Vietnamese Style Caramel Chicken Wings Food

CARAMEL CHICKEN WINGS

Steps:

• Clean and assemble chicken wings.
• Place chicken wings in mixing bowl. Set aside.
• Prepare the marinade by measuring out ingredients and placing in a mixing bowl: sugar, rice wine, oil, sesame oil and golden mountain.
• Mix marinade ingredients with a whisk until combined, and then pour over chicken wings.
• Cover the bowl with the wings with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight, or at least for 4 hours.
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, begin to toast star anise, cinnamon and shallots until fragrant. Set aside.
• In a separate small sauce pot, again over medium-low heat, add palm sugar, a splash of water and lime juice; begin to melt and caramelize the ingredients. The palm sugar can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes to turn completely into a liquid. Palm sugar is an unrefined sugar, so it may be a bit grainy at first, but it will smooth out. If the melting palm sugar smokes a bit, it's fine. If the melting sugar starts to burn or seize, reduce the heat.
• Once the sugar appears dark red-brown, the caramel has formed. Remove the pot from the heat and slowly add in the fish sauce while continuously stirring. Be careful: the caramel may splatter, as it is very hot and can burn. Add in the reserved toasted spices and dried chiles to the caramel sauce, pour into a heat safe container, cover, and place in the cooler overnight to allow the flavours to steep. Note: the caramel is very sticky.
• When you are ready to fry the chicken wings, remove them from cooler and prepare the batter/coating for the chicken wings.
• Pre-heat fryer to 300°F (149°C) or pour oil into a 7 ½-qt deep pot.
• In a mixing bowl, create batter by combining potato starch, wondra and salt; whisk to incorporate.
• Pour the dry batter mixture directly onto the marinated chicken wings. Using your hands, fully incorporate the dry ingredients into the marinated wings until it forms a wet batter.
• To begin the first fry, set up fryer station with tongs and sheet tray with rack.
• Once the fryer has reached temperature, drop each batter-coated chicken wing into the oil.Be sure not to crowd or over-fill the fryer. This will cause the oil to decrease in temperature.
• Fry for 2 minutes; then, remove the chicken wing with tongs and place onto a sheet tray with a wire rack.
• Once all the chicken wings are fried, begin to prepare them for a second fry for that extra-crispy taste, ensuring they're also fully cooked. You can also place wings in the freezer overnight to fry the next day or when you feel the need for these wings.
• Remove reserved caramel from cooler and allow to come up to room temperature. Once the caramel is at room temperature, strain the caramel into a sauce pot using a fine mesh strainer. You can then discard the spices.
• Gently reheat caramel sauce. Keep warm on range at low heat. Make sure the sauce does not scald or burn.
• Prepare for the second crispy fry.
• As for the first fry, pre-heat fryer to 350ºF. (177ºC) or pour oil into a 7 ½-qt deep pot.
• Drop chicken wings (frozen, if refrigerated overnight) into fryer and fry for 8-10 minutes, until fully cooked at 160ºF/ 71ºC. The wings will look to be a deep walnut-brown colour.
• Once wings are fully cooked, remove from the fryer and dip chicken wings into warmed caramel sauce for 1 minute.
• Remove chicken wings from the caramel bath using tongs, and then place glazed wings on a baking sheet with rack to allow extra caramel to run off.
• Clean and measure out fresh herbs for rau mau and mayo. Chop all fresh herbs and set aside.
• In a food processor or blender, combine mayonnaise, and measured rau mau herbs and lime juice. Blend until combined, and add water as needed to thin out rau mau mayonnaise.
• Remove rau mau mayonnaise from food processor or blender with rubber spatula and place in a plastic container until later use.
• Grab an oval plate and place a dollop of rau mayonnaise on the plate.
• Place caramel chicken wings on top of rau mayonnaise and garnish with fresh rau mau herbs.
• Serve and enjoy.

VIETNAMESE-STYLE CARAMELIZED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Heat the vegetable oil in a large cast-iron skillet or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and add to the skillet; cook until browned, about 4 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.
• Remove and discard 3 tablespoons rendered fat from the skillet; reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic, shallot and ginger and cook until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the coconut water, fish sauce and brown sugar and stir until the sugar is melted. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens (the bubbles will begin to slow as it thickens), 4 to 5 minutes.
• Return the chicken and any collected juices to the skillet and stir to coat the chicken. Cook, reducing the heat if the sauce starts thickening too much, until the chicken is cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the jalapeños. Serve the chicken over the rice and top with cilantro leaves.

VIETNAMESE CARAMEL CHICKEN WINGS

Steps:

• 1. Mix the chicken wings with the marinade and allow to marinate for at least 2 hours. Pat dry. Add some peanut oil to a large skillet. Add the chicken wings and brown on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
• 2. In the same pan add the brown sugar and 4 tbsp.water. Stir until its melted and begins to bubble. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir and reduce the heat to low.
• 3. Add the chicken wings back to pan and cover and cook 5 minutes. Then flip wings and cook 5 more minutes. Watch carefully so caramel doesn't burn.
• 4. Garnish with scallions.

VIETNAMESE CARAMEL CHICKEN

Steps:

• Combine sugar, fish sauce, and black pepper in a shallow plate and turn chicken in the marinade. Set aside for 10 minutes.
• Combine water, fish sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar in a bowl. Set caramel sauce aside.
• Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and pan-fry chicken, skin-side up, until bottoms turn slightly crispy and brown, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook until skin is slightly charred, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from skillet and transfer to a plate.
• Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet and cook garlic for 30 seconds. Return chicken to the skillet and add caramel sauce. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until chicken is no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear. Caramel sauce should be reduced and turn amber in color. Add jalapenos and cook for 1 more minute.

ASIAN CARAMEL CHICKEN WINGS

Steps:

• Put the sugar in a medium sauté pan with enough water to make it go sludgy. Place on a low heat and bring to the boil, then cook until you have a dark amber caramel (see tip, below).
• At arms length, add the other ingredients, except for the chicken and garnish, and bring to a simmer - take care as it will spit. Once it has calmed down a little and you have a thick sauce, stir in the wings until well coated. Pour over 100ml water and simmer on a medium heat for about 30 mins, stirring every now and then until the sauce is a thicker consistency - add a splash more water if needed.
• Turn down the heat and continue to cook, covered, for a further 15 mins, stirring occasionally, until the wings are lacquered and tender and the sauce is very thick. Turn off the heat and quickly stir through half the spring onion, ginger and chilli. Tip the wings and sauce onto a platter. Scatter with the remaining garnish and coriander, and serve with extra lime and rice.