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Asian inspired food is one of my favorite things to cook at home. The sweet, salty and spicy flavors hit every taste bud, meaning you finish your meal feeling completely satisfied. Plus – if you’re anything like me – you’ll be feeling slightly angelic for doing it yourself, rather than calling for takeout.
These chicken lollipops make the perfect appetizer or canapé. They even work as a main dish – along with some rice or noodles.
Prepping the chicken wings is a little fiddly at first. But once you’ve done the first couple, the rest are a lot quicker.
Each wing is cut into 3 pieces – the smallest piece being discarded. The prep is pretty much the same for the remaining two pieces. The meat needs to be detached from the bone at one end (be careful that knife doesn’t slip), and pushed down to create the lollipop effect at one end. You can leave the skin on, or you can remove the skin before you start if you prefer. I like to leave the skin on, as it crisps up nicely in the fryer anyway.
The batter is light and crispy due to those magic ingredients of corn starch, baking powder vinegar.
The amazing spicy sauce is so simple to prepare. Throw everything but the cornstarch slurry into a pan, heat through, then mix in the slurry. You’ll be left with a thick, glossy sauce that you can serve warm or cold (save any leftover sauce for ribs!!).
CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds chicken wings (about 10 whole wings)
- Vegetable oil for deep frying
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
SWEET AND SPICY SAUCE INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp shriacha
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger peeled and minced
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 5 tbsp water
- Cornstarch slurry – made of 1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water
DIRECTIONS
- First prepare the chicken. Take a chicken wing and cut it into 3 pieces – using the joints of the wing as your guide. Discard the pointy ended piece.
- Take the middle piece and cut the chicken away from the bones at the fat end (don’t cut any meat off, you just want to detach it from the bone at one end). Push the chicken flesh down using your fingers until the meat is pushed down to the end. You’ll see there are two bones in this piece. The smaller bone can be removed easily once the chicken flesh is pushed down – just pull and twist the bone and it will come free.
- Take the final, largest piece of the chicken wing and cut the chicken away from the bone – this time at the thin end. Again push the chicken flesh down using your fingers until the meat is pushed down to the end.
- Repeat with the rest of the wings – so you have 20 lollipops altogether.
- Heat the oil to 350°F in a large, high-sided pan or deep fryer.
- Mix the cornstarch, baking powder, garlic salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Place the chicken wings in the bowl and toss to cover. Place the chicken wings on a plate.
- Add the flour, water and rice wine vinegar to the remaining cornstarch mix that’s left in the bowl and whisk together using a balloon whisk.
- One at a time, dip a chicken wing in the batter, let any excess batter drip off and carefully lower into the hot oil. You can cook about 5 chicken wings at a time in this way. Cook for 8 minutes, moving the chicken about in the pan once or twice to prevent it sticking together.
- Once cooked, remove the chicken from the oil and place on some paper towels.
- Repeat with the remaining wings (you can keep the cooked wings warm in the oven on a low heat).
- Whilst the chicken lollipops are cooking, make the sauce by mixing all of the sauce ingredients together except for the cornstarch slurry. Heat in a small pan until bubbling, then stir in the cornstarch slurry. Stir until the sauce has thickened, then turn off the heat.
- Serve the chicken lollipops with the warm sauce.
