Honey Dijon Wings

*Post by Angela.

For the Super Bowl this year, we were happy to be hosting Mark's parents. After three nights of touring LA eateries, I think everyone was a little dined out and looking forward to eating a relaxed meal at home. Mark and I made a couple of snacks to munch on throughout the game (beer brats and salad), and I whipped up a batch of my favorite Brussels sprouts recipe. But the main attraction was my first attempt at making Korean-style fried chicken, which I fell in love with at Kyochon. In consideration of Mark's mom and dad (who are not the heat-addicts that we are), I decided to forgo the spice and instead went with this recipe for honey dijon wings. For the chicken itself, I took some tips from The Ravenous Couple. Not only was the whole double-frying process surprisingly incident-free*, but the result was so good, that Mark's mom asked for the recipe at the end of the evening. Talk about gratifying!

 List of ingredients:

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp whole grain mustard
• 3 lbs chicken wings
• 1 cup extra fine flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp pepper
• A whole mess of canola oil (enough to be 3 inches deep in your frying pot)

First, I put together the sauce, melting the butter over low heat in the pan, adding the honey and mustards, and whisking until the ingredients were thoroughly combined. I poured the completed sauce into a big bowl to await the wings.

Next, I moved on to the chicken. I sifted together the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper into a big bowl. I found this Wondra after about 20 minutes of scouring the baking aisle - there was only one cannister left, and it was hidden behind the regular flour. I don't know why the Ralph's on 3rd Street is trying to thwart me, but it FAILED. I bet this would still work with regular flour, but the skin wouldn't be quite as crisp.

I patted the chicken very dry and tossed the wings in flour mixture. It's important to make sure that you really dry your wings well, otherwise, the flour mixture may get all clumpy and thick - you just want a light dusting on the wings.

I poured the oil into a big pot with very high sides (to prevent painful splattering) heated it to 350 degrees and fried the chicken for the first time, about 5 minutes per batch, making sure not to crowd too much chicken in at once. As each batch finished, I removed it from the oil and placed it on a paper-towel lined baking sheet.

Then I started the whole process over again - I made sure the oil came back up to 350 degrees (the temperature of the oil was lowered while frying the first time through), fried the wings again for about 7 minutes per batch, and laid them on paper towels for the excess oil to drain.

Once all the chicken was fried, I tossed the wings in the sauce, making sure that every centimeter of the meat was covered in the sticky, sweet sauce. I never thought I'd be able to make fried chicken with such shatteringly crisp skin, but there you go. And the sauce was definitely a crowd-pleaser - sweet, but not too sweet, with a tangy little kick. I'm definitely going to be making Korean-style wings again for the next event we host (but probably a spicy version). 

*Incident-free, that is, until the clean-up phase, where I proceeded to dump hot oil all over my chest. Luckily, the oil had started to cool a little already, so I walked away without lasting injury, but OUCH. Ironically, the mishap occurred because the high sides of the pot I used (to prevent painful splattering, remember?) made it difficult to pour the oil into a container to dispose of it...

Comments

[ravenouscouple]

thanks for the linkback and great looking wings!

[Angela]

Absolutely, thank YOU for the help!

[KrisDub]

Glad you were okay! And I cannot wait to try your wings, maybe you would be so kind as to bring the spicy version to the next bad movie night?

[Angela]

Ha! I was just thinking that exact thing! I would be happy to make them. I'll make some spicy and some extra, extra spicy.