Salt and Pepper Wings

Ingredients you’ll need

So often when ordering salt and pepper anything from a restaurant, they hold back on that flavour and it makes no sense to me. If it’s in the name, you want to taste it right? Well, this salt and pepper chicken wings recipe is loaded with flavour. It’s bold and punchy and you won’t be confused what flavour they’re meant to be.

Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.

• Chicken wings: The cooking time is based on large chicken wings and use free-range if you can. You can also substitute skinless chicken thigh or chicken breast cut into strips (the cooking time will reduce).
• Cooking saké: Cooking saké is a Japanese rice wine. You can also use Chinese shaoxing rice wine. Both Japanese cooking saké and shaoxing wine are available in large grocery stores. If you can’t find them you can use dry sherry in it’s place.
• Sesame oil: I love this stuff. Full of umami and sesame flavour, sesame oil adds something bold and punchy outside of the spice in this recipe.
• Flour: I use plain flour / all-purpose flour, to give these wings a crispy coating. Many recipes use potato starch (more traditional) or cornflour (cornstarch) instead and you’re welcome to use any of the 3.
• Salt: Of course, we need salt in salt and pepper chicken wings. There’s enough here to give the flavour we’re after without being too salty. 
• Pepper: Another necessity for this recipe, the pepper is ground white pepper, so often used in Asian cuisines. You can also use ground black pepper or substitute half of the pepper for cracked Szechuan peppercorn.
• Chilli: I use a long red chilli or serrano chili in this recipe. You don’t have to stick to red chili, you can use green too, even jalapeno will work.
• Spring onions: Also known as green onions or scallions, spring onions add a light onion flavour but loads of umami.
• Ginger and garlic: Use fresh ginger. It adds a touch of sweetness, tang and heat. Then fresh garlic adds loads of umami to these wings.
• Vegetable oil: Use a vegetable oil like canola or sunflower oil or use rice bran oil. These all have high heating points so they’re great for deep frying.

How to make salt and pepper chicken wings

Now normally I like to bake my chicken wings, like these oven baked barbecue chicken wings and my crispy honey soy chicken wings, mainly because I don’t like the smell of oil in the house. But sometimes, just sometimes, frying is totally worth it and this is one of those times.  

These crunchy Korean chicken wings recipe also uses the deep frying method but again, totally worth it. These are more of a shallow fry than deep fry so very easy and not particularly messy either. 

Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.

1. Prep the wings: Cut the wings through the joints into tips, wingettes and drumettes. Discard the tips and dry the rest with paper towel. Now toss them in the saké and sesame oil and set aside.
2. Make the dredging mixture: Combine flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl and set aside.
3. Prep the oil: Heat the oil in a wok or some type of deep skillet until a sprinkle of flour sizzles.
4. Start cooking: Toss the wings in the seasoning mixture then deep fry in batches for 4 minutes each until golden brown. Set them aside on a baking paper lined baking sheet or plate to drain while you cook the rest.
5. The second fry: Tip away the frying oil into a heat proof dish. Now fry up the flavourings – chilli, onions, chilli, garlic and a touch of salt and pepper. Once they’re smelling gorgeous (only a minute or so), add the wings and toss to coat them in the mixture.
6. Serve immediately. Garnish your perfect crispy Chinese salt and pepper wings with some extra sliced chilli and spring onion.

All I know is, these salt and pepper chicken wings fry up like a dream. Super easy to make and even easier to devour.  

How to serve salt n pepper wings

Salt and pepper chicken wings are perfect served as an appetiser or finger food. They’re great for gameday but can even be served with some rice as a main meal.

As these salt and pepper wings are based on my local Japanese restaurant version, I serve them with Kewpie mayonnaise (a Japanese mayonnaise that tastes sensational) but you can also serve them just on their own or with a lovely chilli dipping sauce, or even a sweet and sour sauce.

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