I know it’s not necessarily a time of the year when people cook a lot of chicken wings. But for awhile I’d wanted to try a couple of chicken-wing experiments, so I bought some wings and headed to the kitchen.
Here’s the thing: after making all of these Indonesian and Thai curries, I got to thinking that chicken wings braised in spicy coconut milk that’s cooked down to a browning paste would taste great (think rendang).
For my experiment, I made two batches: 1) based on an abbreviated rendang spice paste, and 2) based on a green Thai curry foundation. Each batch came out tasty, but contrary to my expectations, my wife and I agreed that the Thai curry batch was the better of the two. And because the wings were cooked so slowly, they were extraordinarily moist and tender.
Each batch of 10 wings was made in a fairly shallow 10-inch nonstick fry pan, and it wasn’t crowded, so you could most likely fit 20 wings in a 12-inch pan without any crowding. Keep in mind that the spice/coconut-milk base for each batch was for only 10 wings.
Both types take a long time to cook, but they’re well worth it, especially if you want to serve something a little different.
Curry wings
For the green Thai curry wings:
What you’ll need:
- 10-12 wings
- 1T neutral oil
- 1T green curry paste (for this recipe, I used premade for convenience)
- 1 cup high-quality coconut milk (coconut cream is even better)
- 1-2T fish sauce
- 1t lime juice, 2-3 lime leaves, 4” lemongrass stalk (use any or all, optional)
What to do:
Add oil to the pan, heat to medium and add the curry paste.
Fry the paste until it starts breaking down, 1-2 minutes
Add the coconut milk/coconut cream and mix until curry paste is dissolved and the coconut milk turns pale green.
Bring to a low boil, if it’s not already, and add the wings. Turn each wing so it’s coated with the spiced braising sauce. If you feel the wings are not submerged enough, add some water—it will cook off, anyway.
Turn down to a low simmer and cook off about 95% of the liquid. Turn the wings occasionally. This process can take more than an hour, depending on the pan and amount of heat, but it’s mostly unattended time. Midway, do a quick taste test of the curry sauce. If it’s not strong enough, add more curry paste and stir it in, turning the wings.
What little paste that remains at this point will be very thick, so watch it carefully, turning the wings so they don’t stick or scorch. There may be some oil in the pan from rendered chicken fat, but this will help the wings brown, if you want to cook them that long. I have limited patience, so I let this batch brown only a little. Next time I make them, I’ll let them brown till the skin becomes crispy.
Serve hot or at room temperature, no more than an hour after they’re done.
Here’s an example of a pre-made curry paste from a local Asian market.
What the raw paste looks like.
Here’s the coconut milk that we use at home. Note that this is actually coconut cream, which is thicker than coconut milks.
For the rendang-style wings:
What you’ll need:
- 10-12 wings
- ½ crushed whole nutmeg, or powdered equivalent
- 2 whole cloves
- 2.5 oz shallots, peeled and chopped
- 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1” piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
- *1-2 small Thai peppers, stemmed and chopped
- 2 cashew or macadamia nuts
- A couple of shakes of ground turmeric (omit if worried about staining cloth napkins, placemats, clothes, etc.)
- 1 cup high-quality coconut milk (coconut cream is even better)
*Wear nitrile or some kind of disposable gloves to keep the harsh oils off your fingers. I have ruined pairs of contact lenses thinking I had scrubbed all the oil from my fingers. Even hours and hours after cooking, enough oil remained on my fingers to ruin my contacts when removing them, while causing a lot of burning. Think raw onion drops in your eye.
What to do:
Put all of the ingredients, except the wings and coconut milk, into a small food processor and pulse to a coarse paste that looks like cooked oatmeal.
Put the paste in a fry pan and begin heating on medium. Add the wings, turning them until they’re coated.
Let the wings/paste begin to heat up to medium temperature, then add the coconut milk. Bring to a low boil, if it’s not already. If you feel the wings are not submerged enough, add some water—it will cook off, anyway.
Turn down to a low simmer and cook off about 95% of the liquid. The cooking process can take more than an hour, depending on the pan and amount of heat, but it’s mostly unattended time.
What little paste that remains at this point will be very thick, so watch it carefully, turning the wings so they don’t stick or scorch. There may be some oil in the pan from rendered chicken fat, but this will help the wings brown, if you want to cook them that long. I have limited patience, so I let this batch brown only a little. Next time I make them, I’ll let them brown till the skin becomes crispy.
Serve hot or at room temperature no more than an hour after they’re done.
Rendang wings
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