A recipe for Asian, or maybe it said Korean, chicken wings that I found on website Food 52 when looking up a reference Dale Williams provided (that cauliflower! We're having it tonight) described a technique I've never seen let alone done for/to one of my favorite meats. The Korean flavoring was actually specific to the dipping sauce reccomended--but separately, if the method for the wings alone came out exactly as described, then these would be close to the durably glassy fried wings we used to love at a pan-Asian restaurant in Huntington Beach and still crave to this day--best wings I've ever had in a restaurant. Never have even tried to duplicate it as I'm sure their method was deep-frying, and I don't deep fry. But this sounded close. So I did a batch earlier this week, and the result?
Yes. Oh god, YES!
In spite of the fact that I somewhat ignored their timing and did it my own way so that the preparation would fit into our lifestyle. I would only change their recipe to cut back on the salt, from 1.75 tsps to just 1. Here's what you do: the night before you're going to cook them, mix three egg whites, 2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl. Drop in 12-18 whole wings (or wings trimmed of the flying tip, your option). Toss to coat. Lay out on a well-greased rack placed inside a sheet pan, pretty sides up. Refrigerate. Next day, remove from fridge and place in a 450 F oven. Roast 10 minutes, then turn and roast another ten minutes, and then turn to roast the final ten minutes or until golden brown.
Now they're ready to serve with a dipping sauce, or hit with a few shakes of something hot and spicy.
My next batch will get marinated all day in Tabasco sauce or maybe some Melinda's Extra Hot before going into the egg white mixture. With that refinement, we will have a near duplicate of the wings we used to love.