Chicken is one of the most popular foods in Cooking Club because it’s easy to make and tastes delicious. It’s also a great learning experience because it shows students how popular fast foods can be made in healthy ways without fats, oils, and salt.

In our second class, our young chefs got to make chicken wings, not by deep-frying in batter but by clean, salt-free baking. And with a honey-mustard sauce they were plenty flavorful.

The recipe was pretty simple, but not without challenge. To cook these wings, students first had to learn how to cut apart whole wings to form wingettes. They learned this by finding where the joints were located in the wings, and safely cutting through the joints with our big, sharp kitchen knives.

Some students were shy about working with raw chicken, and asked for plastic gloves for the task. But surprisingly, this turned out to be one of the most popular parts of the class.

“I liked cutting the chicken — that was the best part,” Elvin J. said afterwards.

“Cutting up the chicken was so satisfying,” added Michaela R.

So was measuring, mixing and making sauces, for both the wings and the salad of romaine lettuce that would go with the meal.

Both the wing sauce and the caesar salad dressing featured special Dijon mustard as a main ingredient — but to very different effects.

The wing sauce combined the mustard with honey for a sweet flavor, while the caesar dressing combined the mustard with lemon juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and other ingredients for a tangy taste.

The students noticed the difference.

“With the chicken I liked the mustard because I like honey mustard,” Elvin said. “The salad I liked a little bit, but it was too sour.”

For Jayden J. “the chicken was on top but the salad was pretty good, too.”

Arielis L. and Jenaliz V. gave the meal — and the entire experience — rave reviews.

“I think the chicken and the salad were really, really good,” said Arielis, who likes to be called Ari. “I’m going to tell my mom to buy some lettuce and some wings and I’m going to make this.”

The flavor of the chicken wings “was like a bomb,” Jenaliz said, exploding her hands in the air for emphasis. “And the salad, … this was delicious. Like I always say, chicken wings and caesar salad … order up!”