Chinese inspired crispy wings with a ginger and spring onion sauce
We have been recipe testing this for a while and do love wings and have many, many wing recipes. However Friday on our final test run we decided to cook the wings outside over coals on the Kamado Joe (braai/bbq) and oh my word, I never want to cook wings inside ever again. The skin was so crispy, the meat succulent, they were amazing. So feel free to follow either recipe. For reference we always use charcoal and not briquettes as briquettes tend to be full of chemicals.
Ingredients
2kg chicken wings
2 tbsp baking powder *
½ tsp salt *
1 tsp ground pepper *
2 spring onions, finely chopped
* if cooking in the oven inside, if you are cooking over coals outside then use a chicken seasoning or just salt
Sauce Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
6 garlic cloves
2½ cm fresh ginger, grated
1 bunch of spring onions minus 2, finely chopped - white and green
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
½ tbsp oyster sauce
60ml ketchup
½ tsp sesame oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
Method
If you are cooking inside then preheat the oven 120c. If you are cooking outside then put the coal into your braai (bbq) and light it.
Put the wings between a few sheets of kitchen rolls to that they dry out.
If you are cooking the wings in the oven then mix the baking powder, salt and pepper in a bowl and lightly coat each wing, gently tapping each wing on the side of the bowl to remove any excess coating. Put on to an oven tray with a wire rack and put into the oven for 30 minutes.
If you are cooking the wings outside, when the flames have stopped and the coals are nicely glowing (on a Kamado Joe/Big Green Egg this will take 20-25 minutes and on any other style this will take 30-35 minutes). You need to cook them on indirect heat (so to the sides of the charcoal rather than over the coals), put the wings on and close the lid. Turn every 5 minutes until they are dark golden and crispy, expect this to take at least 20 minutes but perhaps 30, you don't want to rush this as you do not want them burnt and raw.
In a smallish saucepan put 1 tbsp of oil and gently fry the garlic, ginger, spring onions and chilli and slowly cook on a low to medium heat until soft, around 5 mins. Put all of the rest of the sauce ingredients into the saucepan and heat until bubbling. Turn off and leave to cool.
Increase the oven temperature to 220c and cook for a further 30 minutes until golden and crispy.
Warm the sauce and either serve all over the wings or separate for dipping. I like to get a big bowl, put the sauce into it, pile in the wings and then toss to coat.