These tasty wings are a mash-up of two great recipes from work, a baked chicken wing recipe from my friends at Cook’s Country, and a killer sauce developed by my CI teammate Andrea Geary for incredible Korean Fried Chicken Wings. I had a hankering for Andrea’s wings last weekend, only to discover that I didn’t have enough oil to properly fry them when I set to work, and so did a quick pivot and dug up the baked wing recipe rather than venture out in the cold for frying oil.
Were they absolutely as good as Andrea’s original recipe for fried Korean awesomeness? No. There really is no substitute for frying when you’re looking to deliver super crispy wings, but the baked recipe did the job well enough and her sublime wing sauce dressed them up in spicy style. To get crispy chicken wings without frying, the Cook’s Country team found a way to dry out the skin. Baking powder was their secret weapon; it helps break down the proteins within the skin, and aids in browning. After you toss the wings with baking powder and salt, you start them cooking in a low oven to render their fat, then crank the oven to finish roasting the wings and crisping the skin.
I’ll be making another batch of these tomorrow as I watch my hometown team, The New England Patriots, win a decisive Super Bowl victory against The Atlanta Falcons.
I urge you all to do the same…..Go Pats!
Cheers – Steve
Ingredients
The Chicken:
- 4 pounds chicken wings, halved at joints, wingtips discarded
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
The Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced to paste
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 cups water
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons gochujang
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
Instructions
- Combine sesame oil, garlic, and ginger in large bowl and microwave until mixture is bubbly and garlic and ginger are fragrant but not browned, 40 to 60 seconds. Whisk in ¼ cup water, sugar, gochujang, and soy sauce until smooth; set aside.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 250 degrees. Set wire rack in aluminum foil–lined rimmed baking sheet. Pat wings dry with paper towels and transfer to 1-gallon zipper-lock bag. Combine baking powder and salt, add to wings, seal bag, and toss to evenly coat.
- Arrange wings, skin side up, in single layer on prepared wire rack. Bake wings on lower-middle oven rack for 30 minutes. Move wings to upper-middle rack, increase oven temperature to 425 degrees, and roast until wings are golden brown and crispy, 40 to 50 minutes longer, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Remove sheet from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer wings to bowl with wing sauce, toss to coat, and serve with celery or carrot sticks and the creamy dip of your choice.