Spicy Sriracha Wings

Anyone who has spoken to me in the past week knows that I have developed an obsession with sriracha, the absolutely delicious traditional Thai hot sauce that was brought overseas to the USA, refined and popularized by a Vietnam-born entrepreneur of Chinese descent named David Tran whom you can read about here. So, instead of introducing this with a wordy pre-amble. I will say just one word: YUM.

Go forth. Below is a recipe that I adapted from four different recipes that I found in the internet. I'm still playing with the ratios of the sauce to refine the final product, but what follows is pretty darned close to amazing. So good, these will make you want to crow like a rooster. teehee.

Image originally from White on Rice Couple

Spicy Sriracha Wings
Serves 2 - 3 (but in this case, just me)
My take on sriracha chicken wing recipes featured in: Food & Wine, White on Rice Couple, Serious Eats and Mike's Table.


Ingredients:


5 cups Canola or vegetable oil (approximately)
3 to 5 lbs of chicken wingettes, separated
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup Sriracha Rooster Sauce
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
Cilantro (a frozen cube from Trader Joe's trays)
Cumin (a dash)
Fried garlic flakes (a pinch)
Juice from 1 lime
3 - 4 celery stalks
3 - 4 carrots
Marie's premium super blue cheese dressing


Prior to cooking, read all four recipes and conclude that the one author who truly understands the joy of Buffalo wings is Mike from Mike's Table.  Why? Because the other three suggest BAKING the wings and then pan frying them. What?!?! I attended the University at Buffalo for two years... if I learned one thing from those two years, it was that Buffalo wings are NOT baked. They are DEEP FRIED.


1. Heat oil in a deep pot so that wingettes can be submerged and deep fried (yeah, baby).  Allow oil to boil rapidly for 10 minutes so that the temperature is even throughout.
2. Rinse wingettes and pat dry with paper towel.  In a dry bowl, mix together flour, pepper and seasoned salt.
3. Coat wings with flour mixture, in batches.  Once fully coated, gently lower wings into the hot oil using tongs. Long tongs... as long and as sturdy as possible. Hot oil is no joke.
4. Let the wings fry for about 3 to 5 minutes or until fully cooked through. Fish one out and cut it through to the bone to check it's done-ness. Meat should be white and separate easily from the bone.
5. While wings are frying, rinse and peel carrots and celery.  Munch on carrots and celery sticks and dip them into Marie's blue cheese sauce, which is absolutely divine.
6. Swap batches as necessary. Coating and frying, batch by batch. Drain wings on paper towels. Resist the temptation to taste them before the entire batch is cooked.
7. In a large bowl, mix together ingredients for the mind-blowing sriracha concoction that will coat the wings. Combine sriracha, melted butter, cider vinegar, soy sauce, cilantro, cumin, garlic flakes and lime juice. Feel free to pop concoction into the microwave for 30 seconds to melt together all ingredients (that is what I did).
8. Once all of the wings have been cooked, toss them in the sauce.  Upon a taste test, the wings/sauce should be spicy, garlicky, vinegary and yummy all at once.
9. Serve wings with blue cheese, celery and carrot sticks..


YUM. Eat leftovers for lunch the next day.

Photo credit: ilovememphis