Lime & Chilli Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings, love 'em. I eat them at least once a week [sometimes more if I make a large batch]. I know some people get put off because they don't like to eat meat from the bone, but that's never bothered me and if it doesn't bother you, this is currently my best recipe.

Warning; this is time consuming, but the final result is excellent and truly worth all the 'faffing about'. Any true 'wing's fan will appreciate the result.

Ingredients

1.5-2 kg of Chicken Wings
1 Lime [at least]
Hot Sauce [Sriracha]
2 Chillies [at least]
2 Cloves of Garlic

Butter

Salt & Pepper

For Braising;
Vegetables [Carrots, Leeks, Onions]
Rind of 1 Lime

1 Chilli
Cold Water

Frying Mix;
100g Plain Flour
Paprika [tea spoon]
Cayenne Pepper [tea spoon]
Salt & Pepper [tea spoon]

Firstly; prep your wings; pat dry and cut down to size [if need be].

Then heat a large frying pan [medium heat], add oil. Once the oil heats up, add the chopped chilli and garlic. Season wings with salt & pepper, then place them in the frying pan. Fry until skin starts to brown, then turn over and do the other side. Remove when satisfied with the colour of the skin.

Place chicken wings into a deep oven proof dish. Then add some vegetables, it's not too vital which; onion, carrot, leek, tomato... whatever you have laying around that will add flavour during the braising process. But because these are Lime & Chilli wings, I always add a chilli and the rind of one lime [save the lime for the sauce later]. Add cold water to your dish until the wings are submerged, cover tightly with tin foil and place into a pre-heated [160 degrees] oven for around two hours.

Carefully remove from oven, pick out the chicken wings and let them cool. Once cooled, it's possible to remove the smaller bone from the chicken wing if you wish, grip tightly and give it a good tug [“that's what she said”], because the meat is nice and tender the bone should easily slide out.

That's the majority of the prep done. At this stage I sometimes leave the chicken wings in the fridge to return to them the following day, but you can carry on, or not, do what you bloody want, I'm not telling you how to live your life.

Heat a small pan and add a knob of butter [as much or as little as you want]. As the butter begins to melt add a decent amount of hot sauce [Sriracha is my personal recommendation], mix, then add the juice of one lime, mix again. Basically with this sauce, it's on you; if you don't want it too spicy, hold back on the hot sauce, if you're trying to be healthy use less butter, if you love limes add more lime juice. Make it to your preference.

Now, there's two ways to go from here; oven or [my much preferred method] fryer.

To Oven Cook;

Put wings in an oven proof dish [big enough that the wings aren't piled up], add sauce and let them marinade for a little while [or in the fridge over night]. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

To Deep Fry;

Add Plain Flour to a bowl, add Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Salt & Pepper and mix. Coat the chicken wings in the flour, leave in the fridge for at least one hour. [This mix can be saved, the wings aren't raw, so the flour mix could be used the following day, if like me, you eat a lot of chicken wings.]

Heat up your fryer [175 degrees], remove chicken wings from flour mix, give them a gentle shake to remove any excess flour. Fry for about 5 minutes. Remove, then in a bowl mix with your lime/chilli sauce until the wings are thoroughly coated.

Garnish Recommendations; slice of lime/ chopped chilli / sliced spring onions / sesame seeds.

I understand this is a lot of effort for chicken wings, but the final outcome is absolutely delicious. I made some today [deep fried], took a picture on my phone [Rach wasn't available with her fancy camera and keen eye for taking food pictures, so sorry about the below par image with this recipe, it doesn't do the dish justice], I tried one and before I knew it I'd eaten them all... luckily, I'll be making more tomorrow. But the skin is beautifully crispy, the meat is lovely and tender, the kick from the chilli and the zest of the lime compliment each other perfectly... and due to the lime it counts as one of my 5-a-Day*.

"I never ate a chicken wing until I met Ben, because they looked gross and bony, I was soon won over with this recipe because the meat is so damn tender and the sauce is unbelievable" -Rach

Handy Tips:

If you do have to cut your chicken wings down to size, save the cut-offs and make a chicken stock. You can also add the braising water / veg to the stock later.

Last time I did this, I braised some Pork Belly at the same time as braising the chicken wings. I ate the Pork Belly that evening and the chicken wings the next day. If you've got your oven on for two hours, you may as well make the most of it.

*May not actually count as one of your 5-a-Day fruit & veg.