Why add heat from three different ingredients? Why not just triple the amount of cayenne or ginger or Sriracha? Because these three have different flavors and aromas.
While cayenne is just chili, ginger has a warm and subtly citrusy aroma. Sriracha, the chili sauce from Thailand, contains garlic, salt, sugar and vinegar. So, you really don’t want to ditch any of these three to cook this spicy fried chicken wings.
Kosher salt was used in this recipe. If using refined salt, reduce the amount to one tablespoon.
It is up to you whether to discard the wingtips or not. I didn’t; I simply cut off the ends of the wingtips.
Ginger Sriracha fried chicken wings
Cook the drumettes together in the first batch and then the wingettes in the second batch. The drumettes take a little longer to cook than the wingettes so it makes more sense to cook similarly sized pieces in each batch. The drumettes take about eight minutes to cook; the wingettes, about seven minutes.
Ingredients
- 12 chicken wings
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ tablespoons Kosher salt less if using refined salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ginger powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons cayenne divided
- ¼ cup Sriracha
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
- ½ cup corn or potato starch
- 2 tablespoons flour
- cooking oil for frying
- 1 ½ tablespoons seeds sesame, hemp, flax, chia or a combination of two or more of them, to garnish
- sliced scallions to garnish
Instructions
- Cut the chicken wings into drumettes and wingettes.
- Wipe the chicken dry with a kitchen towel then transfer to a bowl. Pour in the sour cream and mix well. Work the sour cream into the meat.
- Add the salt, garlic powder, onion powder, ginger powder and half of the cayenne. Mix well. Cover the bowl and leave to marinate for at least an hour.
- Make the glaze. Whisk together the Sriracha, honey and sesame seed oil.
- Heat enough cooking oil in a wok or frying pan to reach a depth of three inches.
- Whisk together the flour, starch and remaining cayenne. Dredge each piece of chicken in the mixture. Shake off the excess.
- Fry the chicken wings in two batches until golden and crisp. Scoop out the chicken pieces as they cook and drain on a stack of paper towels.
- Pour off the oil and wipe the frying pan or wok with paper towels.
- Pour the glaze into the wok or frying pan and heat gently until the edges start to bubble. Turn off the heat. Add the cooked chicken to the glaze and toss to coat each piece completely. Add half of whatever seeds you’re using and toss again.
- Transfer the hot chicken wings to a serving platter, sprinkle in the rest of the seeds and the sliced scallions. Serve at once.
