Korean Chicken Wings

Korean Chicken Wings - A Cookbook Collection 

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-A Cookbook Collection

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!

 

Korean Chicken Wings - A Cookbook Collection

 

 

 

13 thoughts on “Korean Chicken Wings

  1. These look like the sort of wings which when you buy them ready-made are really really bad for you, except these ones aren’t bad for you because the ingredients sound like actual food ingredients. Actually, no, they look far better than that, that’s an insult to your wings. Yum.

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