Fake Japanese braised chicken wings with potatoes.

Never ever try to plan dinner right after lunch because it’s virtually impossible to conjure up any coherent thought. And that’s how my chicken wings came about. Bought them while on a semi-food coma, with no planning whatsoever.

The thing is, I’ve never really had luck with cooking chicken on the bone. They’ve always turned out semi-raw and I’d have to nuke them in the microwave half way through eating. Yeah, pretty disgusting.

So really, I don’t know how I ended up with a packet of chicken wings because I’d normally quite consciously avoid them.

# – Fake Japanese braised chicken wings with potatoes.

From food coma to a full blown panic mode, I realised the only source of protein for tonight’s dinner were the wings. The look of disappointment on the BF’s face upon his realisation that he’d chomped on raw poultry popped up to haunt me.

I was determined to make it right but I didn’t know how :(

Thankfully, I found a recipe called “tebasaki to sato-imo” or english for braised chicken wings with new potatoes (i <3 google translate) in one of my recipe books. So, I replaced the sake with chinese rice wine, scallions with coriander powder and new potatoes with old potatoes chopped up into new potato size.... And hence, the title :P I was confident it would work, it had to work gawddamit! # - Tebasaki To Sato-imo

The ingredients:

  • 500 grams of chicken wings (that’s about 4 wings with drummets still attached)
  • 400 grams of potatoes, cut into cubes
  • 4 tablespoons of chinese rice wine (or better, sake!)
  • 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of dark soya sauce
  • 2 teaspoon of sugar
  • 2 cm of ginger, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of coriander powder
  • 200 ml of water

# – First, marinade the wings with 4 tablespoon of chinese rice wine and set aside for 30 minutes.

# – Then, heat up oil in a pan and brown the chicken wings on all sides.

# – When wings have browned, throw in the sliced ginger.

# – Pour water in till chicken wings are just covered.

# – Cover and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.

# – After that, throw in 2 teaspoons of sugar.

# – And the dark soya sauce.

# – Not to forget the potatoes…

# – Lastly, the one tablespoon of coriander powder.

# – Stir to combine, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

# – In the meantime, steam or boil some peas. Because everyone should eat vegetables!

# – Fake Japanese braised chicken wings with potatoes, DONE!

The wings…they were gorgeous! The meat was succulent, moist and full of flavours. The sauce was DELICIOUS and sticky. And the potatoes? Gawd, the potatoes…

# – Look at the colours inside the potato. Flavoured through and through.

Simply sublime with rice and what’s surprising was how few ingredients were involved and how relaxing the entire process was. Just leave them to simmer into something so amazingly delicious.

Don’t believe me?

# – Plate-licking good!

Best thing of all, I didn’t have to nuke them in the middle of dinner just so we won’t get bird flu or something. I implore you to try this recipe! Happy cooking!

Roasted ladies fingers, layered potatoes and drunk chicken.

I made dinner!

My 1st attempt at making layered potatoes was a success! Used the bf’s aunt’s recipe but I replaced crème fraiche with milk. Still turned out great – the spuds were soft & creamy with a crispy top.

# – Arrange sliced potatoes in layers. Season every layer with salt, pepper and chopped spring onions/onions. Then pour full cream milk up till just before the top of the potato layers. Pop into oven for 45-50 minutes at 160 degrees.

# – Check out the bubbling top. Woohoo!

# – Potato perfection /gloating mode on.

Roasted some ladies fingers too for a more balanced meal and they were perfect.

# – Ladies fingers seasoned with salt, black pepper, some butter, drizzle all over with olive oil and into the oven at 170 degree for 15 minutes.

Chicken dish was completely my own recipe – I’ll call it Kim’s Kickass Drunk Chicken :D Not to praise myself but the meat was soft and flavourful, so yummmy wish I had bought a whole chicken instead of half :P

# – Chicken marinating in a concoction of soya sauce, vodka, apple cider vinegar, sugar, chopped onions, spring onions, chillies and garlic. I kept some of the marinade mixture for making sauce later too.

# – Then, pan fry the chickens (discard the marinade). Once browned, remove chicken from pan and pour in some vodka to make a reduction with all the yummy bits. Then, pour in the marinade mixture saved earlier. Throw the chickens back in when sauce is bubbling and cook till cooked :)

And voila, a balanced meal!

# – Roasted ladies fingers, layered potatoes (check out the crispy crust omgs i win) and Kim’s Kickass Drunk Chicken.

Sorry for the bad pictures, my camera was not available. Will blog about my cooking properly next time :P