A can of cola is roughly thirty five grams of sugar with caramel colouring, and in a pan of wings it behaves like a sweet stock that reduces to a syrup. The soy keeps it from being cloying. Everything depends on the last two minutes, when the liquid turns sticky and has to be moved constantly.
Chinese · Main
Cola Braised Chicken Wings With a Sticky Glaze
One can of cola does the seasoning, the colour and the glaze. Sear the skin first, then reduce hard until the sauce clings to the wings.
- Prep10 min
- Cook25 min
- Serves2
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 8 | chicken mid-joints |
| 1 can | cola , about 330 ml |
| 30 g | ginger , sliced |
| 1 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 1/2 tbsp | dark soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | Shaoxing wine |
| 1 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1 tsp | white sesame seeds , toasted |
Method
- Score each wing twice on both sides, cutting down to the bone, and dry them well on kitchen paper. Dry skin is what browns; wet skin spits and steams.
- Blanch the wings in cold water with ginger and the wine, from cold, and lift them out as soon as the water boils and the scum has risen.
- Heat the oil in a pan and lay the wings in skin side down over medium heat. Leave them for two minutes without moving them, then turn and brown the other side.
- Pour the whole can of cola down the side of the pan, add the ginger, light soy and dark soy, and bring it to a simmer. The liquid should just cover the wings.
- Cover and cook over medium low for eight to ten minutes, turning the wings once halfway.
- Uncover, turn the heat up and reduce, moving the wings through the sauce constantly once it starts to bubble thickly, until it coats the back of a spoon and only a film of oil is left in the pan.
- Take the pan off the heat, turn the wings once more in the glaze and scatter the sesame seeds.
Notes
- Use a full sugar cola rather than a diet one. The sweetener in the diet version does not reduce to a glaze and the sauce stays watery.
- Score the wings only to the bone. Cutting deeper lets the meat fall apart during the braise and the skin separates from it.
Ratios and technique checked against 丽珍de优雅煮食 on Douguo (可乐鸡翅). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.