Korean-inspired chicken wings baked in the oven with a gochujang sauce.
Ever since I learned about the baking powder trick for crispy chicken wings from Serious Eats, I’ve been making them all the time. Sometimes I’ll even just make chicken wings with salt and pepper and nothing else. Simple but delicious.
I’ve been having a bit of a creative block when it comes to new recipes these days, but this recipe came right to me when I opened my fridge and remembered I had a tub of gochujang.
What is gochujang? It’s a Korean hot pepper paste that is spicy, sweet and salty. That’s where the Korean-inspired comes from in the recipe title.
The first step is simple, coat the chicken in baking powder and a little bit of salt, and let them sit for about 20 minutes. This helps make them turn out extra crispy. Then while they bake in the oven, you can make a simple sticky, sweet and spicy sauce.
The sauce is a mixture of ketchup, gochuchang, garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce and a little sriracha if you’d like some extra spice. I find the gochujang I have is more on the mild side of the spice spectrum, but I recommend tasting your gochujang before you start cooking–that way you can tell if it’s spicier or sweeter. Like miso paste, there are different varieties of gochujang.
The sauce gets cooked for a few minutes on the stove top to meld all the flavours and cook the garlic, before it gets tossed with the hot wings (once they are done cooking).
These Korean-inspired chicken wings are best served right away as they start to lose their crispness the longer they sit in the sauce.
Korean-Inspired Chicken Wings
Ingredients
- 2 kg / 4.4 lbs chicken wings
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
For sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup gochujang
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon sodium-reduced soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sriracha, optional
- 2 teaspoon fish sauce
To serve:
- 2 green onions, sliced
Instructions
- Arrange racks in top and bottom thirds of oven and preheat to 400F. Line two large baking sheets with foil. Set a wire rack on each.
- Toss 2 kg / 4.4 lbs chicken wings with 2 tbsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt, then arrange in a single layer on prepared racks so that air can circulate underneath.
- Bake for 20 minutes, switch and rotate sheets and bake another 20 minutes until skin is golden and crisp.
- Meanwhile, prepare the gochujang sauce. Combine ½ cup ketchup, ¼ cup gochujang, ¼ cup rice vinegar, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp sodium-reduced soy sauce, 1 tbsp sriracha, and 2 tsp fish sauce in a small pan over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened about 3 minutes.
- Remove wings from the oven and let cool about 5 minutes, until cool enough to touch.
- Toss wings with sauce until evenly coated top with 2 green onions and serve immediately.
Notes
- The trick for crispy wings in the oven is the combination of baking powder and wire rack.
- These lose their crispness the longer they sit in sauce, so toss and serve right away.
Let me know if you give these Korean-inspired chicken wings a try in the comments below.
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