Caramelised Chicken Wings

These chicken wings are super easy to cook. All I have to do is to marinate the wings and bake it! That's all! LOL!

Marinating and baking are not all that I learn from cooking this dish. It is all about vinegar that I learn the most from cooking this dish. It is Sherry vinegar that I used to marinate the chicken that started my curiosity, wanting to know different interesting vinegars that can be used to create great flavours in different food.

My son and I love eating vinegars! I am curious to know why is there so many different types of vinegar and what are them. What is Sherry vinegar? How does it taste? Mostly likely sour...LOL! But...why are they special?

Typically, vinegar is a liquid containing acetic acid and water. The acetic acid is produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria.  Most commonly, I can find malt vinegar, red and white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar being easily available in our local supermarkets but not the exotic ones which are only available in gourmet specialty shops or some supermarket deli section.

At last. I did managed to buy a bottle of Sherry vinegar. According to Wikipedia, Sherry vinegar is a gourmet wine vinegar made from sherry and in order to be named as Sherry vinegar, it has to undergo aging in American oak for a minimum of six months with a minimum of 7 degrees acidity... Nice to know these facts because the bottle of Sherry virngar that I bought is actually quite expensive! LOL!

Using Sherry vinegar as marinate is really interesting. Unlike Teriyaki sauce, soy sauce or any tenderizing marinades, this marinade didn't darken or change the colour of the chicken even after more than 24 hrs of marinating. Yet, the marinade still produce a nice browning colour and lots of flavours after roasting.

 

Before and after roasting

The sour cream dressing to eat with the chicken wings

Here's the recipe from Donna Hay magazine (Aug/Sep 2011 issue)

(with my modification in blue)

1.5kg chicken wings, wing tip removed

1/4 cup (60ml) sherry vinegar

1 tsp caster sugar

sea salt flakes
(I pre-marinated these wings for more than 24 hrs)

Sour cream dressing

1/2 cup (120g) sour cream

1/4 cup chopped chives

2tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp shredded lemon zest

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 220°C (or 200°C fan forced). Place the chicken wing, vinegar, sugar and salt in a baking dish and toss to combine. Roast for 40-45 min or until golden. Place sour cream, chives, lemon juice and zest, and paprika in a bowl and mix until well combined. Serve chicken wings with the sour cream dressing. Serve 4-6

Happy Baking and Cooking!
Please support me and like me at Facebook.

I can't believe that there is so many different types of vinegars to eat and to cook! And these are a few that I've learned and you may wish to know...

From the recent potato lemon thyme frittata that I cooked, I came to know what the existence of white balsamic vinegar. Originated from Italy, this white version of balsamic vinegar has a sweet and delicate flavour. White balsamic vinegar is milder and less sweet than regular balsamic vinegar and is often considered more suitable for use with salad dressings, since it does not have a strong flavour that can be overpowering when used on salad greens.  White balsamic vinegar can be substitute with white wine vinegar but it is a still little nicer to eat with its extra sweetness which is absent in most white wine vinegar.

Verjuice? I heard a lot of "verjuice" on the Australian MasterChef and came to know about verjuice mainly from Maggie Beer, a South Australian cook who has popularised the use of verjuice in her cooking. In fact, she loves verjuice so much that she even wrote Maggie's Verjuice Cookbook. Verjuice is a very acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes and is widely used as an ingredient in sauces and deglazing preparations. I have not tried cooking with verjuice yet but would love to try cooking with it one day.

Being a vinegar lover, these are two interesting vinegars that I have used in my food and cooking. My number-one favourite is always Chinkiang Chinese Black vinegar. I used this vinegar a lot as dipping sauce for our Shanghai dumplings and used it too to cook sticky Asian pork ribs recently for our Chinese new year. Both Chinese Black vinegar and Chinese red vinegar with a darker intense red colour are both commonly used to eat with a Chinese delicacy, shark fin's soup. Typically, the red one is preferred to use in some restaurants for its auspicious colour.

I had lots of fun exploring, learning and cooking with different vinegars and hope to gain more of these knowledge in the future :D

Different kind of interesting vinegars that I explore after cooking this recipe