Spicy Korean-style Chicken Wings

This one marries two of my current obsessions: Korean chili paste and chicken wings.  They’re extremely easy to make, and once you do the initial splurge on the ethnic ingredients, very cheap to make.  As it is, I think the spend in the Asian supermarket was only about £10-£12, and as you only need relatively small amounts – especially of stuff like shrimp paste – it lasts forever.  These are by no means authentic, but I welcome any input from those who know more than I do about Korean cooking (which is precious little).

This works equally well in both the oven and the crockpot.  Oven-roasting is slightly better if you’re planning to take these on a picnic or other situation where you will be eating as a finger food without plates.   If you’re using the crockpot, they will get falling-apart-tender and therefore messier, but you will wind up with a tasty sauce for putting over rice.  Also, don’t joint the wings if you’re going for the crockpot.  They’ll be easy enough to pull apart when they’re finished cooking.

Marinade ingredients:

• 2 generous tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp black Chinese vinegar
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 scant tsp of sugar or honey
• 1 scant tsp shrimp paste
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• optional – scant tsp chilli oil with shrimp paste  (omit or scale back plain shrimp paste if using)

The rest:

• 10 fresh chicken wings (do not separate if slow-cooking)
• 1 large onion, sliced (if slow-cooking)

This is really just an excuse to show off my $1.99 Las Vegas tea tray.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together.  Pour over chicken wings.  I like to do this in a large plastic freezer bag so I can mush up the marinade into the wings, but a bowl is perfectly ok.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.  You can actually just chuck them straight into the pot without the marinade time if you’re slow-cooking, but if you’re opting for the oven, I’d go with marinating.

If slow-cooking:

Line the pot with thickly-sliced rings of onion to prevent the wings from sticking.  It also makes a nice sauce for serving the wings over rice, if you’re that way inclined.

Lay wings on top, pouring over any marinade.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.  Or, if you’re like me, cook on high for 45 minutes, then switch to low and go ramble around Victoria Park for a few hours.

Optional: Give wings a quick blast under a hot grill to caramelise.  I was impatient and did not do this.

If roasting:

Preheat oven to 220 C (or 200 C if you have a fan oven).

Place wings on a rack over a foil-lined grill pan (for lazy cleanup).  Roast in the top half of the oven for about 30 mins, turning once halfway through.  Chuck wings in tupperware, grab a blanket and some beers, and haul the lot over to Victoria Park to enjoy in the rare British sunshine.

Wings (to be inhaled) at the Speed of Sound – Part 1

God, I love Buffalo wings.  Since moving to London over a decade ago, I’ve rarely touched anything deep-fried, but the moment the jet’s landing gear opens over Philly International, I’m drooling at the thought of Philly cheese steaks, nachos and Buffalo wings.  Don’t get me wrong, Britain has much to offer on the subject of tasty ways to clog your arteries, but to paraphrase Bill Bryson, we Americans like our food to practically squirt when we bite into it, and fish n’ chips just doesn’t quite cut it.

When I first moved here, I heard lots of lame jokes on the subject of my beloved chicken cast-offs (“I didn’t know buffaloes could fly, hur hur” is only second to even lamer jokes about my state of origin: “Pennsylvania?  Are you a vampire? Isn’t that where pencils come from?” etc).  They are, of course, named for their city of origin, Buffalo, NY, concocted by a restauranteur sometime in the mid-1960s to satisfy the salty-spicy-meaty cravings of a crowd of late-night drinkers.  I could happily eat them for breakfast.