Korean Spicy Chicken Wings – Maeun Daknalgae

(매운 닭 날개) A KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) dish. Maeun Dalknalgae was one of the most popular “Special Order” dishes from my former Korean Restaurant, and one of my personal favorites. These spicy wings are great as an appetizer, “finger food” on game days, or as a main dish with rice and ban chan.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 pound Sectioned chicken wings

1/3 cup sweet rice flour (substitute potato or corn starch)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Vegetable oil for deep frying

Stir Fry Sauce(per pound of chicken):

1 tablespoon fine ground red chili pepper

3 tablespoons Coarse ground chili pepper (Chili flakes)

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon rice or cooking wine

4 cloves peeled garlic

2 hot red or green chilli peppers

1 ounce peeled fresh ginger

1/4 cup water (or more as needed to obtain a thin sauce)

Garnish:

1 hot red chili pepper

1 green or spring onion

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed

Optional Ingredients

peanuts

pine nuts

pinion nuts

sunflower seeds

pecans

Procedure

Directions:

Prepare the chicken

Rinse the wing pieces in cold water two or three times.

Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix well. Let stand about 10 to 15 minutes.

Mix the Stir Fry sauce

Place the ginger, peppers, and garlic into a blender with just enough water to liquefy the mix.

Pour into a small mixing bowl and add all other sauce ingredients.

Mix well.

Garnish

Finely chop the green/spring onion and set aside.

Thin slice the chilli pepper on a bias or rough chop and set aside.

Cooking

Heat oil in a large cooking pot. (350º or use the bread test)

Roll (coat) wings in rice flour or starch.

Deep fry in small batches (do not over crowd your pan/pot) until very lightly browned (about 10 minutes) , remove from heat and drain.

Return the chicken to the pot and fry again until a deep golden brown (about 7 to 10 more minutes), remove from oil and drain.

Optional Ingredients:

Deep fry the chosen option for about 30 seconds to one minute.

Final:

Transfer the chicken to a large stir fry pan or wok over medium to medium high heat, add the sauce and optional nut(s), and stir fry until all liquid is gone.

Place onto a serving tray and garnish. Serve as an appetizer or with sticky rice and ban chan for a meal.

Tips

If you are fixing these for a game day, make sure to cook enough – they disappear surprisingly fast.

Take a look at the Korean Sesame Fried chicken recipe for a non-spicy addition to your game day rotation.