Sesame Barbecue Wings
getting ready for the Phillies
Game food. A glass dish of these on a board, a bottle of something next to it, and nobody moves for three hours.
Two things that are not obvious. First, the glaze is soy-based, not tomato-based — that is why these go that deep near-black rather than red. Second, the sesame goes on while the glaze is still tacky, straight out of the oven, not before and not after it cools. Thirty seconds either way and it either toasts to nothing or falls off in the dish.
Toast the seeds yourself. It takes four minutes and raw sesame tastes like paper.
- Feeds
- 6 to 8
- Hands-on
- 25 minutes
- In the oven
- 50 minutes
- Finish
- Sesame while wet
What you need
The chicken
- 3 lb chicken wings, split at the joint
- 6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp baking powder — not soda, and this is for the skin
- 2 tsp coarse black pepper
The glaze
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 6 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 thumb ginger, grated
- 1 tsp cayenne
To finish
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted in a dry pan
- 1 tsp cayenne or chilli powder, for dusting
How it goes
1 — Dry the chicken properly, then dust with baking powder
Patted dry, then tossed with the salt, pepper and baking powder. It raises the surface pH so the skin browns and crisps at a lower temperature — this is the one trick that makes oven wings worth eating.
pro tip — Baking POWDER. Soda will make them taste of metal, and that mistake is unrecoverable.
2 — On a rack, in a hot oven
425°F, spaced out on a wire rack over a sheet pan so air gets underneath. Forty to fifty minutes until the skin is tight, golden and genuinely crisp. No glaze yet.
3 — Reduce the glaze to a syrup
Everything in a wide pan, simmered fifteen to twenty minutes. You want it thick enough that a spoon dragged through the bottom leaves a track for a second. Thin glaze runs off and pools.
4 — Toast the sesame seeds separately
Dry pan, medium heat, shaken constantly for three or four minutes until they are the colour of straw and smell nutty. Tip them straight out of the pan — they carry on cooking in it.
5 — Toss hot chicken through hot glaze
Straight out of the oven into a big bowl, glaze over, tossed until every piece is coated and dark. Both hot is important: warm chicken and cool glaze gives you a sticky mess that never sets.
6 — Back in the oven for five minutes
Glazed pieces back on the rack at 425°F. The glaze tightens and goes from wet to lacquered, and some edges blacken. That near-black in the picture is this step.
7 — Sesame immediately, while tacky
Out of the oven and straight into the seeds — a handful thrown over from height so it lands evenly, then a dusting of cayenne over the top. They stick now and they will not in two minutes.
Into a glass dish, onto the board, and may the Phillies deserve it. LFG.