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Chicken Wings, Sweet and Hot (M, TNT)
Source: Penzey's catalog, Winter 2004
Yield 48 pieces or so

Sauce:
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
3/4 tbsp. ketchup
Dash of salt
1/4 cup chicken broth (or 1/4-1/2 tsp. chicken soup base in 1/4 cup hot water)
1/4 tsp. chile flakes (optional)

Wings:
2-4 lbs. chicken wings (tips cut off and separated at joints)
1-1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1 cup cornstarch
6 eggs
3 tbsp. vegetable shortening or oil

Make Sauce:
Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a pan and cook over medium-low heat until the mixture comes to a boil, stirring often. Once it has a soft boil going, turn the burner off, remove from heat, and let the sauce sit.

Make Wings and Assembly:
After snipping the tips off the wings and disjointing them, lay them out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle evenly with granulated garlic. Turn the wings over and sprinkle the other side. Cover the tray and let the wings stand for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Put the cornstarch in a roomy bowl. In another bowl, add the eggs and beat well.

Roll the wings in the cornstarch first and then dip them in the egg mixture.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp. of shortening or oil. When the oil is hot enough to fry in but not so hot it's smoking, it is ready to go. When ready, fry wings in three batches, adding 1 tbsp. of oil before each batch.

Place in the frying pan and fry the wings until golden brown. Make sure you're turning them so each side gets a golden crust. This takes about 5 minutes or so.

Remove from the pan onto and let drain on paper towels a bit. Once drained a bit, place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet that has a lip on it or a jellyroll pan. Once all the wings have been fried and placed on the sheet, take the sauce and spoon it over all the wings.

Bake at 350°F for about an hour.

Halfway through baking, turn the wings and baste with the sauce in the pan. The sauce will thicken and start to caramelize on the wings. Remove the wings from the pan carefully so the delicious crust is not dislodged. Serve alone as appetizers, or with white or fried rice for a tasty meal.

Poster's Notes:
This recipe is from the Winter, 2004 issue of Penzey's catalog. I've made it many times. I like to have a hotter sauce. This can be made ahead of time and frozen. I've added my notes to the bottom of the recipe. I once ran out of cornstarch and used potato starch, which seemed to work as well.

This is a good recipe for a Football Bowl party. Save the extra sauce for dipping. My additional notes on the recipe are:

1. I start out with two eggs, and add additional eggs one at a time.

2. I've tried using more oil and cooking more pieces at one time, but the pieces absorb more oil. Chicken pieces have additional fat under the skin, using more oil means more oil is absorbed into the pieces. I use corn oil.

3. For each batch of wings, I add one tablespoon of oil to the frying pan.

Posted by Harriet Neal

Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A