| Alabama Recipes |
HOT STUFF Bringing the sizzle, just in time for Valentine’s Day BY JENNIFER KORNEGAY FOOD/PHOTOGRAPHY BY BROOKE ECHOLS
“If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” While this phrase is rarely referring to an actual kitchen or a literal rise in temperature, it has its basis in fact. Cooking makes things hot (including the spaces surrounding its activity, and during winter, that’s not a bad thing). But with this month’s reader-submitted recipes, you don’t have to be anywhere near the kitchen to feel the burn. These dishes are packing heat in another sense. Thanks to fresh peppers, dried chilies and other seasonings, they’re full of flavor and spice. Some like it hot; they get a kick out of a little singe. Testing the limits of what our tongues can take has actually gotten pretty popular. Just look at the hot sauce market. With names like Wild Fire, Devil’s Tongue and Sudden Death (plus labels picturing flaming skulls), some brands make no attempt to hide the pain their ingestion will cause, and yet, people buy them. Other people find zero pleasure in the discomfort that can come with super spicy foods and choose to keep their plates and palates on the mild side. No matter what camp you fall into, remember, you can adjust any recipe to be less fiery by reducing (or leaving out) its blaze-bringing ingredients. Or, you can turn up the temp by adding even more. Whatever you do, don’t shy away from these dishes. Intense and intensely satisfying, they’ll warm you from the inside out, and their tastes are worth the risk of a little heartburn.
5-Alarm Spicy Wings
34 FEBRUARY 2018
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