Cooking Challenge with Steph #2 -- Coca Cola Wings

Coca Cola Wings -- apparently it's a very popular dish that came out of China in the recent years. I've only ever heard about it, but never actually had nor made it before.  So Steph and I decided to add this dish to the list when we brainstormed over our list of challenges. I'll let you in on a little secret (it's not a secret) -- Asians love wings. We love chicken wings. Braised, pan-fried, deep-fried, barbecue, steamed, shallow-fried, etc. Any way you could think of cooking it, we probably have done it already. And to show you how popular this dish is, China's PepsiCo (who owns both Pepsi and Lay's) actually made a Pepsi and Chicken-Flavoured potato chips.

Anyway, the dish is really easy to make, the only thing you really have to look out for is not to burn the sauce. Coke will caramelise and burn easily if you don't keep your eyes on it. Another note is that you must use regular coke. Don't use any diet coke that contains artificial sugar, as the "sugar" breaks down, it'll render the dish bitter rather than giving a hint of sweetness. The coke also tenderises the chicken as it cooks, making the wings very flavourful.

My recipe is an adaptation of both Christine's Recipes and Scorpio's recipe. (In Chinese only, sorry.) Christine's Recipes has tons of amazing recipes, they are simple and easy to follow.

Ingredients:

• Dozen of wings
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
• Thumb size ginger, sliced
• 2 slices of lemon or lime
• 1 cup of Coca-Cola or Pepsi

Marinade:

• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp rice wine

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp rice wine

Going clockwise: lime slices, ginger slices, and smashed garlic, chicken wings in marinade, and sauce mixture. Not pictured, Coke.

Directions:

1. Wash and boil the chicken wings for about 1-2 minutes to get rid of excess blood and fat Rinse and marinate in rice wine and soy sauce for about 20 minutes.
2. In a pot, heat about 1/2 tbsp of oil over medium heat and saute the garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Drain the chicken wings and add the wings to the pot. Saute until slightly brown on both sides.

4. 

   Chicken wings browning.

5. Add sauce, Coke, and the lemon/lime slices to the pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to cook for 20-25 minutes. Turning the wings occasionally to achieve even colouring. Sauce will thicken overtime, add more water if the sauce thickens too soon.
6. Garnish dish with sliced scallion and lemon/lime wedges if desired.

Chicken wings cooking in sauce.

Sauce thickened and caramlised, giving the chicken wings a nice deep brown colour.

In some recipes that I looked over, it said not to put a lid over the pot and let the sauce thickens. By keeping the lid on, it traps the moisture in and the sauce will remain thin -- but that wasn't quite the case for me. The steam still managed to escape, so I kept the lid on for the first 20 minutes, and then kept it off the last 5 to allow it to thicken.

Lemon coke and lime coke are very popular in HK. In the States, we associate lemon with Diet Coke, but that's not the case overseas. (There were many times when I ended up drinking Diet Coke because I wanted some citrus zest to my coke, and didn't remember lemon in coke means it's diet.) The lime slices add a nice citrusy flavour to the dish, which I really liked. The coke only really left a hint of sweetness to the dish and it doesn't actually make it taste like coke at all. Depending on your personal preference, experiment with different types of citrus to give it different flavours each time. Let me know how you like this dish!

I'll declare this dish as a success!

Click here to see Steph's version of the dish!