Hello Everyone! So, if you have been following my blog recently over the past few weeks, you will have noticed some changes to the theme of blog. If you head on over to the About section of my blog, you can read about the reasons for the changes there.

Back when we were still in Brunei, before we set off to travel Australia, I wanted to make fried chicken wingettes for the family. I used the basic fried chicken batter that I always used, and before I added in the dried chilli flakes to give it a little kick, I remembered that I had made my own tom yum paste the day before. So I decided to experiment and added just about a teaspoon and a half of the paste to the batter. Marinated it for at least an hour or two, and then got my mom to fry the wingettes. It tasted really, really good! It had just the right amount of spice, and we even had some sweet chilli sauce on the side for the wingettes.

It was so good that I even made a second batch before we flew off, and the even more batches from my friends in Sydney (with store-bought paste since I was not really bothered to make my own paste at that time). The taste of the tom yum didn’t quite shine through and I’m guessing it’s because it didn’t have much of a kick of heat in the paste, and I couldn’t really taste the freshness of the galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves, etc. Nonetheless, the wingettes were still succulent and juicy.

PREP TIME 1 HOUR* | COOKING TIME 15 MINS | SERVES 4

*Includes marination time

INGREDIENTS

• 500g chicken wingettes, wash and cleaned
• 8 tbsp water
• 6 tbsp cornflour
• 6 tbsp plain flour
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tsp Homemade Tom Yum Paste
• Dash of ground black pepper

METHOD

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl and mix the chicken around until well coated. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave to marinade for 1 hour (I usually leave it for about 4 hours minimum to let the flavour of the tom yum infuse into the chicken. Do not refrigerate it to bring the meat down to room temperature before cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4). Heat up oil in a large frying pan an working in batches, shallow fry the chicken until skin is crispy and golden (about 5-6 minutes per side).
3. Remove from the heat and place on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. Place the wings in the oven for a further 8-10 minutes to finish off in the oven.
4. Serve the wings with thai sweet chilli sauce on the side. Enjoy!

I think you can try and experiment with other pastes if you wish. When I get around to, I will attempt to make my own green curry paste and try some green curry friend chicken wings!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx