We've found it's harder to cook big pieces of chicken (legs, thighs) in a wok unless you're making a soup of it, but small pieces like chicken wings (jichi gen and jichi zhong - the little drumlets and wing middle-sections, respectively) cook through relatively quickly.
If you want a Chinese-style, softer chicken wing (the skin makes them soft and fatty but the flavor is great), make small slices along the meat, going down to the bone - just 3 or 4 small cuts on each side of the wing. Then, stir fry as you like, adding whatever vegetables and sauces you like (they're great in soy sauce). But if you're looking for something in which the skin isn't soft and gooey (admit it - you're a foreigner and it gets old), try this preparation and deep-fry the wings.
I like to season them with a mixture of salt, cumin and five-spice powder. About this much of each.
I usually use that many spices for about 10 wing segments. Coat the wings lightly - you can do this earlier and leave them in the fridge if you need to.
If you like a crispy breading, add about an equal amount of corn starch to your spices here. It's also fun to dip them in egg right after the corn starch - but you have to do this quickly, one at a time, and put them straight into the oil if you do it that way, otherwise the corn starch gets gluey and nasty.
Now, heat just a couple inches of oil in your wok and drop the wings in, turning them with chopsticks just 2 or 3 times. You'll be able to tell when they're done because the muscle pulls away from the bone a little - cut into one down to the bone and make sure no pink blood comes out if you need to check.
Enjoy your lovely, salty crispy little wings! This same method works well for little pieces of pork or beef.
No comments:
Post a Comment