Fish Sauce-Glazed Chicken Wings

After some back and forth on what the team would enjoy the most for the Fried Chicken Cook-Off, I thought, "Who doesn't love chicken wings?". But me being me, I wanted to take that idea a step further by adding a fish sauce glaze. I've had this flavor many times at various asian restaurants; It's one of my favorites so I wanted to share that experience with the team. To be honest, this was my first time doing a glaze on fried chicken, but I think it went well! 😉 

This dish was part of our Fried Chicken Cook-Off! Check out the competing recipe: Rob's House Special Chicken Sando. 

Recipe by: Dro Sayavong / JSC Kitchen


Serves 6, 4-6 wings each

Process

Rinse and pat dry the wings thoroughly before introducing it to the dry ingredients. 

In a large mixing bowl—like a big pho pot!—add the semi-dried wings, flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, and Black Garlic Salt (I also added black garlic powder for extra umami). Hand mix all of the dry ingredients with the wings as thoroughly as possible while adding bits of water until you get a consistent coverage around each piece. 

Let the wings rest in the fridge for about 2 hours so that the pieces soak in the dredge and black garlic flavor. 

Next, fill a large pot about halfway with oil (or just enough to cover the pieces completely during frying without spilling over) and heat oil to 350°F. When oil nears the proper temperature, take the wings from the slurry 1 piece at a time, allowing excess liquid to drip off.

When you're ready to fry, work in batches so you don’t overcrowd your fryer. Carefully drop pieces into the hot oil. The temperature will drop once the wings are in, but this is normal - drop heat to low and make adjustments as necessary to make sure oil does not drop below 315°F. 

Cook each wing until the internal temperature reaches 165°F (just under 10 minutes). 

When finished, remove the wings from oil and transfer to a cooling rack. 

Here's the great part. Twice frying to get that extra crispness.

When you're ready for the second fry, heat the oil to 375°F. Once it gets up to temp, ease the chicken back into the oil for approximately 3-4 minutes or until it gets golden brown and crispy. Remove the wings from the oil and transfer to a cooling rack. 

While the chicken cools, work on the sauce. Combine the remaining warm water, sugar, fish sauce, chopped garlic, and ground black pepper into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

In a saucepan, simmer the sauce over medium/high heat until it becomes syrupy and dark in color, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Toss the wings in the reduced sauce. You might have to do this a few times based on the volume of chicken, so be sure to portion out your sauce accordingly and try not to overcrowd the pan.

Place the wings on a serving dish and sprinkle chopped green onions to garnish before enjoying.