‹ The Fried Chicken 100 › Make it at home

The Fried Chicken 100 · make it at home

Nagoya tebasaki: double-fried wings with sweet soy glaze and pepper

45 min · 4 as a snack (with beer)

Nagoya's wing, invented at Furaibou: no batter at all, just wings fried twice until the skin is paper-thin and crackling, brushed with a sweet soy glaze, and buried in black pepper and sesame.

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The real one

You need

• 1 kg (2 lb) whole chicken wings (tips on if you like; they go crunchy)
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• Glaze: 4 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp sake, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 garlic clove grated, 1 tsp grated ginger
• Oil for frying, about 2 liters (2 quarts)
• To finish: 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper, 1 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds

How to make it

1. Dry (10 min): Pat the wings very dry with paper towels and salt them lightly. Dry skin is the whole trick.
2. Glaze (8 min): Simmer the soy, mirin, sake, sugar, garlic and ginger in a small pan until reduced by about a third and syrupy, 6 to 8 minutes. Keep warm.
3. First fry (8 min): Heat oil to 160°C (320°F). Fry the wings in batches 7 to 8 minutes until cooked through and pale gold. Drain on a rack and rest 5 minutes.
4. Second fry (2 to 3 min): Heat the oil to 190°C (375°F) and fry again 2 to 3 minutes until deep brown and the skin is crackling. Drain.
5. Finish (2 min): While they're hot, brush every wing with glaze, then shower with black pepper and sesame. Be generous with the pepper: it's meant to be peppery. Eat with your hands.

Tips

• To eat it like Nagoya: hold the wing by the tip, break the joint, and slide the meat off the bones with your teeth.
• Wings dried uncovered in the fridge overnight fry even crisper.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.