9 hours ago, liuzhou said:I've never cooked wings (other than to make stock) but lovingly remember some wings I enjoyed in a Japanese style ramen place in China. The Chinese owners had lived in Japan for many years, but returned. Sadly, the man died and the wife retired about two years ago and I never got their recipe.
If anyone knows a Japanese treatment I'd love to hear it. Maybe it'll be close.
In most Yakitori places I have visited, you can get your chicken wing (“tebasaki”) in two versions: shio (salt) or tare (sauce, similar to teriyaki sauce).
The treatment is quite similar. You skewer the whole wing or parts (flats are quite popular, 2 per skewer) and grill them over medium heat on the skin side until golden brown. It will shrink and fat will render out. Then flip and grill the other side; each side will take about 2 min. By this time, the wing is about 80% done and begins to show tiny charred spots. This is desirable.
Then you either spray/brush liberally the wing with sake (especially the meat side) and sprinkle with sea salt for the shio treatment, or dip into an everlasting cup of tare (similar to Chinese lu shui this get replenished, but never replaced) for tare treatment.
Then you grill for maybe 20 sec more on each side just to recrisp the surface. The shio one would be served with a sprinkling of shichimi togarashi, the tare version as is or maybe with some sesame seeds.
In many Izakaya’s wings (again flats are preferred) would also be coated with salt & cornstarch, deep fried and then tossed in a reduced 2:1:1 soy/mirin (or honey, syrup)/sake mixture and sprinkled with sesame seeds before serving.
