Our students were crazy excited to make chicken wings this week, less so the Caesar salad that was also on the menu for today’s cooking class. That explained why there were looks of alarm when we were identifying the ingredients.

“Wait, where’s the chicken?” said Christopher Velez.

“Don’t panic!” I told them. The chicken wings were still a little frozen when we arrived, so they were being thawed in the microwave.

The hardest task in front of us was cutting the wings into drumettes and flats. Buying the whole wings and chopping them at home reduces the cost by about $1 a pound. We watched a YouTube video demonstrating just how to do it, you find the connecting joint and slip the knife in at just the right spot to separate the drumstick from the flat part of the wing. Three of the boys enthusiastically volunteered, while the girls demurred, and chose to prepare the honey mustard marinade that would flavor them.

Suffice it to say, it was not as easy as the video made it look. The wings were slippery; the joint we needed to find was elusive; the chef’s knife was sharp. But one at a time, the boys took a turn, wiggling the knife ‘til they found just the right spot and then bringing down the knife.

“It’s really satisfying,” said Elias Dugarte, when he finally found the spot and made the cut.

Even though Ivan Cortes hung back at first, when he saw the others hacking up that meat, he wanted in. “It was kind of hard ‘til you found the right place,” he said. “But they weren’t that squishy.” Christopher wanted to take the discarded wing tips home to make stock with his family, so each time a tip was cut off, he presented a bowl for depositing them. “Donations, donations,” he kept calling out. When we finished, and all the wings were placed in a zip lock bag, Sofia Gutierrez and Hermione Gerena were ready with the marinade. They carefully poured it over the wings and coated them all and set them aside.

The girls moved onto grating the cheese, and then washing the romaine lettuce. They loved creating a drying rack, layering paper towels between the leaves, to dry the lettuce. “It needs to be dry so the dressing will cling to it,” Ms. Belinda told them.

The boys washed hands and knives and took up the task of cutting the bread to make croutons. After battling with those chicken wings, this job was a breeze. “This is so much easier!” said Ivan. But while we avoided a single nick with the knife on the wings, we had our first mishap with the bread. Ivan soon held up a bloody finger. “I think I cut myself,” he said. He was patched up with a Band-Aid and was relieved of any more cutting or dishwashing for the rest of the class.

By now we were ready to lay the wings on a sheet pan and get them in the oven. Jason bravely volunteered to face the powerful industrial convection oven, which blasts out hot air when the doors open. He slid them into the oven.

Next in went the croutons. Timers were set, cleanup started, and the tablecloth was laid and the table was set. And the meal was served.

The students were surprised at how much they liked the salad: “I love all the different textures,” said Elias, sounding very much like a food critic. “The crunchy croutons with the soft lettuce, the cheese sprinkled in.”

“I’m not really a fan of lettuce,” said Ivan, “But that lettuce was the best lettuce that I’ve had,” he said. “It was the dressing and the cheese that made it good.”

“The wings were sweet and sour for me,” said Jason. “I really liked what I cooked.”

“It’s beautiful combinations,” said Elias.

“I like cooking class because we get delicious free food,” said Christopher.

“It was like the best restaurant food ever!” Said Hermione.