Preserve It! Chicken Wing Season!
The Super Bowl always means there is a grand feast of snack foods to plan and prepare. While the textures and flavors abound at this annual gathering (whether you watch the game or not), it seems a quintessential ingredient on the menu is the spicy-vinegary buffalo sauce. Traditionally this sauce would be baked into chicken wings (with extra sauce for dipping of course), but it also makes an amazing sauce for pizza or for chicken sliders.
Using grocery-store tomatoes in winter
Sure, it’s not tomato season but that bland winter tomato from the store will shine in this sauce recipe. Keep the peels from the tomatoes, sprinkle with seasoning, and dehydrate them for a unique snack. This recipe comes from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2024.
Chicken Wing Sauce
Makes about eight 8-ounce jars
Ingredients
10 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes*
2 cups chopped onions
1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
4 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
2 to 3 Tbsp favorite hot sauce (optional), if you want more “heat”
*To peel tomatoes, place them in a pot of boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until the skins start to crack. Immediately dip in cold water. The skins will slip off easily. One pound of tomatoes equals about 2 ½ to 3 cups of chopped tomatoes.
Instructions
In a large stainless-steel saucepan, combine tomatoes, onions, brown sugar, and cayenne. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
Working in batches, transfer mixture to a blender or a food processor fitted with a metal blade and puree until smooth.
Return puree to saucepan. Stir in vinegar, salt, garlic, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and (optional) your favorite hot sauce. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until mixture is the consistency of a thin commercial sauce, about one hour.
Meanwhile, prepare boiling-water canner or atmospheric steam canner. Heat cleaned jars in canner until ready to use, do not boil (simmering water at 180 degrees F). Wash lids in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.
Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving half-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary. Clean jar rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
Water must cover jars by at least one inch in boiling water canner or come to the base of the rack in a steam canner. Adjust heat to medium-high, cover canner, and bring water to a rolling boil in a boiling-water canner or until there’s a steady stream of steam coming from the steam canner for one minute. Start timing and process pint jars: 15 minutes at 0 – 1,000 feet elevation, 20 minutes at 1,001 – 3,000 feet, 25 minutes at 3,001 – 6,000 feet, 30 minutes 6,001 – 8,000 feet.
Turn off heat. For boiling water canner, remove lid and let jars stand five minutes. For atmospheric steam canner, let canner sit undisturbed for five minutes, then remove lid. Remove jars and cool on a toweled surface 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal (they should not flex when center is pressed). Label, date, and store in a cool dark place.
This article and recipe by UC Master Food Preserver Laurie Lewis originally appeared in the Mountain Democrat in January 2026.
The UC Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County are a great resource for answers to your food safety and preserving questions.
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