Nutty Chicken Wings

I have been staring at this picture for a few days now, just couldn’t come up with a better name even after all this time! The nutty part of the name comes from the almonds in the marinade and not from the fact that I was going nuts trying to think of a name. The almonds were an afterthought, a last minute addition really, but I think it made the dish! The plan was to make a marinade with coconut cream. (I just realized that it would’ve been Coco-nutty chicken wings if I stuck to that plan, so these were destined to turn out nutty one way or the other)

Anyway, as I was saying, the original plan involved marinating the wings in a coconut milk based marinade, but I was making a lot of wings – 72 to be exact and as you can imagine, that requires a lot of marinade. What I needed was a big can of thick coconut cream, but all I could find was a can of light coconut milk at the time. As you know necessity is the mother of invention and I threw in a bunch of almonds to the food processor to grind along with the coconut milk to make it thicker and get as close to coconut cream as I could. That is when another genius idea came to me – what if I don’t grind these almonds to a powder, everyone likes a bit of crunch in their wings. And thus a new recipe was born.

Our guests really looked like they were enjoying these wings. Who cares if this was the only food we served them for the first hour of the party, since we were still scrambling to get everything else organized for the barbecue. So in all likelihood, they must have been starving when these were served and that fact could’ve heavily impaired their judgment. So I shouldn’t really be putting much weight on their opinion of the wings, but hey, there isn’t much I can do now, is there? I have already gone through all this trouble, so just trust me on this, okay?   

Since most people won’t be making 72 wings at a time, I thought I will do the math and give the recipe for a more sensible number, feel free to double or triple the ingredients if you use more wings. 

Ingredients

• Chicken wings – 16
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup shallots
• 4 jalapenos
• 1/2 cup pressed, cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup pressed, mint leaves
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp thick yogurt
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 2 tbsp lime/lemon juice
• Salt to taste

Method

Place the almonds in the food processer and process to form a coarse powder. Remove and keep aside. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the chicken wings and process to form a smooth paste. Add in the powdered almonds and mix well to combine.

Wash the chicken wings and use paper towels to wipe them dry.  Pour the marinade over the wings, turn to coat well, cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator.

Pre-heat the oven to 400F.

Coat the bottom of an oven-safe pan with some vegetable oil. Arrange the chicken wings in one layer. Use multiple pans or cook in multiple batches if necessary, but don’t overcrowd the pan. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 35 minutes.

There will be some liquid in the pan after this. Move the pan to the stove and cook till the liquid completely evaporates and the wings are well-coated with the spice paste.

Serve hot.

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Category: Appetizers and Snacks, Chicken