And I thought Chang’s fried chicken with ‘octo vin’ was good. Good god, i was wrong. Well, not wrong, but there is something even better you can do with some nice pieces of chicken, that still have their skin on. David Changs magnificent recipe from his magnificent book (Momofuku) for the oh-so-magnificent chicken wings. He, himself, claims, that this recipe is the worlds longest recipe for chicken wings and that they’re very, very good. I didn’t know how right he was, when i first read those words.
Two days ago I was finally motivated enough to spend a lot of time on some chicken wings. It was all quite spontaneous. I went to the store, got some chicken wings with tips and a lot of lard. In the original recipe he wants you to cold-smoke the chicken wings, but in my tiny kitchen I really don’t have the possibility to do so. So I decided to do it the alternative way with infusing the chicken with smoky bacon flavor while confiting.
The steps are quite simple. You cut of the tips (reserve them for the taré), cut the wings in two pieces and brine the meat for about six hours. Then you confit the wings in pork fat (or duck fat) for about half an hour while adding smoky bacon to the fat. The wings are then cooled down in the fat overnight. The next step is making the taré for the sauce. Brown the wing-tips, add sake, soy sauce and mirin and simmer for about an hour. Strain and refrigerate. The fat surrounding the wings is then heated until liquified and the wings are strained out and browned on both sides in a hot cast-iron pan while being pressed down. Garlic and pickled chiles are added to the tare before tossing the chicken with it and serving it with a lot of scallions.
I’m not gonna post the full recipe here, because I think I already posted enough of the book’s recipes. So people, please buy the book! It’s so damn worth it!
Anyways, while cooking I already noticed the wonderful smell coming out of the pan and when I had the first bite I knew that the time involved in preparing this wonderful dish was well worth it. It was so delicious that I was immediately scared of my flatmates eating it all up before I got a chance of having enough of the wonderful stuff. Fortunately, I made enough and no one was still hungry after dinner.
I just want to encourage everyone to invest the time and patience. It’s so worth it. Promise.
Oh, and if you’re not sure if you want to buy the book you can check out my other blog posts about food from David Chang’s Momofuku:
Chicharrones
Fried Chicken
Steaks – ‘Ghetto Sous Vide’.
Marinated Steak Ssam
Brussels Sprouts, Kimchi Puree & Bacon.
Pan-roasted Asparagus, Poached Egg and Miso Butter.
Okay, high speed internet is finally back up and running here. We had to get a new contract, because my one flatmate moved out. Things are finally getting back to normal. We got new furniture, a lot of new stuff for the kitchen and it's ...
Momofuku... Again. Brussels sprouts prepared that way are just not comparable to brussels sprouts made in any other (and more traditional) way. The roasting process adds sweetness to the bitter sprouts, the kimchi adds funk and the baco ...
I think I first noticed David Chang or Momofuku in Anthony Bourdains "No Reservations". It was the infamous "Food Porn"-Episode (you can watch it on eatmedaily.com) in which you can see some of the most delicious and evil food things in ...
If you liked this post, make sure to 
