Yamachan-Style Tebasaki (Nagoya's Chicken Wings)
Ingredients
For the Yamachan-style blend
- ½ tbsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- ⅛ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder
For the glaze
- 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sake or dry sherry/wine, Shaoxing wine, or water
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 garlic clove smashed flat with the side of a knife
- 1 pinch dashi granules stirred in right before the flame goes out
For the wings
- 10 pieces chicken wings the flat with the pointed tip still attached (V-shape), relatively small wings are recommended
- 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) or cornstarch/tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp unbleached cake flour or all-purpose flour
- cooking oil neutral, for deep/shallow frying
Instructions
- Start heating the cooking oil for deep frying to 160 °C (320 °F). While it heats, make the glaze. Put 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp sake, 1 tsp sugar and 1 garlic clove (smashed flat with the side of a knife) into a cold saucepan.
- Bring the glaze to a boil over medium heat, then lower the heat and simmer until it reduces to about ⅔ of the original volume. It should still pour easily, a little looser than maple syrup. Stir in 1 pinch dashi granules until they dissolve, then turn off the heat and set the pan aside.
- Grind ½ tbsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp ground white pepper, ⅛ tsp garlic powder and ¼ tsp Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder together with a mortar and pestle until the pepper is ground fine. Set this blend aside with the glaze.
- Pat 10 pieces chicken wings dry with kitchen paper, working into the folds and under the skin.
- Put the wings in a plastic bag with 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) and 1 tbsp unbleached cake flour. Trap some air in the bag and shake until the wings are evenly coated. Take each one out and shake off the excess, leaving a thin haze of white on the skin.
- Check that the oil is at 160 °C (320 °F) and fry the wings in batches of 5. Lower the first batch in and fry for 4-5 minutes on each side, 8-10 minutes in total, until the wings are cooked through and only pale gold. Lift them onto a wire rack.
- Rest the first batch on the rack for at least 5 minutes while you fry the next batch of 5 the same way at 160 °C (320 °F). Lift the second batch onto the rack as well.
- Turn up the heat and bring the oil to 190 °C (374 °F). Once it reaches temperature, lower the first batch back in and fry for 1 minute on each side, until the wings are evenly golden brown. Lift them onto the rack and let the oil drain off.
- While the first batch is still hot, brush the glaze thinly over both sides of every wing. Then dust both sides with the pepper blend, covering each wing evenly.
- Fry the next batch at 190 °C (374 °F) for 1 minute on each side, lift onto the rack to drain, then glaze and dust in the same way.
- Serve straight away and enjoy!
Notes
Stop the glaze while it still runs: Reduce to about 2/3, then stop. Load the brush and it should drip. Target a liquid a little looser than maple syrup. A thick, syrupy glaze drags across the skin, and the extra sugar shouts over the pepper.
Brush the glaze onto a screaming hot wing: The second the oil stops dripping, brush both sides thinly. Steam pushing out of the skin holds the glaze on the surface. Wait even a minute and it soaks in, and the skin softens.
Fry 5 wings at a time unless you have a giant fryer: Work in batches. Crowding the pot drags the oil temperature down hard, and oil that has dropped steams a wing instead of frying it.
Cover the whole wing with the blend evenly: Both sides, evenly, and do not be shy about it. A bald patch does not fill in later, and piling more powder onto a light wing only makes it worse.
Buy the smallest wings you can find: The balance between chicken and glaze is set for small wings. If your store sells only the big kind, cut the V at the joint between the flat section and the pointed tip and keep the flat.
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