Chicken Wings, Asian Style

I was craving Chinese-ish food the other day... actually, I was craving vegetables, which I haven't been eating much of lately.  I hit the grocery store with only a vague idea of a stir-fry in mind... then I found yaki soba noodles, and thought that would hit the spot. So, I ended up getting a bunch of veggies, and some beef for the stir-fry, but then started thinking about an appetizer. I wanted something meat based, and I certainly didn't have time to make egg rolls or wontons from scratch, so I settled on chicken wings. I figured I would make some kind of sauce, and bake them.

I have not had much luck with baked chicken wings - usually they turn out dry, or without enough flavor, or they just don't have the right texture.  But, since the price of cooking oil has gone astronomically high, and I am not spending $15 - $20 to fill my fryer, I figured the time was ripe to wing baking wings. Get it? Wing it? ah, nevermind....

I did a quick search on my favorite recipe website for an asian type sauce. It turns out that since the buffalo wing invasion, people just plain forgot that you can do other things with wings. Things that don't involve screaming amounts of peppers.  Not that I don't love hot wings, I do. I just wanted a change.  So, I put together a few recipes, and added my own ideas. I ended up with a sauce made from honey, fresh grated ginger, thai chili sauce, a bit of soy, a bit of ketchup...  I put the wings in a baking pan, which I covered in foil to help with the clean up.  I poured the sauce on the wings, covered the pan with more foil, and baked it in the oven, covered, for 45 minutes, basting and turning the wings every 15 minutes.  After 45 minutes, I removed the foil covering, and put the wings back in the oven for another 15 minutes for the sauce to carmelize.  When I pulled the wings out, I think I got a little weak in the knees. They were beautifully glazed with a sticky, sweet, and slightly hot sauce, and the meat was so falling off the bone tender. They were damned succulent. I served them with the yaki soba stir fry with onion, cabbage, brocolli, snow peas, straw mushrooms and water chestnuts, and also fried rice with egg, peas, carrots, water chestnuts and bean sprouts.

I've already bought another package of wings to try again. This time with a little more heat. : )