Asian Chicken Wings with Oyster Sauce

Football season is here! That means chicken wings which are one of my favorite snacks. I love me a buffalo chicken wing, but when it comes to making them I always come back to these Asian inspired wings flavored with oyster sauce. They are salty and a little bit sweet and totally delicious.

I make these in a large wok, but you could also use a deep skillet. This will make enough wings to feed a crowd, so they're prefect for your game day party. Also, unlike a fried wig, these will reheat well without getting weird and soggy.

Chicken Wings with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

4 Tbsp peanut oil
8 thin slices of ginger
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 whole green onion
1 package chicken wings, about 12 whole wings
2 Tbsp Mirin or dry Sherry
1/2 cup water
6 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together water, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

Separate chicken wings into three pieces. Discard the tips or save and freeze to use to make chicken stock. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.

Heat the peanut oil over high heat in a large wok or large, deep skillet. Add in the ginger, garlic, and green onion to flavor the oil. Add in the chicken wings and cook until the wings are golden brown on all sides.

Sprinkle the wings with the Mirin. Add in the oyster sauce mixture  to cover about half the wings (add additional water if necessary). Bring to a boil and reduce the heat. Cover and let cook for 10-15 minute stirring occasionally.

Remove the cover and increase the heat back to high. Toss continually until no sauce remains in the pan. Remove the green onion, ginger, and garlic. Sprinkle with additional green onion as garnish.

I've found that this recipe really does work best with peanut oil. The peanut oil can cook at a higher heat, so it browns the chicken better without burning/smoking. Make sure to serve these along with a roll of paper towel!

Apple Crisp

It's officially fall and that means apples. And apples mean apple crisp. Now you could go through tons of different crisp recipes until you find the perfect blend of sweet, crunchy, buttery topping or you could just make this one.

As with most of my best recipes, this one comes from my mom. One slight difference is that this recipe is for double crisp topping (so halve if you like a little less crisp to fruit ratio).

Steamed Pork Buns (Bao)

When I was in high school, I was fortunate to go on a three week long trip to China with my family. While my memory isn't perfect of the trip, one thing that stays fresh in my mind is the dim sum meal that we ate. Since then, my family has found a wonderful, authentic Chinese restaurant near my parents home (shout out to China Yuan in Tampa). They have a super delicious dim sum lunch that includes steamed roast pork buns. I'm not going to lie, I have not perfected the pork filling in mine, and so they are not the most delicious... yet.