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Monday, January 16, 2012

Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm (Crispy Chicken Wings in Sweet and Spicy Fish Sauce)


It's been a while since my last post. I've been swamped by the holidays and lots of cooking and has not had enough time to take detail pictures and jot down descriptive recipes. In addition, the weather has not been very cooperative. By the time I finished my cooking, it's too dark to provide the right natural lighting for me to take good pictures for the blog. Now, the Christmas lights are down and I just threw away my white fir Christmas tree; it's time to go back to the ranch, my kitchen.

One of the dishes that I served on the Christmas dinner was Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm (Chicken Wings in Sweet and Spicy Sweet Sauce). I turned one part of the wing into a lollipop for the kids to enjoy. Though I much prefer to fry it with skin on which is more crispy and delicious.  When the chicken wings got turn inside out to create a lollipop, the outside of the lollipop is not as crispy though it's still good.

My husband liked it so much he asked me to make it five times in a month. They make finger licking delicious appetizers because they are very addicting!.
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RECIPE: Cánh Gà Chiên Nước Mắm

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Ingredients

for marinating chicken wings
1 package, about 6 lbs, chicken party wings
4 shallots, minced
2 whole garlic, minced

for sweet and spicy fish sauce
1 cup good fish Sauce 
2 cups sugar
chili pepper sauce, optional

rice bran oil or vegetable oil, for frying
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Direction

Marinating Chicken Wings


Wash wings and cut into half at the joint if you have whole chicken wings. 



If you want to make lollipop wings, use the drumette part which has one bigger bone like a drumstick or chicken leg. Separate the meat from the top of the drumette and push it down to make a lollipop.  Hold the thin end of the drumette firmly, then cut through the skin surrounding the bone with a small knife. Use a knife to scrape down the meat from the bone. Push the meat down to the other end.


Place the wings and chicken lollipops in a bowl. Marinate with minced garlic and shallots for at least half an hour.
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Making Sweet and Spicy Fish Sauce 


In a sauce pan, bring fish sauce and sugar to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about  a minute.  Avoid cooking the sauce too long to prevent evaporation which could lead to a saltier sauce.  Remove from heat.


Add chili pepper sauce if you want it spicy.  The sauce will thicken as it cool down.  Set it aside.

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Deep Frying Chicken Wings



Add oil in a pot and bring it over high heat. A good way to test if the oil is hot enough to fry is to stick the end of a wooden chopstick in the oil. You can tell with how quickly the bubbles are raising to the surface that it is really hot and ready. Add wings to the hot oil. During the frying process, use a strainer to remove the fried garlic and shallot and set aside.



Fry until wings turn golden and crispy. Remove from oil.

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Mixing Wings with Sauce


Place wings in a sauce skillet.  Add fried garlic and shallot, and mix well.

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Presentation


So there you have some delicious finger licken crispy chicken wings.


Enjoy while it's still hot and crispy!

11 comments:

  1. Yippee, new post!Thank for sharing.I like the sauce. Another way to make crispy fried chicken wing that I learned (base on the Korean technique )is after marinating, coat the chicken thoroughly with cornstarch. Then transfer to a strainer and shake to remove all but a thin coating of cornstarch. Whisk 1 cup of cornstarch and 1 cup cold water together to form a smooth batter. Add the chicken wing into the batter and turn to coat. Remove the wing from the batter , allowing excess batter to drip back into the batter bowl and add to the hot oil. Fry in 350 until the chicken begins to crisp, slightly golden brown about 5 minutes. Transfer the fried wing to a wire rack and set aside for 5 minutes. Batter and fry the remaining wings. Return the first batch to the hot oil and fry until the exterior is very crisp and deep golden brown 3-5 min. Then drizzle or coat with your favorite sauce

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  2. How many is in a package of wings? A big, medium, or small package??

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  3. How many wings are in a package? Is the package a large, medium or small tray? Are you talking about a bagged pre-cut wings?

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  4. I like this dish so much. I've tried to do it before but never tasted like I wanted. Guess I can take a try with this recipe

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  5. I have just made it today for lunch and my boyfriend (who does NOT like nuoc mam) liked it and he said he would eat it again. I just discovered your blog and I def plan on trying out a lot of your recipes! Thank you for taking the time to post them.
    Loan (hehe we share the same name!)

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  6. I just made it last week, and my boyfriend (who hates nuoc mam) said he would eat it again! That's just self explanatory ;) its delicious!

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  7. I prefer the pre-cut wings. Each package has about 20-25 pre-cut wings.

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  8. Instead of deep fry, I toasted them in the oven. They turned out pretty good and much less calories.

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    1. I must try your way :-). Thanks Jenny

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    2. Thanks for this post. I'm slowly learning how to cook vietnamese food. The nuoc mam sauce was what I was looking for. Brings back memories :)

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