Crunchy coated chicken wings...

This is a really easy recipe for a tasty chicken wings snack. I love chicken wings. There is something very satisfying at a basic level about eating meat with your fingers. Plus the wings have some of the best meat on a chicken on it. They are also super cheap! This can feed several people for just a few pounds (or dollars).

This recipe is also pretty healthy... by my standards anyway!

Ingredients (4 servings) : -
1 kg Chicken wings
1 Packet stuffing mix
2 eggs
half a cup of milk
2 cloves of garlic
a cup of flour
salt and pepper to taste
A splash of oil.

Optional Ingredients
Soy sauce (dark or sweet)
Worcester Sauce
Thai sweet chilli sauce
Mixed herbs (of your choice)
Chilli powder/flakes

Equipment : -
An oven
An oven tray
3 Large bowls
a fork or whisk
tin foil (not essential)
A large knife
A chopping board
A garlic crusher (Not essential, but useful)

The first step with this recipe is to cut the chicken wings in half. Cut them at the second joint from the tip. This should create two reasonably similarly sized pieces of chicken.

Put the chicken aside and prepare the three bowls for the crunchy coating.

Into the first bowl goes the flour. Nice and easy.

Into the second bowl, crack the 2 eggs, add the milk, and crush the garlic. If you can't crush the garlic then just chop it up as fine as you can. Mix these ingredients together.

Into the third bowl you pour the stuffing mix and the salt and pepper. Different stuffing mixes have different consistencies. The smaller the bits of the stuffing mix the better. If you think yours are too large then give the stuffing mix a blast in a pestle and mortar, or a brief whiz in a blender.

For the optional ingredients, if they are dry (mixed herbs or chilli powder) you add them to the third bowl, and if they are wet (soy sauce, Worcester sauce or chilli sauce) you add them to the second bowl. In both cases mix all of the ingredients in the bowl together.

Next is the fun bit where you get your hands dirty... But first some preparation. Line the oven tray with the tin foil and coat the surface of the foil with the oil. The oil prevents sticking, and the foil prevents washing up! Turn the oven on at this point to around 200 C.

So, the fun bit! Take the bits of chicken one at a time. First place them in the flour bowl, making sure they have a thin layer of flour all over them. Then transfer them to the wet bowl, again making sure that they are well coated in the egg mix. Guess what is next? Thats right, put them in the stuffing bowl! Again, make sure that they are coated all over in the stuffing mix. Once they are coated in all three layers you can transfer them to the foil lined oven tray.

Once you have coated all of the chicken pieces in this manner, you can transfer the oven tray to the oven. Turn down the oven at this stage to around 170 C.

You leave the wings cooking in the oven for around 30 minutes, turning them once about half way through. If the coating isn't browned at the end then turn the temperature up to about 200 C for an extra 5 minutes.

The finished product should look something like this.

They are now ready to eat! Or, if you wish you can leave them to cool down. They are pretty good cold, and can be saved for the next day for a picnic or something similar.

An excellent dip to go with these is to use use some crème fraich and mix it with some Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Variations:-

This is a very versatile recipe and whatever flavours you think would be good can be added. The rule is that if the ingredients are dry you add them to the bowl with the stuffing mix, and if they are wet you add them to the bowl with the eggs.

The sky is the limit with this one, so let your imaginations run riot!