Hi Globetrotters,
So I love cooking for my parents, especially when my mom comes home from work. Since I was on vacation, I said I would cook midweek.
I landed on an easy recipe, fish sauce flavored chicken wings. Fish sauce is a salty, fermented fish and you can find it in any Asian grocery store. The smell really reeks. You don’t want to break one of those bottles like that one time I decided to twirl it like a baton. However, fish sauce gives this really intense umami flavor, and so it is a staple in Vietnamese cuisine.
For the wings, I got the marinade recipe from the Instagram account twaydabae, who actually got the recipe from someone else. That is as far as it goes. I did not deep fry this like she did (save me some calories) or make that sticky sauce (save me from high blood pressure or diabetes).
See the recipe below (serves 5-6 people):
- 20-24 chicken wings
- 1 cup fish sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 cup water
- Bird’s eye chili (optional)
- Red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions:
- In a mortar, mash garlic into a paste and then add water to steep for 10 minutes.
- In a big bowl, throw in wings.
- In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and fish sauce. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Strain the garlic chunks from the mortar and dump the garlic juice into the fish sauce. Stir.
- Pour the mixture over the wings and massage the chicken wings so the meat is evenly coated.
- Refrigerate overnight maximum 12 hours.
- Next day, line an air fryer with aluminum foil and place chicken wings, skin-side up, in a single layer.
- Heat the wings on 390 F for 15 minutes.
- Flip the wings over and heat at 400 F for 5 minutes.
- Remove from the air fryer and sprinkle with freshly slice bird’s eye chili or red pepper flakes.
- Repeat steps 7-10 until done with all the wings. Enjoy!
It was a complete hit with barely any leftovers. The marinate soaked through enough, where it was the right amount of salt and sugar. I marinated mine over 12 hours. For the most part it is healthy than the alternative, and it has that beautiful, golden sheen. Very pleasing to the eye.
I hope you give this recipe a try, and let me know what you think.
Ciao
Amy
amy 