Today on food connections, we are joined by Chef Sam Hastings, creator of Sam’s Sauce.

We’ll be making some tasty habanero mango hot sauce to serve over oven baked crispy chicken wings.

Stay with us.

[music] Hi, so today I would like to introduce to you chef Sam Hastings.

Take it away, Sam.

Hey, I appreciate you having me, this is going to be a fantastic opportunity.

My name is Sam Hastings.

I’ve been a professional.

chef for over 18 years.

I’s been making my small badge premium hot sauce for over four years.

Pretty confident individual.

I do think it’s the best hot sauce on the market for my flavor profile.

and I hope you guys agree to.

We’re gonna be making a fresh mango habanero hot sauce to go with some crispy oven baked chicken wings.

we’re gonna get those chicken wings going.

we gotta get them really crispy, something that I really like to do is do like a salt kind of like a like a salt brine overnight..

Which is basically just heavily seasoning, trying to get as much moisture out as possible.

That’s how you get them crispy.

That’s from the salt, just getting that much.

Pretty much yeah.

and then you know, pat dry with a lot of paper towels.

And then something that I really like to do is do it.

baking powder instead of a flower dredge.

It’s just a much easier process.

getting things a little more crispy in the oven.

But we got these little sheet trays with little riser racks.

You get heat all the way around.

So that’s super helpful, but um These were already season black.

Let’s just hit them a little bit more just to make sure big secret season your food.

The reason why most food isn’t super like p. is super exciting is probably because people aren’t seasoning enough.

Is a scosher salt?

This is just kosher salt.

Okay, super easy.

That’s all you gotta do.

I always joke around with other other.

small b badge hot sauce makers.

And if I I was like a consultant for hot sauce companies.

I feel like I’d rob everybody blind because I just tell people use more salt.

Oh, yeah.

That’s all you got to do.

I got a dirty hand over here.

This is handling all the chicken.

This is all clean.

And this is just baking powder.

Baking powder, you can go pretty heavy with it.

It doesn’t have to be anything too crazy.

just like a nice light coating.

And these are about as dry as they can be.

If they’re not super dry, it’s fine.

This will be a tasty product.

You’re just not going to get that crispy crispy skin, okay?

everybody is conscious of oils, seed oils, deep frying.

oven.

Big chicken wings are fantastic.

Oh, that’s what we like is that’s crispy skin, right?

So there’s Yeah.

Because I mean, if you get that rubbery skin, hey, still a tasty product, but it’s not what I’m looking for..

But I think there’s a does it pretty good.

Okay.

So then we’re going to get these on, these oven rags right here.

You don’t necessarily need to do this.

I’m gonna separate the the flats and the drums.

Drums just take a a little bit longer.

But these are just gonna go in the oven at 4:25 For maybe like ten minutes, I will kind of assess the situation, maybe flip them around.

maybe another ten minutes and they should be pretty good.

And I see you’re not you’re careful not to crowd them on your on your on your sheet fan.

That’s the big thing I think people get over zealous a little too excited and they just want them.

mash things in.

It’s a uh another big tip when it comes to cooking and like a sauté pan don’t You want to get all sides.

Everyone does that, though.

They just think, well, instead of, you know, taking my time, let’s uh, you know, instead of just doing badges.

They’re just gonna cram it all in at once and doesn’t work.

It’s right.

let me get rid of this and we’ll get these in the oven.

Okay.

is going in once again at a 425 degree oven.

An hour off to the races.

Yeah, it’ll just be a ten minute cook then I’ll probably rotate, try to make sure they’re all crispy.

And then we got some people we got to feed today.

Oh, yes.

You’re as too many included I’’t.

Well, what we’re gonna be doing All right now is get that mango habanero hot sauce going, and that’s just gonna consist with some fresh produce, some vinegar, some citrus.

juice.

It’s about it, we can make it simple.

All right.

So this is just a blender right now.

I’m just gonna show how to prepare um just some of the produce.

There’s a couple of things that kind of cut down.

Um this is gonna be predominantly a mango hot sauce.

so it’s good to see these awesome, fresh ripe mangoes, washed, of course, um a couple different ways to prepare them.

To make it fairly easy, I just go around like that.

and then you can easily peel the skin off just with a knife, be careful this way, but you don’t want any skin on there whatsoever.

And with this recipe, I’m abusing about Two to three whole mangoes.

Okay.

And you can use any type of mangle.

These are just kind of your classics, use all Twoful honey mangoes, but these are on the underripe side, which I kind of prefer those super ripe ones.

They’re just they’re very sweet.

Okay, a lot of sugar content.

um not really what I’m looking for in a sauce.

Some people are though.

And for some people might never have noticed they’re easy to find in the stores.

Maybe people haven’t noticed them or even known what they were.

But let’s just get the rest of these out because there is a lot of meat still on here.

Try it to be super wasteful.

I try to take as much meat as I can off of the pit.

but honestly, I don’t worry about it too much because there’s this little meat on the pit.

I’ll always put it in a big glass of water sit in the fridge over the night.

It’s like this man.

infused water.

It’s that sounds good.

And once they’re at these pieces, This is gonna be a sauce.

We’re gonna blend this up.

It doesn’t have to be pretty.

These can be as is, but if you’re slicing these for anyone else, I like these cheeks almost.

Cause then you can just kind of go with something like this.

and then just kind of dice, slice whatever you may need.

Yeah, Now then you’re kidding.

kind of ready to go.

So we’re good to go on those.

Let’s get in there and make sure it’s still pretty good folks.

And it just Brash mango.

Real good.

So in this blender, where it’s gonna be getting all that fresh mango, I already have prepared.

I want to say this is about two to three large mangoes.

Amasu.

a pretty mangle Ford hot sauce.

We’re in Minnesota.

People don’t like things.

Crazy, crazy hot.

Thank you so much.

So we’re just gonna make sure these are really nice forward.

So we have the bell the mango in there right now.

Let’s get a little yellow bell pepper, mainly just for the color.

It’s gonna just be super bright orange, and how I peel um bell pepper.

is just top to bottom.

You’re just taking those top pieces out.

You’re kind of getting around, and then you’re a void.

this, you’re avoiding all the seeds, all that.

white membrane in the center, that’s gone.

You can use it, whatever you’d like, most of the times with fine dining, they would always remove all of that white.

They don’t want any of that connected tissue.

I give them that nice bright yellow.

Once again, this is a hot sauce.

We can use it all.

And I don’t know if people are wear yellow peppers.

yellow bell peppers are the sweetest of the yellow red green, so that is.

perfect for this perfect for this recipe.

you’re gonna add your hot platter.

because I mean, yellow bow peppers.

Well, people get confused, they just think, well, I’m growing or green bell peppers.

I’m like, they don’t really make green bell peppers.

Every pepper will ripen to some colors, and green is just under ripe.

like jalaños.

when they’re green, they’re under ripe.

But you know, once they ripe into red, you’re gonna lose a little heat, but you’re gonna get more sweetness and natural flavor.. And then these are just the bell peppers.

What I like to do is stack come up like this, make it a little less work for you.

Rough kite through, and then is going on a hotage.

Where is he going on this guy?

Sure.

So I’ll get this out of the way as well.

So we got the bell peppers going right in as well.

And that’s just about one yellow bell pepper, that is all.

There’s gonna be a few other ingredients, but let’s get this moving a little bit with some liquid.

So we’re going to use a half cup distilled white wine vinegar.

quarter cup apple cider vinegar, quarter cup lime juice, and a quarter cup orange juice.

Ooh.

And, you know, a little TV magic.

I also got two.

Two tablespoons of a locally sourced honey in the as well, for just a little extra sweetness.

Interesting, sure.

Yeah, so you need vinegar up.

I think a lot of people, especially with hot sauces, they think, oh, I don’t like the vinegar hot sauces.

Can’t tell them tough luck because vinegar is a condom.

It defines what a condiment is..

So like anything with like a condiment base, hot sauce, barbecue, anything, ketchup and smile like.

worst enemy in the world.

Don’t care for ketchup wood.

It’s vinegar.

It’s like, yeah, you can’t it from it.

Right.

We have the belt peppers, the mango and some liquid in there.

I want to get this blending a little bit and see what the consistency is.

We might need to add more liquid.

Okay.

Turn it up to.

And essentially, that is a fine pure running right now.

Yeah, that got that’s real smooth now.

Now we got a little more going on.

So let’s keep her going.

Let’s uh you ready to sp space it up?

It smells good already.

So let’s get some peppers in there.

These are just drrenal orange habaneros.

I’d like to bring a lot of the special peppers from my own garden.

They’re just not ready yet.

Oh, okay.

Don’t really know how hot these are.

Every pepper’s a little different.

Let’s just start with three.

Does there have to be anything too crazy?

And then I’m gonna throw in a two cloves of garlic.

So I just kind of smash them, you know, get a little weight on top of them.

And two cloves should be fine.

I think a lot of people are always talking, oh, you can never have too much garlic.

I agree in a lot of ways.

When it comes to something that’s short to be a little more you don’t want to overdo it.

And what I did there is I just kind of used the side of the knife, smash down, so hopefully I can remove all the easy that way, don’t they?

Yes.

And it’s weird because it’s like you get a lot of garlic from the store and nine times out of ten, if it peels really difficult, it’s old and most garlic at grocery stores is old.

I’m sure.

but you get locally sourced garlic from your local food.

It’s have anything like it.

Sure.

So we got those two cloves of garlic, three habaneros.

We’ll see if it needs more.

And let’s just get some fresh lime zest and lime or a orange juice.

Where do you have a quarter cup of uh lemon juice and orange juice in there, but um might as well use the whole fruit.

So this is just a microplane.

Don’t want it super supersist.

See, let’s say about a half.

Yeah, half of one lime zested.

Let’s get half of one orange as well.

you know, citrus, orange, all those nice citrus fruits.

You can really smell that now, it’s gonna be fantastic with a nice mango hot sauce.

We might go back to those.

depending on the consistency, I want to throw in a little more lemon juice or a orange juice and lime juice.

But we’ll just get the This In there And it’s all about, yeah, utilizing the whole fruit.

I mean, there’s juice, but there’s also a lot of other good stuff in there.

Yes, there is.

So we have that, that, and then let’s see here.

sounds weird.

We got a lot of fruit, bell peppers, that’s of fruit, too.

But um we got to get something a little more savory in there.

Oh sure.

I’ not there about one whole white onion in the.. And then white onion, you could chop it, you can do whatever you want.

We’re gonna be blending it.

What I would like to do is just take both ends up.

Try to get as much out of it as possible.

And this is gonna be great.

Not all produce is fantastic.

We got a little deteriorating little color in the center.

Don’t fret though.

We’re just going to remove.

A white onion as opposed to a yellow onion just because it’s not as as strong.

And honestly.

Well, I would have probably went yellow, but um honestly at the store they’re way too big.

and I didn’t want to be wasteful.

so I wanted to make sure, hey, one small onion and a y it’s a little sweeter.

The white’s just a little more of that.

classic onion punch, but I think it still hold up quite well to that sweetness of this mango hot sauceer making.

So, you know, on little TV magic, got rid of all that discolored center because we don’t want that, but hey, sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing you.

You can’t tell what’s inside right.

God, no.

So these ones, I’m just gonna do a very rough kind of cut with them.

Nothing too crazy.

If you don’t have like a really like high-powered blender like this, you don’t need to.

You get a very simple like ninja blender.

You might want to chop these up a little more beforehand.

those would work.

I know, those are better for pure rays.

I mean, we’re making about a sauce, but hey, you can do that.

You might need a little more liquid.

You might want to cook the sauce first so it’s even softer or cook the ingredients first, and then blend.

But um what I like to do is a little more tricky.

People don’t do this.

Normally people uh blend the vinegars, the produce, everything, and then they put in a blender.

We might have an explosion in here if we do.

that blender to the roof, but I’m gonna make sure this is completely blended.

and then we’ll be cooking it in there.

Oh, which that’s causing it’s the the pasturization of it.

So you’re brain it up to temp.

That’s why I got our temperature right here just to make sure, and that’s just to deem that it’s just like safe.

You wanna get this up to Let’s just say at least over 200 degrees.

This is very acidic.

We’re going to I have some salt in there too, but um over like 200 degrees make sure it holds for at least five minutes.

That’s going to ensure this hot sauce have kept in great conditions.

and I can and refrigeration should at least last up to two to three weeks.

Oh, sure.

Good.

You can do much more to make sure this lasts even longer, but that ensures um like a bottling technique where you’d have to hot bottle.

Not everybody’s going to want to do that.

We’re just going to make a great hot sauce or some chicken wings right now.

And then we’re gonna throw it in about just one eh, maybe one and a half teaspoons of salt.

And we’re gonna taste this.

It doesn’t have to be crazy.

We can go back, and we can adjust this quite a bit.

All right.

Well let’s get this rip.

No No All right, so that is looking like a great sauce Let’s uh let’s just give a little taste.

Are we gonna do a little donkey donkey in there?

It’s got a little spice to it.

But you can throw that right in here.

does.

But honestly, what do you think?

Does it need a little more salt, maybe a little more lemon, orange juice or anything like that?

I would say it could almost use a little bit of orange to.

off?

Absolutely.

I’ll just go a little orange juice, maybe not a teaspoon of salt.

I’ll just get some fresh orange juice in there, and then we’re gonna start cooking this thing.

Okay.

Hell, that’ll take a little edge off.

Yes, it’s tasty, though.

Unless just blend it one more time.

Done.

Right now, we’re just going to do the cooking of this, essentially the pasteurization you want to make sure this is cooked through.

A fresh sauce would be delicious, but I mean, if we cook it, then it’s gonna be more of a stable hot sauce.

Let’s check these chicken wings.

need to be flipped in it.

You all right.

It says a little little there.

Yeah, a little Sizling action I’ll just bring the.

now we’re just gonna get this sauce cook through.

Because, yeah, once if you’re doing this as a fresh hot sauce it’s gonna be fantastic.

You’re gonna use it for everything, but we wanna make sure this is cooked, make sure it can be preserved a little better.

But while this is doing that thing, let’s get two other sauces that can get easily done.

It’s gonna be kind of goofy, we’re gonna be doing a little Double boiler around here.

Okay.

And I’m gonna be doing a classic buffalo.

utilizing funky garlic.

So this is just some Prelarified butter.

I’m just gonna be warming up.

Do you have to?

Clarified.

You don’t have to.

clarified butter you’re just not getting any of the milks or the milk fat.. it doesn’t have to be.

completely melted.

Ooh, and I wasn’t ready for this.

Ooh, nice.

Funkky garlic.

we’re just gonna be throwing in.

And let’s just go half a bottle.

If we don’t eat it all today I’ll eat it up later.

I’m sure.

This is just gonna to be a classic buffalo sauce.

Usually buffalo sauces are just a Louisiana.

fermented sauce.

with a little butter in there.

So what’s kind of doing it?

something else we can do is do a smoky barbecue.

Sorry right here, we’re going to do like a standard barbecue wing.

It’s great.

It’s super sweet.

um something I’m not super fond of, but what I’m doing here is I’m just utilizing some.

fantastic barbecue sauce putting some of our smoky j hot sauce in there, this is a smoked verde, which was actually just featured on hot ones.

So once again, let’s throw about a half a bottle in it.

here because instead of just like a green verde smoked wing.

That says barbecue sauce with some smoky elements.

Sure.

Interesting.

So we’re gonna have to Three sauces that are gonna pair really nice with these.

All right, let’s give this a little taste, see what we’re thinking.

Qu quick and easy there.

Easy peasy.

Yeah.

As for a barbecue, it’s great.

It’s a little more spice.

Yum, I guess a little more sweetness out of there.

I love that.

So then with the addition of some heat.

you’re gonna definitely notice flavors come together a little more.

So it’s give us not.

little taste.

See what we’re like especially with that more salt and orange juice.

It’s really bright.

Little sweat and I think we’re in Minnesota.

I don’t know if we need to be throwing more habaneros in there.

Yeah, it’s got some spice in that, but it’s got, you know the sweetness kind of stew as well.

Yeah.

really tasty.

That did I think make a difference?

Let’s do a little darm.

garnish.

So with that mango habanero sauce, I think some fresh green onions, it’s gonna be a really nice topping for that.

So with the chicken wings, I like to throw those in the oven at at least 425 degrees, usually about 10 minutes.

I’ll check, do a flip, and roughly the ten other minutes, you’re good.

You want me make sure things temp out well above 165 degrees to play it safe, let’s just go 170 Anything over that.

And then once you temp those, if let’s say they read 170 on the dot, it’s gonna keep going.

They continue to cook.

So if you’re reading over a 170, you have nothing to worry about.

we’re pretty happy with that.

Let’s just double check.

We’re finally getting a little bit of color.

Yeah, there we go.

I’m just do a quick toss on these and hopefully we’ll be at the halfway point.

Because if these don’t get Crispy.

I feel like people are gonna go, what the heck is going on?

A nice sign as you’re seeing all that baking powder kind of dry up.

It’s not like powdery, because all the fat is rendering out of the chicken.

and it’s just kind of making its own little, like deep fried like skin almost.

Well, and your water isn’t coming out of the chicken because you prepared that ahead of time to make sure they just get as dry as possible.

Once again, you’re temping it, and then over at least 200 degrees.

Spotify.

Penn.

You’re not worrying about time, you’re not worrying about anything.

the higher the heat on here, the more risk of burning it.

But if you’re focused on it, you’re not walking away, you shouldn’t have an issue as long as you’re constantly whisking it or just stirring.

it.

I want to thank everyone for tuning in to our series food connections.

I have had such a great time doing all these episodes with all the various chefs, our local chefs, and everyone did such a great job.

I’ve heard from so many people about that have watched this series and have enjoyed it as well as enjoying all the tips and tricks that we give throughout these episodes.

And I really appreciate all the feedback.

It’s been a lot of fun working with great people.

Oh, yes.

Yeah, so just See what we are looking at.

Yeah, well, you are 175, reading over one eight another little tip when you’re tempping out chicken wings or any meat with a bone?

Try not to hit the.

with the dead center.

But let’s just say we start with that mango sauce.

So we got six of these wings in there.

Just throw a little bit of something.

in there We’re just gonna do a light toss on these.

This is how everyone does that at home, right?

This is how it probably everyone does it at home.

Let’s just get these nice and set up.

Doesn’t have to be super pretty.

I mean, you know, the chicken wings.

There’s just going to be a really nice, fruity, spiced up wing with a nice thick sauce.

Yes.

I keep that from it.

And with these, it’s gonna be be garnishing which is some green onions.

So we got one ready?

That’s really nice, look.

Yeah, let’s get the other ching and wings out here, too.

So, man, let’s do that barbecue now.

Let’s do six of those in that.

Smoky J barbecue.

One of these, I got a lot of sauce in here.

I’ll just mix them around.

Otherwise, we might get coated.

We don’t need to wear it but as much as we like.

Yeah.

These nice eggs.

those nice smoky chicken wings, even if you do hot sauce like this just with barbecue, grilled wings on the grill it would be fantastic.

Oh gosh, yeah.

But the day we’re going crispy so it’s make sure they’re saed up nicely.

Just go a little black sesame seeds.

So we got two of those ready to go.

Let’s finish it off with that classic buffalo.

And people think chicken wings, they think that buffalo.

Sure.

Those did turn out really well.

Yes, pretty dang good.

I mean, nothing’s gonna be like a fried chicken wing, but I think baked chicken wing’s done really well.

They hold more flavor, and you don’t have to worry about all those extra oils and fats in there too.

And you can hear as you make that listen.

You can hear they’re kind of crisp and that, which is what you were going.

yeah, that’s good.

Well, you need them crispy right off the bat because we are sauce in them.

and they’re gonna get a little soggy, sure.

But I think with that nice crispy exterior, you’re able to soak in more of that sauce, even though yeah, these aren’t gonna be the most crispy after you toss them, but I think without that crispy crusty just not getting that that nice like um like a fried chicken shoon that just kind of helps absorb a little bit more.

Well I don’t think they’re gonna last long enough to get soggy quite toothfully.

that’s a wrap, people, we can dig into these, and let’s make sure they’re still any good.

Oh, I can’t wait.

Thanks for having me on.

Hey, thank you so much, Sam.

This has been great.