Teriyaki Chilli Wings

Serves four as a starter

16 whole chicken wings

Marinade:

75ml soy sauce

75ml mirin (mirin is a Japanese sweet rice condiment available from most supermarkets. You can use dry sherry instead, or even dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in some white wine)

Dash of sake (if you have it)

3in piece of ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of chilli sauce

1tsp chilli flakes (feel free to use a mix if you have several)

2tbsp vinegar

Sauce

75ml soy sauce

75ml mirin (see above)

50ml sake (don’t worry if you don’t have it)

50ml vinegar (rice, white wine or cider vinegars are great)

2 crushed dried chillies or 1 heaped teaspoon of chilli flakes (can add more if you can hack it)

1 tbsp of your favourite chilli sauce

1.5tsbp brown sugar/maple syrup/honey

1.5 inch piece of ginger, grated

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional - it’ll make it v hot)

Good pinch freshly ground black pepper

150g seasoned plain flour (I use potato starch as it's gluten-free, cornflour would be fine too)

Vegetable oil, for frying.

To garnish: Toasted sesame seeds & chopped spring onions

Method

Chop wings into two pieces, the 'flat' and the drum. Remove wing tip (freeze along with other bones for a super stock). 

Mix all marinade ingredients and add to wings. Cover and leave for at least 4 hours, if not overnight.  

Preheat oven to 160C and prepare an oven tray lined with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl, add flour and then add the wings, removing any big bits of ginger and garlic. Toss and once completely covered, place in greaseproof paper-lined oven tray. Bake for 15 minutes. If using large wings, bake for up to 20. 

Remove tray from oven and allow to cool. Meanwhile, heat oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. You want the oil to be at least 4ins deep in the pan. 

Fry wings for 5 minutes and drain. Alternatively, if you don’t want to deep-fry, you can brush the wings with oil and return to the oven at 200C for 6 minutes, until golden and crispy. 

In a wide saucepan, add all sauce ingredients and heat over a medium-high heat until it starts to bubble. Add wings and toss, so they’re all covered. If the sauce reduces too much, add a dash of water. Once the sauce has reduced and is sticky, remove from the heat and plate up. Sprinkle with sesame and spring onion and enjoy!