It’s hard to go wrong with an Asian-style fried chicken dish, and these wings are no exception. The marinade imparts a nice, subtle flavor, while doubling up on the starch (marinade and dredging) provides two layers of crispy coating. That really made these particularly outstanding.
I would recommend trying to add 2T of starch to the marinade any of the fried chicken recipes the Feral Cooks have on this blog, including any of these:
- Fried Spicy Maple-syrup Chicken
- Vietnamese Fried Chicken Wings
- Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken (Yan Su Ji)
- Indian Fried Chicken: Indian Chicken 65
- Thai Fried Chicken
- Hawaiian-style Fried Chicken
- Toriniku Tatsuta Kara-age (Japanese fried chicken)
That’s all I have to say about these, other than you’ll love ‘em.
What you’ll need
- 4T soy sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced or run through a garlic press
- 2T corn or potato starch
- 2T sake or cooking sake
- 1T sesame oil (regular or toasted)
- 1T rice vinegar
- 1t onion powder
- 1t black or white pepper
- 1t brown or granulated sugar
- 1 – 2 lbs. chicken wing drumettes and flats
- 1 cup corn or potato starch (for pre-cook dredging)
- Enough neutral cooking oil for frying the wings
What to do
Make the marinade combining all the ingredients but the wings, oil and cup of cornstarch in a small bowl. After everything’s completely mixed, pour the marinade into a 1-gallon sealable freezer bag, then add the wings. Seal the bag after pushing out most of the air and mix the wings around so they’re evenly coated.
Marinade the wings for a couple of hours, moving the wings around in the marinade ever so often to keep the starch from precipitating out—you want to keep it suspended in the liquid. Take the wings out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you’re going to dredge and fry them.
Right before you dredge the wings, begin heating the cooking oil to 375 degrees F. You want to cook at 350 degrees, so a 375 start-temp ensures a 350-degree cooking temp when the oil temp drops from adding the wings.
When ready to dredge, add the cup of starch to a high-rimmed plate or shallow bowl and remove the wings one at a time, rolling them in the starch so they’re evenly covered. Put the dredged wings on a plate until they’re all dredged.
When the oil reaches temperature, carefully add the wings to the oil one-by-one, being careful not to crowd the vessel. You’ll most likely have to cook several batches. Cook for 5 – 9 minutes, depending on the size of the wings. To ensure they’re done check the interior temperature with an instant-read thermometer. They should be at least 165 degrees inside.
Remove the wings from the oil with a metal spider or heat-proof tongs and let them drain on a rack or a paper-towel-lined plate. Serve with your favorite sauce—but they’re also really good without any.
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