The Messy Dish Ree Drummond Seriously Hates Making

We all have that one dish we hate making. It might be something messy or temperamental, like certain sauces and gravies, or a finicky meal that requires a lot of watching over, like a mushroom and roasted garlic risotto. For Ree Drummond, it's a certain smell that gets her every time, and it's not one you might expect. The Pioneer Woman was asked about the topic during a podcast interview and the first thing that actually came to her mind was Buffalo wings.

In fact, Drummond hints that there might actually be a few things she tries to avoid in the kitchen, but she says that saucy Buffalo wings are "high on the list" for a number of reasons. She says, "First of all, it takes so many rounds of wings to accumulate enough to actually put them on a platter and serve them. So basically, I'm just frying chicken for hours, you know, weeks it seems. And to me, the smell of fried chicken, or the smell of frying chicken permeates like nothing else."

It does take quite a few wings to create a serving big enough for a group. Most guides suggest aiming for about one pound of meat per person, which can equate to at least 10 to 12 average size wings. If the wings are smaller, you might need up to 15 per person. If you're hosting a party, that's a lot of wings, and you need to keep in mind that the weight shrinks during cooking, too.

As Drummond mentions, all of that frying can really stink up the house. There are some tricks that might help, like ventilating the kitchen, cleaning up quickly, creating a vinegar solution to soak up the odor, or cooking the wings in the oven, but there are just some occasions where you simply can't tolerate it.

That's exactly what happened to Drummond, who says that the smell of wings cooking really started to bother her while she was pregnant. On the podcast she says, "I think an imprint was made when I was going through my food aversions with my first pregnancy. It just takes me to a dark place." A huge portion of expectant mothers experience food aversions during their first trimester, and Buffalo wing recipes are actually a common one. Hormonal changes are believed to be a cause, but they do usually level out later in pregnancy. Sometimes though, you just can't kick them, and if you're unlucky, you might end up like Drummond. While she can still bear the sight of a boneless Buffalo wing recipe, it doesn't sound like they'll ever be her go-to order again. She says, "I like them okay. If I never ate one the rest of my life, I wouldn't miss it."