Tamarind Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

Wings:

1 pound trimmed chicken wing sections

Marinade:

4-6 shallots
4 Tbsp. (or 2 Tbsp. tamarind concentrate diluted with 6 Tbsp. water)
1 Tbsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. red chile paste
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. oil

Instructions:

To prepare the wings:

Chop the shallots, then throw all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and blend until you get a nice smooth paste. Taste the marinade. It should have a pronounced tamarind-y and sweet flavor. Dont worry about the saltiness yet.

Take the chicken wings and cut each wing into two at the joint. In a large bowl, add the chicken wings to the marinade and mix them together well with your hands, then cover and leave in the marinate overnight in the refrigerator, even 24 hours if you can.

After the marinating time is over, youll find that some of the marinade has pooled inside your bowl, so transfer the chicken wings to another bowl and gently shake off any of the excess marinade. Now youll have marinated wings in one bowl and the excess marinade in the other.

To cook the wings:

Were about to deep-fry the chicken wings. The excess marinade will form our dipping sauce. The wings must be fried only when required so they stay hot, but the sauce can be done ahead of time, so lets start with that.

This is easy. Just take a pan, heat it, and pour the extra marinade into it. Add about 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock and cook the mixture over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes until you have a sweet and fruity-sour sauce the consistency of a tomato ketchup. At this point, taste the sauce for saltiness and flavor balance. Adjust if required, then turn off the heat.

On to the wings then. In a frying pan, heat about 1-1/2 cups of oil for deep-frying. Fry as many wings on medium-high heat at one time as you can without crowding them too much. This should take about 5 minutes or until the wings turn a nice brown (not golden brown; we want them darker than that.) Transfer the first batch to a platter and dry any excess oil off with some paper towels.

Alright, repeat this until youve fried the entire batch of wings. Resist the temptation to eat them after theyre fried. Actually, go ahead, try one piece. Like a Lays Potato Chip — Betcha cant eat just one.

Now you have deep-fried wings and made a dipping sauce. How you want to take it from here is up to you. You can serve the wings with the sauce on the side, or you can pour the sauce on top of the wings with a spoon to coat them. The second option is messier to eat, but more fun.

Recipe from Shiok – Far Eastern Cuisine.