thebigfatnoodle

Cooking with fruit: hot and spicy peachy wings

Standard · Posted by thebigfatnoodle on November 8, 2011 · 15 Comments 

Hot and spicy peachy wings with lemon parsley rice and a bean and tomato salad

Cooking with fruit

I love chicken wings.

They are my favourite part of the chicken to eat.

In summer, chicken wings are a barbecue staple; however it’s autumn now; doesn’t mean I have to stop eating them though.

I came up with this marinade because I wanted to create one that, after cooking, would effectively become its own sauce, thereby rendering the need for ketchup or BBQ or hot sauce completely unnecessary.

As a sauce, it’s got everything I’m looking – it’s fruity, spicy, sweet and sticky!

My magic ingredient is to use tinned fruit to provide that lovely fruity flavour and I’ve found that tinned peaches or apricots work best.

Hot. Spicy. Fruity. Sweet. Scrumptious.

If I were cooking these as a starter, I’d just serve a couple of wings per person with a small salad but we had three chicken wings each as part of our dinner tonight. To bulk out the meal and to cut through the spicy sauce, I made lemon parsley rice and also served the wings with a french bean and tomato salad, dressed in nothing more than a simple vinaigrette.

I have a couple of French friends who think mixing meat with fruit is an absolute travesty and I know they’ll be reading this recipe in horror. I’m not upset though. If anything, I feel a bit sorry for them because they don’t know what they’re missing! 🙂

Wings for supper with lemon parsley rice and a bean and tomato salad

thebigfatnoodle’s peachy wings marinade

Tinned fruit doesn't have to just be for dessert.

6-10 chicken wings (the number depends on how many you want to eat)

1 tin of peaches in syrup (tinned apricots work brilliantly too) – works out to about 250 grams of pureed fruit

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1-2 tablespoons hot sauce (I have a bottle of blow-the-top-of-your-mouth-off hot sauce, so I only used 1 tablespoon)

1 heaped teaspoon Chinese five spice

2 tablespoons rum

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Extra runny honey

Drain your tinned peaches/apricots (discarding the syrup) and blitz the fruit in a food processor until smooth. Pour this into a large mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well and add your chicken wings. Allow your chicken wings to marinade overnight or for as long as possible.

Sweet and spicy wings with a twist on fruit

Oven cooking your wings

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees (Celsius). Place your chicken wings on a baking tray and spoon 5-6 tablespoons of marinade over the tops of the chicken wings. Cover the tray with silver foil and roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the silver foil, baste your wings (pour more of the marinade over them) and roast for another 20 minutes, turning them over and re-basting them every 5 minutes.

Just before the last 5 minutes of roasting, drizzle some runny honey over the chicken wings as the honey will burn slightly under the heat, creating those lovely bits of charred yummy chicken.

Lemon, garlic, parsley fried with rice

Lemon parsley rice

2 cups of cooked white/brown rice

4-5 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chicken/vegetable stock powder

1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh parsley

1 small knob of butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

In a saucepan over medium/low heat, gently fry your chopped garlic in the butter and olive oil for about 1-2 minutes until the garlic turns lightly golden. Add your rice and turn up the heat on your stove. Fry the rice and add your chicken stock powder and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. Taste and if necessary, add more lemon juice if you’d like a sharper taste. Just before removing from the heat, add the chopped parsley and toss until mixed through.

French beans and sweet cherry tomatoes dressed in olive oil and red wine vinegar

French bean and tomato salad

8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cups french beans, topped, tailed and cut into bite sized sticks

Red or white wine vinegar

Olive oil

Black pepper

Pop your french beans into a small pot of boiling water and cook them for 3 minutes. Drain and plunge them into iced water immediately to stop the cooking process and to keep them bright green. Once drained, mix the french beans and halved cherry tomatoes in a salad bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and a good red or white wine vinegar with a pinch of black pepper.

Hot and spicy peachy wings. Perfect for dinner.

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle