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When tomatoes are cooked down, and the liquid is allowed to evaporate, what you are left with is the condensed flavour of the tomatoes. Yes, this is obvious, but I mention it to clear up the misconception that tomato paste is, by nature, bitter. I have read too many recipes that say something to the affect of, “Sugar (or something else must be done) must be added to cut the bitterness (or some call it acidity) of the tomato paste”. It is usually assumed that tomato paste is bitter. It is true that tomato paste is often, far too often, bitter. This, however, is not inevitable. This is the result of using sub par tomatoes in order to make the paste. Do you really think that food companies care if their product is delicious? Certainly not as long as people keep on buying it. Now, there are some brands of tomato paste and other tomato products that are very nice, and I am not saying that there is any reason not to use those. It is defiantly easier to just buy a can of tomato paste than to make it yourself, and to make it yourself you still have to shop around for a great tasting tomato with which to make the paste.

So why make tomato paste at all? Well, one obvious reason would be if someone has a tomato garden, tomato paste is a great way to use up a lot of fresh and delicious vine ripened tomatoes. I would choose that any day over canned tomato paste. Unfortunately for me, I cannot have a tomato garden and good fresh tomatoes in my area are pretty much non existent. I must make my tomato paste from canned tomatoes. What is the point in that? Well, it is merely a matter of personal preference for me. I, as a rule do not buy any form of canned pureed tomato products. I use a lot of canned tomatoes because I need tomatoes for my cooking and as I have stated, good fresh ones are all but non existent here, but when I buy canned tomatoes they are always whole. The reason is because when companies create pureed tomato products, they typically use the worst tomatoes from the harvest. The broken ones, the partially rotten ones, the not quite ripe enough ones, and they do not inspect them very carefully for insects. You are almost guaranteed to have a number of maggots all pureed within your tomato sauce or paste from a can. True, these thing aren’t likely to cause you any harm, but the thought just doesn’t sit well with me. Whole canned tomatoes are inspected more closely for quality and you are far far less likely to come across insects, though neither of these thing are unheard of in canned whole tomatoes. I typically give my whole canned tomatoes a quick once over, and if I notice any blemishes I just pull them off and use the rest of the tomato. I have yet to encounter an insect.

So, if the convenience of canned tomato paste is attractive enough to you that you don’t mind the problems that come along with it then this recipe is not for you. If you have a tomato garden or simply prefer a little more quality control, then read on!

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I don’t think that it is possible for a human being not to salivate with these things in front of them. Well, except for vegetarians or vegans, maybe, but all we can do is pity them.

I have recently posted a sister recipe to this one, a recipe for buffalo chicken bites. I made both recipes at the same time. I ate the buffalo style ones and my husband ate the barbecue ones (and I stole one from him!). You may notice that I have used some of the same pictures for both of these posts. The reason why is that the process for both is identical, save for what sauces you use.

In the article for the buffalo style bites I ranted about the importance of using blue cheese and not ranch. Well, I won’t go into another rant here, but just know that in the case of barbecue wings, or nuggets, it is reversed. Blue cheese has no business getting down with barbecue chicken. If you want to use a dipping sauce, Ranch is the only way to go.

This recipe prepares one serving, which is one average sized chicken breast worth of meat, but you can easily adjust the recipe to make as many nuggets as you want.

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As hard as it is to admit, I have not always loved hot wings. It was the sauce that turned me off. I don’t know if I just never gave it the chance that it deserved, or if I just always ended up tasting inferior sauces the few times that I tried hot wings, but it was not something that I had any interest in for most of my life. That changed when I got a job as a line cook at a restaurant that sold really good buffalo wings. Since I didn’t like them it was a while before I bothered to even taste them. As a line cook at this restaurant I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted. My coworkers frequently had bowls of “boneless buffalo wings” (really just what I am making in this article, white meat nuggets with wing sauce, I never understood why they called them “boneless wings” but I digress) off to the side of their work station and when they would get a free moment would pop one into their mouth. I did the same, but with the barbecue version. I don’t know what it was exactly, the smell, the tempting orange red colour, the blissful reaction everyone else had when eating them, but something made me crave them, even before I gave them a taste. One day I was whipping myself up a little batch of boneless wings, and instead of grabbing the barbecue sauce I figured why not just try buffalo sauce this time? So I coated them with that mysterious orange goo, ate one, and instantly fell in absolute love with the flavour! Ever since then I have needed this flavour in my life. Eventually I wanted to know exactly what that secret flavour was and after a little searching I found out that, while there are many cayenne pepper sauces , the one with that special indescribable and authentic flavour is Frank’s Red Hot. Other sauces can taste good and even very similar, but Frank’s is the real deal. It is the original Buffalo wing sauce and it is the only one that I am satisfied with. I now put it on everything! I think there is a commercial to that effect, but I started before I ever saw those commercials. I love it on eggs, rice, pizza, chicken obviously, and more. It is safe to say that my years of hot wing denial have long since come to an end.

It is customary to serve wings with a dipping sauce. Why? Why double sauce your chicken? Well, I don’t know who thought of it but it is brilliant! With hot wings, the “correct” dipping sauce is blue cheese dressing. Something magical happens when blue cheese and cayenne pepper sauce combines. It is simply THE perfect compliment. Now, when it comes to barbecue wings, the perfect dipping sauce is Ranch dressing. Now, this is important. This was the rule at the restaurant and for good reason. Ranch with barbecue, and blue cheese with Buffalo! I know that tastes vary, I know some, perhaps many people find the thought of eating moldy cheese repulsive, but it is simply WRONG! to dip hot wings in Ranch dressing. I try not to be an absolutist with food, but this is one place where I have to put my foot down. I do not care if you like to dip your hot wings in ranch, blue cheese is better for the job. You are wrong. I, in fact, could never stomach the idea of blue cheese (moldy, ew), and when I started eating the buffalo wings in lieu of barbecue, I continued to dip them in ranch, and I thought that it was pretty good. But something drew me to the blue cheese eventually, another epiphany, like the buffalo sauce I guess, and I eventually worked up the courage to try it. I have never looked back. So if you are going to skip the dipping sauce, that is ok, but if you are going to use one then, with hot wings, use blue cheese!

I am posting another recipe for barbecue chicken bites. You may notice that I use some of the same pictures for them as I use in this article. That is because I made both of these at the same time and therefor some of the pictures will be used for both of these articles. I just mention this so that in case you notice I don’t leave you scratching your head. I will also soon post a recipe for real chicken wings.

You can make as few or as many of these as you want, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I am using the meat of one average sized chicken breast. This is just the right amount for one person.