Orange Chicken Wings | Mister Jiu's in Chinatown | HARD

These were the best wings I've ever made myself, definitely. Crispy, juicy, savory, sweet, and tangy all at once. But it was kind of an epic journey to make them. I mean, it took me several stores, plus the internet, to try to find all of the ingredients (and I'm still not sure I found long grain glutinous rice flour) and it was almost a year after my initial decision to make these that I actually got to do it. In part, that's because the recipe is a little bit daunting.
On the first day, we made a brine and prepped the chicken wings (separating them into segments), and then made the sweet and sour orange sauce. While a lot of that is not hands-on time, you do need to check on the sauce periodically over the course of at least 2 hours. The wings need at least 2 hours in the brine and the sauce is fine in the fridge for a week, and we made other plans for dinner so we decided an overnight soak was fine with us.
The second day, we made the wok salt (cookwithheather.com/Mister-Ji..., then we made a charred orange vinaigrette (my pan did not approve) for the fennel salad that goes with the wings, shaved the fennel, put together our breading, and fried the wings once. Then our leftover breading became a batter and we fried the wings again. Last, we tossed the hot wings with the warmed sauce and could finally eat!
Don't worry, even though there are habanero peppers in the sauce, my spice-hating kids didn't complain. If you eat too many in a row, you might notice a little tingle, but they're really not spicy.
Nutrition (serves 6, approx 1/2 lb per person, not including oil used for frying but including all breading, even though some is discarded):
Calories: 996
Fat: 37g
Protein: 51g
Carbohydrates: 136g (3g fiber, 68g sugar)
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[@jflsdknf]

Looks amazing! I love challenging project recipes like this. Ordered the book and will be doing this one for sure, although I'll definitely space out the brining and sauce over a few days to make it easier on myself, since they can keep in the fridge.

[@legony1]

I ended up making them with chicken breast tenderloins. So delicious!! Served it up with white rice and steamed broccoli. My husband loved it. It was VERY labor-intensive, so I’d only make them once every six months!

[@CookwithHeather]

It is really labor intensive! I decided I can do without the fennel salad, but even the chicken is a lot. So good though!

[@aj3428]

I made orange chicken from scratch for the first time last June while I was in California. It was awesome! Did you find that brining the wings made a difference? I'm a big believer in brining and marinating but never considered it with wings, which I make in the oven. I'm going to have to do this recipe as I seriously love wings. Good job!

[@CookwithHeather]

I think brining helps keep them moist, even if you cook them too long, and definitely helps with the flavor. There's very little other salt in the wings themselves, just a bit in the batter from the wok salt. Even the orange sauce doesn't have any added salt, which was surprising to me. Wings are my favorite piece of fried chicken, no joke. Let me know what you think!