Ain't no Thang like a Chicken Wing

Aint no Thang Like a Chicken Wing Photo: James Beck from Bistronomy

James Beck: Our 'Aint no thang like a chicken wing' has been on the menu since Bistronomy opened four years ago. I'm pretty sure that it is world-famous in Napier as the one time I took it off the menu there was a public outcry... You'll notice that we don't actually call it a chicken wing as we really use Bostock's organic chicken thigh which obviously has the great advantage of being boneless! Shush don't tell anyone!  Until as recently as a year ago we were cooking it sous-vide for 12 hours at 63° resulting in super tender chicken. However, we've since made the decision to drastically reduce our plastic usage and have altered the recipe so that handily…it is now easy to prepare at home as well…

Ingredients

• 500g organic boneless chicken thigh cut into bite-size pieces
• 500g chicken stock
• 80g soy sauce
• 40g fish sauce
• 40g oyster sauce
• 5 star anise
• 4 cardamom pods
• 6 cloves
• 6 peppercorns
• peel of two oranges and two lemons.

Method

Place the chicken in a roasting dish big enough that there is a flat layer of chicken.

Bring all the ingredients except the chicken to a simmer.

Pour the liquid over the chicken, cover with tin foil and braise in an oven at 80° for approximately 2-3 hours. If you have a meat thermometer check the temperature of the chicken after 1.5 hours and thereafter every 10 minutes until the chicken has reached a core temp of 65°. Otherwise, cook the chicken until it is firm to the touch. 

Cool the chicken and reserve it in the liquid until ready to serve

Crumb:

• 250 self-raising flour
• 1tsp paprika
• 1tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp salt
• egg white to coat

Combine all ingredients

To serve:

Remove the chicken from the liquid and pat dry.

Dust individual pieces of chicken in the crumb, coat in the egg white, dust again in the crumb and deep fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with your favourite dipping sauce.