Winging it

Chicken wings is one of my favorite food. There is so much you can do with them. You can bake them, fry them, coat them with countless sauces and marinades . . . the possibilities are endless. Today I am sharing a chicken wing recipe that I have used a lot over the years. The marinade is simple to use. The sauce gives it an extra zing. If you don't want to make the marinade yourself, you can marinate the wings with store bought BBQ Sauce.

If you want, you can omit the sauce and serve the wings with a variety of dips. I am adding a couple of recipes for the dips. I usually use skinned chicken wings but if you want, skin-on wings also works well. The recipe assumes that each serving consist of 4 wings.

Chicken Wings in Spicy Honey Sauce
Serves - 4

Chicken Wings (Skinned) - 16

Marinade:
Honey - 2 tablespoons
Worcestershire sauce - 2 teaspoons
Ginger paste - 1 teaspoon
Tomato ketchup - 2 tablespoons
Chili sauce - 1 tablespoons
White vinegar - 1 tablespoon

For the sauce:
Oil - 3/4 tablespoon
Honey - 4 tablespoons
Fish sauce - 1 tablespoon
Soy sauce - 1 tablespoon
Tabasco (or similar hot sauce) - 1 1/2 teaspoon (add more or reduce to suite your taste buds)
Spring Onion (finely Chopped) - 3 tablespoons
Fresh Ginger (diced) - 1 tablespoon
Corn Powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons (mixed with 3 teaspoons of water to make a paste)
Finely Chopped Lemon Grass (optional) - 1 1/2 teaspoons

Heat the Oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Make the marinade by mixing all the ingredients together. Mix the marinade with the chicken wings and leave it to marinate for at least 1 hour. You can cover and keep this in the fridge for up to 2 days. I prefer marinating the meat for at least 8 hours.

Arrange the wings on a baking tray and bake the wings for about 30-40 minutes or until the meat is cooked. Poke the meat with a fork. If the fork goes in easily, and the juices run clear, then it is cooked. Alternatively, you can shallow fry the wings till they are cooked.

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the spring onion and fresh ginger. Fry for 1-2 minutes until you can get the flavor of the onion and ginger. Add the optional lemon grass and fry for another 1/2 minute. Add the honey, fish sauce, soy sauce, Tabasco and cook for 1 minute until the sauce starts to boil and gets a bit frothy. Check to adjust salt and hotness. Add the corn powder paste to the sauce and let it thicken to a light-honey like consistency. Remove from heat

Arrange the wings on a serving plate and pour the sauce over the wings. Serve hot.

Enjoy!!!!

Optional Dips:

Blue Cheese Yogurt Dip

Hung yogurt - 2/3 cup
Blue cheese - 1/3 cup
Black pepper powder - 1/2 teaspoon

To make hung curd, line a strainer with thin cloth and pour regular white curd. Strain it for at least 4 hours.

Mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth creamy dip. Serve chilled or at room temperature with the baked chicken wings.


Zingy Tomato Dip

Capsicum (finely diced) - 3 tablespoons
Tomato ketchup - 3 tablespoons
Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons
Vinegar - 2 teaspoons
Mixed dried herb - 1 teaspoon
Chili flake - 1 to 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients. Serve with baked/fried chicken wings.