Honey soy chicken wings

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Pat the wings dry, prick the skin side twice with a fork, and marinate with the light soy, dark soy, sugar, garlic, ginger juice, wine, a pinch of white pepper and the cornflour for thirty minutes or overnight.
2. Stir the honey with a tablespoon of water for the glaze. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over low heat until pale gold.
3. Heat the oil in a flat pan over medium, lay the wings in skin side down and fry three to four minutes until golden.
4. Turn, cover, and cook three minutes more; HK01's tip is that the lid is what cooks the wing through at the bone.
5. Uncover, pour in the honey and water, and turn the wings in it over medium-low for about two minutes until the glaze is sticky and coats them; do not walk away, honey burns in a moment. The wings are done when the flesh at the bone is opaque and the juices run clear, 75°C at the thickest point.
6. Scatter the sesame seeds and serve.

Take care

• The chicken must be cooked through to the bone, 75°C at the thickest point with the juices running clear. Contains sesame; the soy sauces contain soy and wheat. Honey is not for infants under twelve months. The glaze goes from sticky to burnt in under a minute.

The story

The honey-glazed wing is the Hong Kong children's dish, the one packed into the lunchbox and put out at birthday parties; U Food's roundup of twenty-five wing recipes and Oh!爸媽's of thirty-three, fried, baked, braised and deep-fried, show how central wings are to Hong Kong family cooking. The glaze is the same sweet-soy idea as char siu, brought down to one flat pan and twenty minutes.

Same technique

Pan-fried dace fish cakesEgg dumplingsStuffed peppers, eggplant and tofu

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.