Jings! (James' Mild Baked Wings)

Image from bonappetit.com

I love chicken wings. Love em!
Having said that, I do have a problem with wings, and that is that frequently we're getting them at Wing World, the local pub or 7-11. At all those places you typically get these deep-fried, artery-clogging 60% breading monstrosities. Even the places that don't bread, do deep fry. Frequently tasty, but awful for your expanding waistline.

It doesn't have to be this way!!! You can have (moderately) healthy wings that still pack in the flavor. Bet I got your full attention now, don't I?

The key, my friends, is steam and baking. Using steam we can cook out some of the fat in the skin while keeping the wings nice and moist. Then by baking in high heat we get a nice crispy skin.


The following recipe is my own kinda international sauce, mixing up nice citrus tangy-ness with the distinct savoury taste of curry.

Here we go...

Jings
(James' Wings, also a Scottish slang term similar to damn, or jeeze, as in, "Jings, these Jings are amazing!")
Mild Heat

You will need a steamer basket for this recipe (or whatever you use to steam).

Ingredients
Jings Wing Marinade
1 cup EVOO or vegetable oil
1/2 cup chicken broth (low sodium if you can)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup minced garlic
8 heaping tablespoons of curry powder
    Madras Curry is low heat if you're worried. Or you can get some nice curry paste, in which case use half the amount. Try and buy green or yellow paste if you have an option, red if you want spicy.
4 tablespoons dried oregano
4 tablespoons dried basil
4 tablespoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons pepper
OPTIONAL
2-4 tablespoons chile powder for heat  OR
2 tablespoons tabasco or Franks Red Hot for heat and taste  OR
1/4 cup bottled Jerk Sauce if you want to add a little Island Heat

Wings
3.5lbs frozen split wings (or more, whatever, as long as you have enough marinade - I usually make 32-36 wings per batch so I can have some for supper and then some for lunch the next day. 10 wings to a pound is a good estimate). I buy frozen wings by the case.
1.5 cup corn starch (OPTIONAL - this detracts a wee bit from the health, but it does add crispiness to the skin and more of a surface for the sauce to cling to)
Lemon Pepper or Celery Salt or Garlic Powder
OPTIONAL
Instead of Lemon Pepper, pick up a little container of Cavander's Greek Seasoning at your local grocery store spice aisle. It's awesome!

Directions
1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Mix well.
2. Put frozen wings into large sealable container or ziplock bag, pour in half of the marinade. If using the ziplock, push out as much air as you can before sealing it. Reserve the other half of marinade for the sauce.
3. Let wings sit for a minimum of 2 hours unrefrigerated, to a max of 5. Otherwise, let them marinate overnight in the fridge.
4. When ready to cook, put both the large and small pots on the stove. Put water mixed with a little lemon juice in the large pot, about an inch or so. Put the steamer basket into the large pot.
5. Pour the reserved marinade into the small pot. Turn both burners to medium-high.
6. Put wings into pot with steamer, chuck the lid on. Steam for 10-15 minutes, or until all wings are defrosted and cooked through.
7. Meanwhile, get the marinade in the small pot onto a nice low boil, then reduce to keep warm.
8. When done steaming drain the pot and dump wings into a large bowl. You'll know the wings are for sure done because they'll have turned white. You'll want to cool them down enough to handle, so run some cool water over them for a few moments or chuck em in the fridge for an hour. At the same time, turn the oven onto 425.
9. Prep a cookie sheet for the wings. Ideally you'll have baking racks that you can use to elevate the wings off the surface of the pan, or if you have some of those aluminum grills pans use one of those, or failing that put some non-stick aluminum foil on the bottom of the pan.
10. When the wings are cooled you need to make sure that they are also dry, so pat them down with some paper towel. If you are using corn starch read on, if not, skip to step 13.
11. Put the corn starch and half of whatever dry spices/herbs you are using into a small bowl.
12. Coat the wings in the corn starch. One or two at a time drop the wings into the corn starch/spice mix, coating on all sides, then shake off excess powder and put the wing onto the cookie sheet.
13. Assemble all the wings onto the cookie sheet, trying to have them avoid touching if you can. Chuck the pan into the oven.
14. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, flip, put back in for another 20 minutes then remove. Reduce heat on sauce pot to sim.
15. Sprinkle wings with remaining spices and put back into big bowl.
16. Pour over as much as the sauce as you prefer (I like to go pretty light on the sauce, preferring drier wings - on the outside) and toss.
17. Plate and serve. Thank me later.

There you go. Although I'm sure seventeen steps looks daunting it's really a very easy recipe. In a later post I'll offer up some variations on spices and marinades you can use for all kinds of meats and whatnot.

If you'd prefer a more traditional buffalo hot sauce than the somewhat international one I favour, mix 2 oz of Louisiana style hot sauce with 5 tablespoons of butter and heat slowly. Done.

Where's my beer?