It’s New Year’s Eve and your time to shine as the hostess with the mostess. You’ve got your home decor on point, the perfect party playlist and your favorite bubbly cocktails on deck. But what about the food? Creating an amazing NYE party menu requires balancing yummy food with the freedom to move about and mingle with the crowd – and that’s not always easy.
Chanel Murphy, owner of culinary website My Fabulous Food, knows a thing or two about creating the perfect menu. “Cooking well-catered meals for guests is important to create lasting memories,” says Murphy. ESSENCE.com caught up with this self taught chef and food blogger to design a delicious New Year’s Eve menu that’s sure to be a hit with your party guests long after the ball drops.
Maple-Honey Bacon Wrapped Wings
Cooking Time/Preparation: 1 hour
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds chicken wings (approximately 10 wings)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 10 slices of bacon
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- Parsley, chopped
- In a large bowl, combine maple syrup, honey, and soy sauce. Reserve about ¼ cup of the mixture and set aside. With the remainder of the mixture, toss in chicken wings and let marinate overnight.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Season chicken wings with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Wrap each chicken wing with slices of bacon width-wise, and tie bacon around like a bow.
- Place chicken wings on a baking pan and cover with foil. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until wings are crisp.
- Drizzle wings with the reserved marinade (from step 1) and garnish with chopped parsley.
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 12 medium sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 12 hard-boiled eggs
- 1 large avocado
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon honey mustard
- 1 teaspoon Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Lime seasoning by My Fabulous Food
- Fresh dill for garnish (optional)
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon chili oil
- 1 teaspoon Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Lime seasoning by My Fabulous Food
- Over medium heat, melt butter in a skillet. Sauté shrimp for 5-6 minutes until fully cooked. Set aside.
- Slice eggs in half, and scoop out yolks into a mixing bowl.
- Add avocado, mayonnaise, salt, black pepper, sugar, and honey mustard into the bowl with the egg yolks. Mix until smooth and combined. Set aside.
- In a separate small bowl make the aioli by combining mayonnaise, lemon juice, chili oil, and Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Lime seasoning.
- Scoop egg yolk mixture into empty egg halves. Top each egg with one shrimp.
- Drizzle each deviled egg with aioli and sprinkle with additional Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Lime seasoning. Garnish with fresh dill if desired.
- Champagne or sparkling wine
- Raspberry Sorbet
- 1 pomegranate
- Fresh rosemary sprigs
- Place 1 scoop of raspberry sorbet in each martini glass
- Fill with champagne
- Garnish drinks with pomegranate seeds and rosemary sprigs