diff's Asian Chicken Wings

Growing up on the East Coast and working in some resturants, I came to enjoy "Chinese" chicken wings, which had not really been Chinese at all. You can't get them in authentic places, but it was still tasty. After trying for a while without luck to find a worthy replacement in the Bay Area, I decided to essentially reverse engineer the taste.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/8 cup of salt
• 1/8 cup of msg (You can do without it, though it helps)
• 1 clove of garlic (I always use more than this)
• 1/4 cup of light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of rice wine
• 1/4 cup of vinegar (slightly less)
• 1 tsp of 5 spice powder (replace with habanero for extra heat, but add cumin)
• 1 tsp of ginger powered
• 1 tsp real ginger (freshly grated)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 large onion

Chop onion, juice lemon and combine the rest of the ingredients into a large container. Mix in chicken wings, above will easily work for 12 - 24 wings depending on the vessel used to marinate.

For best results, put into a bag (or vacuum seal) and freeze, to allow the marinade to penetrade the chicken more.

Cooking

Remove chicken from container and let excess marinade strain back in - you could likely use this marinade again if you've liked it. Don't bother with the onion chunks unless you want to add them to some other stir fry dish.

Prefered at home method is grilling, you can use the sauce to baste early on, though it should not be necessary. Stop basting after the first flip as the marinade has the raw chicken juice in it. As you cool, you can brush with honey to create a crispier skin.

• Smoking the chicken wings ends up adding an extra interesting layer, though this just elongates the process
• Sauce/chicken is fine to sous vide with, this is an awesome alternative to cooking it fully on the grill. Juice will be safe for basting of making a concetrated dipping sauce.
• Alternatively you can actually fry the chicken wings, as a resturant would. This just tends to be a bit more messy and the clean up can be bothersome.