It’s amusing how many recipes of innumerable versions there are of fried chicken (wings or otherwise) with sticky Asian glaze. We’ve tried a lot of these recipes but one of the best, and by far the easiest, is the Chinese-inspired fried chicken with soy honey sauce.
The first time I made this dish, I used chicken thigh fillets. I cut them into strips, breaded them as though I were making ebi furai, deep fried them and then tossed them in the reduced sauce.
When I asked my daughter, Alex, to recreate the dish using chicken wings, she did things differently. She dipped the chicken wings in a batter as though she were making tempura. Because she used corn starch rather than flour for the batter, the surface of the chicken wings retained the crispness even after tossing in the sauce. Wonderful. Truly wonderful.
Fried Chicken Wings with Sticky Soy Honey Glaze
Ingredients
- 12 chicken wings
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ cup tapioca starch corn or potato starch are fine too
- oil for deep frying
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ¼ cup rice wine
- 1 teaspoon chili oil
- 1 teaspoon ginger juice grate a piece of ginger, squeeze and save the juice
Instructions
- Pat the chicken wings dry then cut each along the joint that separates the drumette from the wingette.
- In a bowl, toss the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of about three inches.
- Disperse ½ starch in ¾ cup cold water to make a batter. The consistency should be thinner than pancake batter.
- Add the remaining starch to the chicken and toss to coat all pieces evenly.
- Dip each chicken piece in batter then drop in the hot oil.
- Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown on all sides.
- Drain the fried chicken on a stack of kitchen paper.
- Mix together the honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, chili oil and ginger juice in a bowl.
- Pour off the oil in the frying pan.
- Pour the sauce into the frying pan and boil gently for about half a minute.
- Add the chicken to the sauce and toss until each piece is evenly coated with the thick dark sauce.
- Serve as an appetizer, or as a main dish with hot rice.
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Chinese Mooncake and the Mid-Autumn Festival