Korean Chicken Wings

 

This post for Korean Chicken Wings was originally meant to be for Korean Fried Chicken but I decided to stick with roasting them. I cannot stress how delicious these are and how I wish I believed the hype sooner. The sauce is so tasty that when we finished eating the first batch I was scanning the kitchen looking for something else to use to mop it up. I even considered using sausage rolls. Yep, chicken wings and sausage rolls. It’s pure classy in my house!

I bought Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo a few months ago – it’s great if you’re looking to add to your collection – and I wanted to make practically everything in it. Their Korean Chicken Wings jumped out at me as I remembered that Gizzi Erskine frequently mentions her version from Gizzi’s Healthy Appetite as her favourite food. Both deep fry their wings and I was planning to do the same.

However, when I was experimenting with the sauce I decided just to bake the wings until I got the sauce right. To be honest I think deep frying is a bit of a faff and only really like to do it if it is strictly necessary to a recipe. Baking the wings is perfect for my liking as the skin goes nice and crispy. I find when you douse them in sauce they lose a lot of that crunch anyway. In her book My Street Food Kitchen, Jennifer Joyce cooks hers in the oven too. And if it’s good enough for her…

Useful tips & links:

• Gochujang is the star ingredient of this sauce. It is a hot, thick and spicy fermented paste made from chillis, rice and soy beans. It is essential in Korean cooking and I think I’ll be using in a lot of my meals! I bought mine in Mr. Bells in the English Market in Cork but it should be easily available online or in any Asian food market.
• Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine with a low alcohol content. It is widely available but if you cant get hold of it use a dry sherry with some extra sugar in it’s place.
• Many recipes include ketchup but I’m not a big fan. I have more than enough sugar in this recipe for my liking but feel free to add a tablespoon if you like.
• I usually garnish with sesame seeds and spring onions but as the batch pictured here were going to someone else to be reheated I didn’t put the sesame seeds on to them. They were served with my cocktail sausages and these Drunken Chicken Wings.
• This recipe will make more sauce than you need but it will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge. Or make more wings!
• Have a look at Rookie Cook’s Korean Fried Chicken or if you do want to deep fry your wings you can see Gizzi’s version here.

Korean Chicken Wings

Makes 20 pieces

Ingredients:

• 10 Chicken wings
• 250ml buttermilk
• Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• For the sauce
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 3 tablespoons of Gochujang chilli paste
• 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons of palm sugar or soft dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of mirin
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• Toasted sesame seeds and slices of spring onions to garnish

Method:

• Start the night before by preparing the wings. Cut off and discard the tips. To easily cut the wing in two, hold the wing so that it is at a right angle on the chopping board and cut through the joint at the corner.
• In an airtight container or ziploc bag mix together the buttermilk with a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and add the wings. Store in the fridge overnight.
• When ready to cook the wings, remove them from the fridge and preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan/gas mark 7.
• Drain the buttermilk from the chicken and discard this. Pat the wings dry with kitchen paper and season them with salt and pepper.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the wings out on them, skin side up. Don’t over crowd the sheet, use two if necessary. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, have a look after 15 and give them a little shake if they look like they are starting to stick.
• While the wings are roasting make the chilli sauce. Simply put all of the ingredients into a pan, bring it to a boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
• After 30 minutes your wings should be cooked and the skin crispy, if not give them a little longer. Brush the sauce on to the wings and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes, reducing the heat to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.
• Sprinkle them with toasted sesame seeds and sliced spring onions and plenty of napkins!