Author Archive: Bobby Ericson

Taco Bell Chicken Wings Review 2022

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I will be honest, when I first heard Taco Bell was going to tryout chicken wings, I got very excited. Not because I love Taco Bell but because I love chicken wings! Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy Taco Bell. They are the closest fast food to my house so often times in a pinch, I just go through their drive thru window for a quick and easy meal. But, when I heard they were going to offer chicken wings, I marked it on my calendar.

Well, today is the day! Right at 2pm my wife and I placed an order for the wings to try them. My wife and I love eating chicken wings. The only other thing we eat more of is probably nachos. The first thing I thought of when I opened the box of wings was they were a little on the small side. But, for the price, I really can’t complain. I have been hearing about all the chicken wing shortages and food places switching over to thighs. So, for $5.99 I really can’t complain. It also made me think about the chicken wing shortages. If Taco Bell has been ramping up their order of chicken wings all over the country for this one week of selling them, could that be one of the causes of the shortage?

Anyways, the first thing I did was try the spicy ranch dip. Little bit of heat but overall not spicy in my opinion. I think most people could eat the ranch and not think it was too spicy. I took my first bite of the wing and all I can say was it tasted like a chicken wing! It was good, I really like the seasoning on the wings. Now I am not normally a fan of dry seasoned chicken wings, but these were good. I still prefer having my wings tossed in some sort of sauce. The chicken itself was moist and I could tell they were freshly cooked. I was afraid that they might have made a ton up and left them in a warmer which could dry them out. But, these wings tasted fresh and not dry.

There are a couple of things I thought of that could possibly make them better. Don’t get me wrong, I am going to go back at least 2 or 3 more times to buy more over the course of this week because I did like them. With any food, you can normally make it a bit better and these are my suggestions.

  • I am a blue cheese guy with my wings. Blue cheese would be amazing with these kind of wings. I make my own blue cheese so Taco Bell if you need some help with a recipe, hit me up!
  • As I mentioned I am a sauce guy on my wings. Would love to have had the option to have them tossed in a buffalo sauce. Again, if needed hit me up, I have a few different buffalo sauce recipes I can share!
  • The only other thing I thought of is how great would this be as a combo meal with a taco. 5 chicken wings and a taco sound like a perfect Taco Bell meal if you ask me!

There is my honest review and feedback. I also posted a photo of my wings below. I think it is fun that Taco Bell is trying out wings. It is different for them, but I feel like they have been doing this since their menu shake up. I will still patiently wait for Taco Bell to bring back the Mexican pizza. I hear rumors that could happen sometime in 2022!

If you tried the chicken wings from Taco Bell or just have general feedback feel free to leave a comment or email me bobby at spicytavern.com  Thank you for reading!

Bobby

First Farmers Market

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Hello! This last weekend The Spicy Tavern was setup in Peoria, AZ at the farmers market. It was the first time we have had a setup like that at any market. For our first one, it went pretty good! We had lots of people stop by and just talk BBQ. We also had quite a few things purchased that I am really excited to get the feedback at the next market. We will be setup every Saturday through April. After that, I am hoping we can join the inside farmers market too. As we get established in Peoria, I know good things will happen! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and said hello

Bobby

Kobe Bryant

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When I learned about what happened with Kobe Bryant and all the others on the helicopter it hit me pretty hard. Growing up I was a Lakers fan. Back in the days of Magic, Nick Van Exel and then Kobe came in right after high school. Kobe was amazing on the court. My absolute favorite time of the NBA is when Shaq and Kobe played on the Lakers. I have always told everyone that my favorite player ever, is Kobe.

I moved to Denver in 2003. Carmelo’s first year in Denver too. I hate to admit this, but I switched to a Nuggets fan. Carmelo was so much fun to watch and I lived in Denver where ticket prices were decent priced. The first year they made the playoffs and I got to go to a playoff game. Carmelo quickly became my 2nd favorite player. When the Nuggets and Lakers played each other, I always had to watch the game. My two favorite teams and players coming together to play a game.

One of my best friends in life, Nick, we would go to see Kobe and Carmelo play against each other. I moved back to Lincoln, however, we made a yearly trip to be in Denver and attend the Lakers game. The Lakers always had a great fan base at the games. Sometimes it was pretty close to 50/50. I’ll never forget all those games we went to. While I might of had my Nuggets gear on, I was always cheering Kobe on deep down. The biggest disappoint one year was when Kobe didn’t play. Nick and I were both so heart broken over it.

Looking back at those times, it was special to see Kobe play. It also meant a lot to me to have that time with my friend, Nick. What great memories I have all those trips we made.

Bobby

More about my wife and I

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Our story starts when we met in Denver, CO in 2013. Jennifer and I right away realized we had one true love in common. FOOD! I have always loved to cook. After talking Jennifer into waiting outside in freezing weather on a Black Friday, I finally got a smoker that I had my eye on. And my cooking skills really started to show.

After getting married in 2016, we have been focusing a lot on food. Jennifer was jumping in and together we started coming up with some really great recipes. We happened to see a commercial smoker for sale that was almost too good to be true. After buying it and running our first items through the smoker, we realized we had something really good happening. Cooking for our family and friends (especially BBQ), we realized that we had great food and some really great recipes.

We met Ron who owned Oyster Bay restaurant in downtown Deadwood, SD and he loved our food too! Being that Oyster Bay is a seafood restaurant, we came up with The Spicy Tavern to be a pop-up tavern inside of Oyster Bay. The Spicy Tavern would specialize in BBQ. Just like that The Spicy Tavern was born. People not only loved our food, but all our rubs, sauces and mixes. We started not only selling BBQ but also our own line of products.

Soon after finding out that we were having a son, we were told of his rare heart condition, ToF, that necessitated moving to Phoenix, AZ for him to have specialized care. His condition taught us just how quickly life can change in a heart beat. We are excited to grow in the Phoenix area and build our business from the ground up again. Having gone through what we have, we are excited to share our story.