Poached Wings

Today I decided to get raw wings and poach them so I could toss them in my own hot sauce. It turned out to be $1.34 each piece (tax and free delivery and tips included). Ordering wings cooked (fried) would cost me about $1.90 each (tax and free delivery and service fees and tips). I save almost $6. Gas is included in my apartment, so at least I’m not having to spend money to cook them. I suppose $6 is a cup of coffee, but I get free coffee from the coffee bar in my building, so I never pay for coffee or tea (sometimes, fruit, too, when in the mood), anyway. Seriously, sometimes ordering doesn’t cost me more than cooking, considering I don’t even do fast food.

This is not meant to be a dish but a canvas. I don’t really like frying, but I do like wings, and I’ve found poaching the wings gives me a lot of freedom to experiment with tossing them in different sauces. These wings can be shallowed fried, grilled, or reheated in the microwave and then tossed in a variety of sauces or tossed in sauce and baked.

I prefer wingettes, but they’re hard to find. I do like the wings cut rather than whole.

• 2.5 lbs wing pieces
• 1/4 cup coarse salt
• 1 cup ice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Fill a large pot 3/4 full with cold water and add the salt. Bring to a boil. Add the wings. Just before the water boils, cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for 1/2 hour. Remove the wings and rinse under running cold water. 
2. In the meantime, heat the liquid until boiling and put the wings in again. As before, just before the water boils, cover and turn off the heat. Let sit for 1/2 hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath. In a large bowl, add the ice and fill the bowl with cold water.
4. Remove the wings from the pot and dunk them in the ice bath. Drain and return to the bowl. Add the vegetable oil and toss. Keep in the refrigerator. The wings are now ready for sauces.

1.  No hot sauce, mainly dry ingredients, mix everything except toasted sesame seeds with hot water to ensure no lumps, toss the wings in the mixture then sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over the wings: The ghost pepper flakes provide the (necessary) heat!

2.  Instead of mixing the ingredients in a bowl first and then pouring over the wings, I poured about 1/4” of vegetable oil in a plastic container that has a lid, added everything, closed the lid to shake until all the wings were coated, then let sit for half an hour.

3.  I mixed everything and made a gravy with a chicken broth (from poaching the wings) cornstarch slurry and poured it over the wings.

4.  The wings were submerged in chicken broth mixed with what was photographed plus sugar and two Earl Grey teabags and left in the fridge overnight. They were then drained and drizzled with a homemade chili oil (it looks darker/redder in the jar) and toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

5.  Put wings in a container with a lid, pour equal amounts of the three hot sauces and a few dashes of liquid smoke. Close the lid and shake to coat. Let sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Heat butter on medium heat until melted. Turn the heat to low and quickly toss the wings in the butter to heat. Pour over any remaining sauce and mix through. I’d sprinkled chopped scallion on top if I had any.

5.  When wings beckoned …

Marinade ingredients (not pictured are vegetable oil, hot sauce left over from a delivery order, and sugar to counter the Marmite) and finished dish