Crispy Sichuan Pepper Chicken Wings
By Nicola Lando
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40 minutes prep time
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5 minutes cook time
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Easy
Potato flour is the quick and easy path to 'crisp' in Japanese cooking. Whether deep frying crispy tofu to make Japanese agedashi tofu (delicious) or coat chicken wings, I always rely on on a quick and simple coating of potato flour. There's no need to mix a batter, and the potato flour coating puffs up beautifully and stays crisp for a long time.
These wings are marinated in a mixture of sake, mirin, ginger and garlic before cooking. Then they are tossed in a potato flour mixed with Sichuan pepper for a hint of spice, before deep frying.
A Thermapen thermometer is one of the best tools for making wings (and pretty much any other cooking task). Getting the frying temperature spot on will ensure the wings cook through whilst keeping a perfect golden colour and crispy crust. And secondly, by checking the temperature of the cooked wings, you'll be 100% confident that every piece of chicken is perfectly cooked.
The wings Serves: 2
- 6 large chicken wings, cut into 12 pieces (wing tips removed) (around 700g in total)
- Marinade
- 15g ginger
- 15g garlic
- 1tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp mirin
- 2 tsp sake
- 2 tsp sesame oil
To fry
- 75g potato flour
- 1-2 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 litre vegetable oil
Equipment
- Cooking thermometer (we love Thermapen)
Method
- Mix together the marinade ingredients and toss with the wings. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes (or even a few hours)
- Roughly grind the Sichuan peppercorns and toss together with potato flour in a large bowl. Add the wings and use your hands to coat well.
- Heat the oil to 160 C. Gently lower in the wings. You may need to fry them in two batches depending on the size of your pan. Fry for 5 minutes or until golden brown and the temperature at the centres of the wings read at least 80C. Using a slotted spoon, lift out onto paper towels to drain and cool for a few minutes. Serve.
About the author
After a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant Nicola became obsessed with seeking the best flavours from around the world. She started Sous Chef in 2012, and is always sharing her knowledge of ingredients and writing recipes to showcase those products. Learning from the products, Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola has written the majority of the recipes on the Sous Chef website, all of which are big on flavour.
