Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to bay area restraurant classics with a shot at the Five Spice chicken wings from Trader Vic's, in Emeryville, California. For those unfamiliar, Trader Vic's here in the Bay Area is best known for one thing and one thing only, and that of course is their historic claim to inventing the Mai-Tai tiki drink at their original Oakland location. To go along with their quite extensive list of tiki drinks however, they also have a variety of Chinese-American inspired dishes, some of which are my personal favorites in the area. More specifically today, we're looking at the chicken wing refered to on their menu as a "five spice" chicken wing, which as you might guess, most prominently features the use of the Chinese five spice blend. To go along with this, I'm going to toy around with a couple of different ways to complement a five spice blend. I think the most obvious approach would be to simply add it as a dry seasoning, but! I can tell you that the trader vics wings are in fact, coated in a sweet and aromatic five spice glaze, which I absolutely will be exploring today. Hope you try it.

 

Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 24 ct chicken wings

  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

  • 1 inch ginger, minced

  • 64 oz fryer oil

INGREDIENTS (glaze)

  • 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce (or 4 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

  • 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

  • 2 tbsp shaoxing wine

  • 2 tsp Chinese five spice

INGREDIENTS (batter)

  • 2/3 cup potato starch

  • 1/3 cup AP flour

  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

  • kosher salt

PREP

  • COMBINE all batter ingredients, then add the chicken wings and toss until coated

  • COMBINE all glaze ingredients, set aside

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT the fryer to 350F, then fry the chicken wings until golden brown

  • REMOVE the fryer oil, then reheat the wok over medium heat

  • ADD 2 tbsp peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the garlic and ginger, then toss for 15 seconds until fragrant

  • ADD the glaze mixture plus 1/4 cup water, and reduce until a thickened glaze forms

  • ADD the chicken wings and toss until coated

 

tagged chicken wings, trader vic’s, five spice, chinese food, fried chicken, woo can cook

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