Momofuku Chicken and Prosciutto-Wrapped Dates (Take Two)

*Post by Angela.

Since I've moved away from my beloved D.C., one of the things I've enjoyed most in my new location is rooting for the Redskins on Sundays (including a very improbable and doubly satisfying win over Mark's Eagles a couple of weekends ago), and joining Mark to watch the Phillies storm their way through the playoffs. And when our teams aren't playing each other, I like to be mildly and vaguely supportive as he watches the Eagles. Given our sports-filled days lately, I thought it would be nice to prepare an event-appropriate meal this past Sunday evening and decided to go with chicken wings. Because we've been trying to eat a little healthier lately, I eschewed the traditional butter-heavy Buffalo sauce and frying (oh, yummmm), and instead opted for a slightly healthier, but even more tasty version - Steamy Kitchen's take on Chef David Chang (of Momofuku fame) chicken wings. They were so good that we devoured all of them, even though I had intended to save some for our lunches the next day.

 

 

List of ingredients for the chicken and vinaigrette:

• 3 pounds chicken drumsticks (I prefer these to wings, but they take a little extra cooking time)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon finely chopped jalapeno, seeded
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• freshly ground black pepper

First, and this is important, I made sure the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno were very finely chopped - you don't cook the vinaigrette at all, and the fine-chopping is needed to take the overwhelming bite off these ingredients. I also preheated the oven to about 450 degrees.

I added the chopped items to the rice wine vinegar, the light soy sauce, the vegetable oil, the sesame oil, the sugar, and a tsp of ground black pepper, whisked it together and let it sit while the chicken was cooking.

At this point in the preparations, Mark got hungry and decided to whip up a variation on an old favorite to snack on. Using Medjool dates we picked up from Trader Joes, we sliced the dates, added goat cheese, and wrapped the little guys individually in a thin slice of delicious prosciutto. We've made a slightly more advanced version of this recipe before that calls for mascarpone, but given the lack of ingredients and a certain sous chef's limited attention span, we settled for the simplified version and lined them up on a baking sheet to cook. 

As Mark was focused on making his snack, I nestled the chicken drumsticks in a lightly oiled baking pan and stuck them in the oven for about 50 minutes (until cooked through), turning the chicken over halfway through the cooking time. Then I took them out and tossed them right into a big bowl with the vinaigrette, turning frequently to make sure all the meat was coated with the vinaigrette.

Before we plated the wings, I snagged a couple of Mark's creations, which he had stuck in the oven to cook just a couple of minutes at high temperature. They were very nice, with the sweetness of the dates working in harmony with the saltiness of the prosciutto. All things considered, the modified goat cheese version of this side dish worked almost as nicely as the mascarpone version. 

Then it was on to the main event, as we plated the chicken with a light salad of baby spinach, arugula, mandarin orange slices, spiced pecans (Trader Joe strikes again!) and crumbled goat cheese. 

Guys, it doesn't get much easier or delicious than this. The vinaigrette is fantastical, tangy, sweet, tart - I wanted to drink it. This was the perfect meal to eat on a great sports day (ALL of our teams won! Redskins, Phillies and Eagles), and definitely good enough to ease my homesickness...a bit.