Thai Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

adapted from Chezpim.com

Ingredients:
2 lbs or 1kg chicken wings (or chicken parts)
4-6 cloves of garlic (if you’re like me, you’d go with 6!), peeled
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro roots (or the bottom stems if you cannot get the roots—I used
them both!)

Garlic and Cilantro with Cilantro Roots

1/2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp kosher or large grained sea salt (don’t use fine salt)
3 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
About 2 cups rice flour
enough oil for deep frying

Method:
1. In a mortar or food processor, pound or chop the garlic, cilantro roots, and kosher
salt into a rough paste.
2. Transfer the paste into a large bowl, add the oyster sauce and fish sauce and stir to
mix well.
3. Rinse and dry the chicken pieces thoroughly, then place them into the bowl. Toss
and rub the chicken pieces all over with the marinate mixture. Cover the bowl with
plastic and let marinade in the fridge for at least 3 hours (I marinated them overnight).
4. When you are ready to fry the chicken, place your pan over medium-low heat, fill it
with enough oil (I used Canola) to cover about 2 inches from the bottom of the pan.
Let the oil come up to frying temperature (How do you know the oil is ready? I use
the Martin Yan method of placing wooden chopsticks in the pan and waiting for
bubbles to form around the chopsticks).
5. Meanwhile, put the 2 cups of rice flour into a large plate (a pie plate works very
well for this.) When the oil is ready, take the chicken pieces, one at a time, dredge
them with the rice flour. Shake each piece to remove excess flour and place them,
gently, into the hot oil. Do this in batches so as not to crowd your pan.

6. Don’t let the oil get too hot. If the chicken is browning to quickly and you see large
bubbles forming around the chicken, lower your heat lest you get half-cooked
chicken. It should just be gently bubbling and sizzling in the pan.
7. Fry the chicken until they are golden brown and crisp. If you are using larger
pieces, cut into one to make sure they are cooked through. If the juices do not run
clear, stick them into a warm oven to finish cooking.
8. To retain their crispiness, here’s a trick I learned from Alton Brown, place the
chicken on a rack with paper towels underneath the rack to wick the oil away. If
the chicken is placed directly on paper towels, the moisture from the chicken will get
trapped in the paper towel and cause the chicken to get soggy. So by putting the paper
towels under the rack, the oil still gets wicked away but the space between allows the
chicken to stay crisp.

Thai Fried Chicken Wings

Enjoy on its own or add a little sweet chilli sauce to add another layer of flavor!

To recap, here are the seven secrets for perfect Thai fried chicken wings:

1. Use a deep dutch oven

2. Use smaller pieces of chicken
3. Dredge the chicken in rice flour instead of regular flour
4. Test the oil temperature with the bubbling chopstick method
5. Don’t crowd the pan
6. Gently cook the chicken
7. Drain the chicken on a rack over paper towels