RECIPE: Best Chicken Wings & Sriracha Sauce
“One day a year…for a year’s worth of bragging rights!” proclaim the organizers of The Wingfest Series, which currently runs competitions in New York City and Washington, D.C.
The New York event took place this past weekend, with all-you-can-eat wings and all-you-can-drink beer. This year’s champion chicken wings were made by The Windsor, a high-end sports bar in Manhattan’s West Village. The winning recipe is below is courtesy of The Windsor’s chef, Kristine Mana-ay. The Windsor won over past Wingfest champions BBQue’s Smoke Shack and Duke’s New York. Participating restaurants and what they served: |
The winner: Honey Sriracha Wings (photo © The Windsor | New York City). |
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RECIPE: HONEY SRIRACHA WINGS Ingredients For 12 Wings |
Sriracha sauce. The Rooster brand is commonly found in U.S. supermarkets. Look in the Asian foods section. |
Marinade
1. PREPARE the sriracha sauce: Combine the siracha, honey, chopped ginger, and scallion. Set it aside. 2. WHISK together buttermilk, pepper, salt, and Old Bay seasoning in a bowl. Add the chicken and coat with the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours. Then… |
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3. MIX together the flour, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, paprika, onion and salt in a small bowl. 4. PLACE chicken wings in a large bowl and coat evenly with the flour mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for one hour. 5. HEAT the oil to 375° in a deep frying pan. The oil should be just enough to cover the chicken wings. Cook, remove the chicken from the fryer, and drain on paper towels set in a bowl. Coat with sriracha sauce and serve. WHAT IS SRIRACHA? Sriracha, pronounced see-RAH-jah, is a Thai hot chili sauce. It is made from red chiles, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt; and is aged for three months or longer. Unlike American hot sauces such as Tabasco, which are vinegar sauces that are infused with hot chiles, sriracha is primarily puréed chiles, making it a much thicker sauce. The sauce is named after the coastal city of Si Racha in eastern Thailand, where it was first made and marketed. Different brands can be found in the Asian aisle of many supermarkets and in Asian groceries. According to multiple sources, including an article in Bon Appétit, the sauce was made more than 80 years ago in by a local woman, Thanom Chakkapak. She initially made the condiment for her family, and then for friends, to enjoy with the local seafood (think of it as a much hotter counterpart to American cocktail sauce). As is a common story in the specialty food business, they encouraged her to sell it commercially—and it became the best-selling chile sauce in Thailand. In 1984, Ms. Chakkapak sold her business to a major food company, Thai Theparos Food Products. According to Andrea Nguyen, who wrote the article for Bon Appétit: Since Thailand does not adhere to one romanization system for Thai words, many variants have emerged, chosen by manufacturers who have created their own version of the original sauce. However, the most commonly accepted spelling is sriracha.
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