I made some minor changes to their recipe, reducing the time of the second frying to four minutes, and changing some of the wording and methods of marinating the wings.
The results were nothing less than superb! My sweetheart Peggy and I both declared them to be the best fried chicken wings we ever had, and that is no small claim as we've enjoyed and often made many types over many years.
Overall the procedure and the ingredients of the Chinese recipe vary a lot from common USA recipes for fried chicken wings. And clearly the Chinese method works exceptionally well. You definitely want to make fried chicken wings using this recipe.
I've used this recipe for frying drumsticks and thighs as well as wings. Drumsticks come out perfect (and they are a lot cheaper to buy than wings). Think $3.99/lb. for whole wings and $1.29/lb. for drumsticks. I simply increase the frying times to six minutes and then five minutes for the second frying for drumsticks.
Thighs do not fry as nicely as wings or drumsticks (with thighs, the skin doesn't adhere well to the flesh) so I use two toothpicks per thigh and fasten the skin to the flesh ... then they fry as nicely as wings and drumsticks. I can also batter dip the marinated thighs and then they fry nicely (without using toothpicks) and the flavor from the marinade comes through fine. Note that the batter approach also allows you to create marinated chicken tenders cut from chicken breasts, and that also is nice. See the Food Nirvana recipe for Fried Chicken Nuggets. I also put a light batter recipe at the end of this recipe.
Note that you can increase the amount of marinade you make, easily, if you want more intense flavor for a given quantity of wings or drumsticks.
Ingredients: (Serves two to three people)
10 whole chicken wings
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of white pepper
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine (You can use dry sherry but the Shaoxing wine is best. Buy it.)
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
1 extra large egg
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
2 to 3 quarts of peanut oil (for frying)
Directions:
Wash the chicken wings and pat them dry with paper towels.
Whisk the egg in a large mixing bowl, then add the black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, sea salt, sugar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil.
Whisk the contents of the mixing bowl, then add the chicken wings to the bowl one at a time, coating each wing completely with the sauce mixture.
Mix everything until all of the wings are well-coated, then sprinkle the cornstarch and the all purpose flour evenly over the tops of the wings, then mix again until the cornstarch and flour are incorporated and the wings are evenly coated.
Put the coated wings into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag and expel the air, seal the bag, and flatten the contents so the wings are not on top of each other. Alternatively, you can vacuum seal the coated wings in a large vacuum seal bag and then flatten the contents.
Let the wings marinate for 2 hours or more at room temperature, turning the bag over every 30 minutes, or put them into the refrigerator overnight for the best results. (If you refrigerate the wings, be sure to let them come to room temperature the next day before frying them).
Fill a one gallon pot about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up with the peanut oil, and heat it to 325 degrees F. Vary the heat during frying to maintain the oil temperature close to but not above 325 degrees F. Use an instant read thermometer and check the temperature often and adjust the heat as necessary.
Fry the wings in two batches of five wings each, for 5 minutes, then remove the wings with tongs and put them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet.
After all of the wings are fried and cooled, return them in batches of 5 wings to the hot oil and fry them again for 4 minutes.
Drain the wings on the cooling rack for a minute or two after frying. If you aren't serving them immediately then put them into a bowl and keep them in a 180 degrees F warming oven.
Serve the wings hot, with or without hot sauce, along with whatever other foods you prepared for the meal. Cold beer is a fine beverage to serve with hot chicken wings.
===>> Optional rice flour based batter for chicken thighs or strips of chicken breast:
1 egg, 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup of rice flour, 1/4 cup of cornstarch, 1/4 tsp. of sea salt, 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder and 1/4 tsp. of white pepper.
Whisk the egg in a small bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until well combined. Refrigerate the batter, covered, for 30 minutes.
Whisk the chilled batter, then use it to coat the pieces of chicken thigh or strips of chicken breast immediately before frying, one at a time, making a batch of two thighs or four strips of chicken breast for each frying.
Add the batter coated pieces of chicken to the 325 degrees F hot peanut oil and fry for four minutes, then remove them to a rack over a baking sheet to cool.
When all chicken pieces have been fried and cooled then put half of them back into the 325 degrees F oil and fry them for 5 minutes, then put them on the rack to drain off excess oil.
When all the thighs or breast strips have been fried a second time the serve the hot fried chicken or keep it in a 180 degrees F warming oven until you are ready to serve it.
Enjoy!