/BigBite Philly