Holy Chook! Nam Yu Chicken Wings

Ah wings…Darsh’s favourite part of the chicken. Yes, South Beach Phase One says breast meat only, so we keep them wings for a special occasion like, say, the big Pacquiao-Mayweather, Jr fight coming up. We’ve got a whole lot of people coming over to watch the match and what’s the best match snack food?

Darsh, being Darsh, of course, found a way to reduce the sin factor in these by cranking up the old airfryer, but if you feel nothing would fly other than traditional deep fried wings, you can always fry them the usual way.

Ingredients

• 12 pieces chicken wingettes
• 2 pieces Nam Yu cubes
• 2 tbs red Nam Yu brine
• 2 tsp five-spice powder
• 2 tsp ground white pepper
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbp rice wine
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 2 inch ginger, grated
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Make the marinade. In a bowl, mash the Nam Yu cubes until you get a paste.
2. Add in the Nam Yu brine, five-spice powder, ground white pepper, sugar, chili powder, rice wine, garlic, ginger and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Combine well.
3. Evenly coat the wingettes in the mixture. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours (for best results, marinate overnight).
4. Cook: Preheat airfryer to 180°C.
5. Crack eggs in shallow bowl and mix well.
6. In a separate bowl, add 1/2 tsp salt to flour and mix.
7. Shaking off excess marinade, coat each piece of wing, first with egg, then flour. Shake off excess flour and set aside. Let rest for five minutes.
8. Cook in airfryer for 15 minutes, shaking halfway through.

Nam… what?!

 

Nam Yu or red fermented bean curd, is, as the name suggests, bean curd fermented in a red wine brine. It is pungent but like good cheese and durian, don’t make the mistake of trusting your nose.

You can find them in your local chinese grocery stores. We found ours at the wet market. It normally comes in a jar but some shops do sell them in smaller packets.

We’ve also used them for Siew Yoke or roasted pork belly… #SoMuchYum