Cantonese Chicken Wings

Wings braised in soy and rock sugar until the liquid has gone and only a glaze is left.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken wings, wing tips removed
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 25 g rock sugar
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 3 slices ginger
• 250 ml hot water

Method

1. Dry the wings well and brown them in the oil over a high heat, 6 minutes, turning once. They will stick if you move them early.
2. Add the rock sugar and let it melt among the wings. Rock sugar rather than granulated: it dissolves slowly and gives the glaze its shine without any risk of catching.
3. Add both soy sauces, the wine and the ginger, then the hot water. It should come about halfway up the wings.
4. Simmer, half covered, for 20 minutes.
5. Take the lid off and turn the heat up. Keep turning the wings as the liquid drops — the last two minutes are where a glaze becomes a burnt pan.
6. Stop when there is no free liquid left and every wing is coated and shining. Nothing is thickened and nothing is added; the glaze is just the braising liquid gone.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes