The Art of Making Salt and Vinegar Chicken Wings: A Journey with Chef Jenny Dorsey
As a professional chef, writer, and founder of a nonprofit community thinktank called Studio ATAO, I'm excited to share one of my favorite grilling recipes with you today. My go-to recipe is for salt and vinegar chicken wings, which I believe are the perfect combination of flavors and textures.
To start, we need to prepare our chicken wings. We have a mix of drumsticks and little flats, and we're going to liberally salt them and let them come up to room temperature. I like to use Morton's coarse kosher salt, as it gives me a much saltier flavor than Diamond Crystal. Yes, you read that right - I'm a Morton's fan all the way! While different brands of salt can vary in terms of saltiness, it's worth noting that this difference can make a big impact on the final dish.
Now that our chicken wings are salted and at room temperature, we're ready to move on to the next step. We need to get them coated with a hot, sticky glaze made from white vinegar powder. This is where the magic happens - white vinegar powder gives us all the flavor and tang of white vinegar, but in a powdered form that helps coat the chicken wings without making them too liquidy. I've found that this type of coating is essential for achieving those perfect grill marks.
As we prepare our garlic and scallions, I want to take a moment to talk about the science behind salt and sour flavors. Salt and vinegar are two flavors that complement each other beautifully - when combined, they help balance out each other on the palate. This makes it easy to keep increasing the ratio of salt to vinegar without overpowering your taste buds. Plus, both flavors have been a staple in many cuisines for centuries, making them a timeless combination.
Now that we've got our garlic and scallions minced up, we're ready to start blending together our dipping sauce ingredients. We'll be using raw cashews soaked in hot water, blended with cilantro, dill, apple cider vinegar, and a little bit of chili crisp to make it spicy. I like to use dairy-free alternatives for my guests who are lactose intolerant - just substitute the cashews with yogurt or sour cream if you prefer! Our cashew-based sauce is creamy, tangy, and utterly addictive.
While our chicken wings are grilling away on the stove, we can focus on blending together our dipping sauce ingredients. We'll start by adding all of our blended sauce into a bowl - feel free to add more water or chicken stock if needed. Next, we'll add a little bit of fish sauce (optional) and salt to give it that extra kick.
With our dipping sauce ready, we're now ready to grill our chicken wings! We've got them at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and we're going to open up the oven carefully to avoid any splatters. I always make sure to space the wings out evenly so they have enough room to cook through properly. As we wait for our chicken wings to finish grilling, let's talk about the importance of using fresh ingredients.
Now that our chicken wings are done grilling, it's time to toss them with our garlic and scallion mixture. The idea is to use the heat from the chicken to just slightly cook the garlic, giving it a more subtle flavor without overpowering the dish. Once we've got all of our chicken coated in this delicious mixture, it's time to go back upstairs and add our final coating: salt, fish sauce, sugar, and white vinegar powder.
I know what you're thinking - that looks like an egregious amount of white vinegar powder! But trust me when I say that it's not as strong as you think. When using liquid white vinegar, the flavor can be overpowering, but in powdered form, it's much more subtle. Plus, the acidity helps to balance out the richness of the sugar and fish sauce.
As we finish up our recipe for salt and vinegar chicken wings, I hope you've enjoyed the journey with me today. From preparing our ingredients to blending together our dipping sauce, every step is essential in achieving that perfect flavor combination. So go ahead, give this recipe a try, and let me know what you think!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en-Hey, everyone.I'm Jenny Dorsey,I'm a professional chef,writer, and the founderof a nonprofit community thinktank called Studio ATAO,and today I'm going to makeone of my very favoritegrilling recipes,salt and vinegar chicken wings.First, we're gonna getstarted with our chicken wings.So we have a mix of drumsticksas well as little flats,and we're just going toliberally salt themand let them come upto room temperature.So I just havesome nice kosher salt.I use Morton's coarse,and recently I had a fight withthe entire Internet about itbecause everybodyuses Diamond Crystal.But Morton's all the way.I ride or die for Morton's.Interestingly enough,salt of different brandsare different levelsof saltiness.So Morton's is definitely muchsaltier than Diamond Crystal.Remember thatwhen you're grillingor honestly doingany sort of cooking,it's good to have your proteinscome up to room temperatureso you don't havesuch a contrast of cold proteinto hot grillbecause then the cold proteinwill condensate a lotand it ends up sticking,it ends up not forming that nicesear that you're looking for.So chicken's hanging out,and we are going to getstarted on all the thingsthat once the chickencomes off the grill,we're going to immediatelytoss it intoand get that nice, hot coating.So the real star of this recipeis white vinegar powder.So what is really greatabout white vinegar powderis that it gives youall the flavorand tang of white vinegar,but because it's in powderedform, it's dehydrated,it also helps coatthe chicken wingswithout making them too liquidy.So with that, I'm just goingto start grating our garlicinto this very large bowlahead of me.Salt and vinegaris by far the best flavor.I mean, scientifically speaking,salt and sour are,like, nice, contrasting flavors.They'll help balance each otherout on your palate.So in a way,because they are contrasting,you can kind of keep uppingyour salt and vinegar ratioswithout overwhelmingyour palate.So I really like that,but also salt and vinegaris just, like,very nostalgic for me.It's always beenmy very favorite potato chip.Okay, so I have a fair amountof garlic here,and then we're goingto mince some scallionsand we're going to minceboth our whites and our greens.♪♪We are good with our garlicand scallions,so our chicken is going tocome off hot on the grill,go in here,and then we're going to tosswith salt, fish sauce, sugar,and a little bit of --or a lot bit ofour white vinegar powder.So now I am going to get startedon our dipping sauce.So what we're going to dois we're going to soaksome raw cashews in hot waterand then blend itwith some cilantro,some dill, and a little bitof apple cider vinegar.And to make it spicy,a little bit of chili crisp.I made this dairy-freebecause I'm lactose intolerant,but you could also use,like, a sour cream or a yogurtif you want kind oflike that creaminessand you don't like cashews.So I'm going to pour boilingwater over these raw cashewsand let them sit for like5 to 10 minutes,however much time you have.So you just want to make sureyour water covers your cashews.♪♪So we'll just let that sit,and then they'll soften upand be very pliableso that we can do a nice blendin the Vitamixand make a nice, creamy sauce.So now that our cashewshave soaked for a little bit,I'm going to strain them,and I'm going to go straightinto the Vitamix with them.I am going to just doa little rip of my herbs.So since we can use the cilantroleaves for something else,what I like to do for thingswhere you're not goingto actually see,like, the visible greensis to use the stems.So I'm just going to do a nicetwist on our cilantro stemsand put them in there.And same with our dill.♪♪And then you can save the topsfor something else later.And most serendipitously,remember our little garlic buttsfrom earlier?We can also toss that in here.And we'll also add a little bitof apple cider vinegar.This is a little bitof a milder vinegar.And then finally,to make this a little spicy,I'm adding some chili crisp.You can also just dostraight chili oilwith spices like chili flakes.I'm using this chili oilsince it has sucha nice, roasted flavor.So I'm going to startblending this.And if you need a little bitmore liquid to make a turn,you can adda little bit of water.You can add a little bitof chicken stock.So I'm going to addjust a touch of waterbecause I think it'sgoing to need it.♪♪♪♪That's good.So you can do saltor you can do fish sauce hereif you want to kind ofcomplement your wings.Up to you.So I'll do a little fish sauceas well as a little salt.♪♪Alright. Great.So we'll let thisjust hang out over here.It's got a nice green color.As we waitfor our chicken wings to grill.Alright, now we are readyto grill our chicken wings.So they are suitablyroom temperature.So we are at about 400 degrees,so I'm going toopen this up carefully.Well, we got a little flame.That's fine.Just make sure to tryand space these out.Probably rememberthat we just salted these.So we're really just lookingfor some nice grill marksfor everythingto be cooked through.I've got my temperature probenext to me.Alright,I'm going to close this up.♪♪Move this out of the way.We got a little more hotnessat the center,so I'm just goingto redistribute our wingsa little bit here.♪♪All of our chicken is now inour bowl of garlic and scallion.So we are going to doa nice toss of this.The idea is we're usingthe hotness from the chickento cook the garlicjust a tiny bitso that it doesn't have sucha pungent, raw garlic flavor.So now that we haveall of our chicken,we are going to go back upstairsand toss it with nice salt,fish sauce, sugar,and our white vinegar powder.♪♪I'll do a little fish sauce.Feel like this kind of moistensour chicken wings a little bitso that when we do addour white vinegar powder,it really gets, like, that nice,sticky coating for our wings.Alright, so ♪ Dun-duh-dun ♪This looks like an egregiousamount of white vinegar powder,but I promiseit's not as strongas you think it might be.When you're, like, using,like, liquid white vinegar,you're like,\"Oh, it's like a lot.\"White vinegar powder I thinkis a little bit more mild.So honestly, you'll probablyneed more of it than you think.So I'm going to doanother little snow covering.And you can kind of see, like,that sauce sort of forming.It's like that very, like,craveable sticky sauce.Like, I feel likewhen you're eating wings,you kind of want somethinghappening on your fingers.Like, you don't want, like,clean wings,you know what I mean?You want, like, messy wings.That's, like, part ofthe wing-eating experience.Yeah, so wings are basicallymy food for every occasion,and I don't even watch sports,but I love eating wings.So I'll, like, show upat sports gatherings and, like,I'm just in the kitcheneating the wings by myself.I could go on.Wings are the best.And salt and vinegaris the best.Salt and vinegar wings --even better.So I'm going to platesome of these wingson our cute little plate here.Voilà.♪♪Okay, so for our finaltaste test, ♪ Dun-duh-dun ♪I'm going to use likethis drumstickbecause drumsticks are the best.Okay, do I --I'm going to bite.I'm going to doone bite without sauceand then I'll go backinto the sauce.♪♪So good.It's so good.It's salty. It's savory.You don't taste the sweetness,but it's, like, therekind of enhancing everything.You don't really tastethe fish sauce, either,but it also there, like, givingthe chicken a little boost.You get a little char and smoke,can kind of taste the mesquitefrom our grill downstairs.So with that, I'm going toalso do a little dip here.♪♪And what's nice about the sauceis that you get a wholedifferent expression of wing.You get a little bit moreof a cheesy flavor.You get all those herbs.And it kind of, like,smoothes out the wings.So if you're not as into vinegaras I am,this still gives you a nice,balanced vinegar flavor.But it also gives youkind of more of like a smooth,creamy texture on your tongue,a more unctious feelon your tongueto balance out kind ofthat sharpness of the vinegar.Thank you so muchfor joining meon my wing-eating,making adventure today.If you want the recipe,you can click below.So thank you againfor joining me,and I hope to see you next time.♪♪♪♪\n"
