The latest foray into the realms of the chicken wing was a wee while ago, and also not my own creation but rather Alton Browns rather delicious buffalo wings, which although had lovely crisp skin and lashings of butter-hot sauce-garlic awesomeness, they lacked what I truly desire when it comes to a hot wing, crunch. I really liked the method of steaming the wings, and refrigerating before baking, the steaming encourages the fat in the skin to render so when placed in the hot oven it runs out and fries/crisps the skin on the way, and the refrigeration tightens the skin, in my other methods I use the resting/refrigeration to help the starch in the coating to hydrate. I figured I could Frankenstein a few methods together and end up with the benefits of the steamed wing combined with that crunch I was missing, and maybe embellish with coating in an extravagant butter-hot sauce combo.
Ingredients
Chicken wings
1 part semolina flour
1 part potato starch
salt, chilli powder & coriander powder to taste
Get a pot of water on to the boil, and pile the chicken wings in steamer, set the steamer in the pot and let it bathe in the vapour for 15 minutes, it’s quite nice to add a few aromatics to the water, such as garlic and the like.
While the wings are steaming mix together the dry ingredients, then carefully remove the chicken and toss in the flour mixture. Arrange the wings on a rack on a sheet pan and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 220°C, place a sheet of baking paper below the rack and cook for 15-20 minutes, flip and cook for another 15-20 minutes.
To really gild the lily, and I highly recommend it, toss the hot crunchy wings in a mixture of melted butter, garlic and hot sauce, probably not that good for you but damn tasty.
