Spicy Asian Chicken Drum Sticks

I've been craving chicken wings. I hate chicken wings. Actually, I don't hate chicken wings. I hate eating meat off the bone, especially in public. But since wings are most often eaten in pubs, I pretend to hate chicken wings. I never order them. I never eat them. So why the heck am I craving chicken wings?

I decided to give in to my craving and re-invent my Dad's famous Asian style chicken wings. My Dad is an excellent cook and specializes in Chinese cooking. He's famous among dozens for his cooking skills.

For this recipe I used chicken drum sticks rather than wings - full size ones, not those drummettes, but you could use drummettes too. I also removed the skin. I test baked a batch, some with skin and some without and I found the "without skin" variety turned out better. Plus you save on the fat scale by removing the skin.

This recipe makes enough marinade for 6 large drum sticks (serves 2-3), or 1-2 lbs of drummettes. Double your marinade for more.



Marinade:

1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp cooking sake or rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced (about 2 inch piece of ginger)
2 tsp Thai garlic chili sauce
1 Thai red chili, seeded and diced fine (optional)

1. Combine marinade ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.

2. Remove the skin from your chicken drum sticks.

3. Add the drum sticks to a large zip lock bag.

4. Pour the marinade over top of the drum sticks.

5. Place the zip lock bag in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The longer the better. I marinaded mine for about 3 hours. Every once in a while shake the bag & massage the marinade into the chicken drum sticks to ensure they are well coated (I did this twice).

6. When ready to cook the chicken, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.

7. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Place chicken drum sticks on the foil. Discard the bag of marinade.

8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes then turn the drum sticks. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until a safe internal temperature is reached. I cooked my large drums for 35 mins.

9. Remove the drums from the oven. Baste with more reserved sauce and place on a serving dish. Finish by sprinkling with chopped green onion.

They're good cold too so pack up your drum sticks and go on a picnic!


A Note About Wine:

I paired my chicken with a crisp and fruity Gewurztraminer. I picked it up from Summerhill Pyramid Winery while I was in Kelowna a couple months ago. It was the perfect wine for this spicy and flavourful chicken, although a Riesling would have been nice too.