The Best Teriyaki Chicken Wings

I used to make Teriyaki Chicken Wings at home but they never seemed to be as yummy as the ones we'd buy from Whole Foods. For one thing I was using a bottled teriyaki sauce and that just wasn't doing it for us. Another problem was true for my wings and for the more pricey ones at Whole Foods - they ended up floating in a greasy liquid by the time they were done cooking which looked bad and didn't do much for their taste either.

Then one day, we discovered these amazing teriyaki chicken wings at a local produce and prepared foods store called Russo's. These were the best wings we'd ever tasted. First of all, they were completely coated in a very tasty and sticky sauce. The flavors of the sauce were so fresh and clean you could actually taste the fresh ginger which led me to believe they were making an in house teriyaki sauce from scratch for these wings. In my mind these were the best wings, but recently I started to to recoil at the price. Do I really want to splurge once a week on $8.00 a pound teriyaki chicken wings? Couldn't I figure out a way to make these at home just as well? I even considered getting a job there so that I could learn their secret. Hey, they are great wings.

My family will tell you that I've been slaving away for the last week trying to replicate these wings at home - and they have been loving it. This has been a week long teriyaki-chicken-wing-festival at our house with me trying and tweaking and re-trying my recipe and my technique and my family happily testing out each version. What I was looking for here was a simple, not fussy recipe that I could throw together quickly, but that delivered in flavor and texture. I'm pretty sure that the chefs at Russo's - who must be making hundreds of pounds of these wings a week - aren't doing anything complicated or too time consuming and they are getting fabulous wings. Why can't I? First I checked out how much money I'd be saving - for motivational purposes. I can buy Bell & Evans party wings for a mere $2.99 a pound - so it seemed that if I could just get the finished product right I'd be saving some money without sacrificing quality. The big "if" here was getting the recipe right.

The first step was that I had to make a fresh, home-made teriyaki sauce. I wasn't about to let that scare me off. My sauce has five ingredients - I threw all the ingredients in my blender and in 60 seconds it was ready. I marinated the wings in the sauce a minimum of four hours and a max of 24. I have to admit that I didn't notice a huge flavor boost from the marinating, but I did get excited about the fact that the marinated wings didn't stick to the broiler pan - so if you are in a hurry don't marinate just toss the wings with the sauce before you move on to broiling. I opted to broil the wings first which gives them a great burnt-around-the-edges flavor and also rendered a good portion of the fat so that the final product would be a lot less greasy. While the wings were broiling I reduced the marinade by half so that is was thick and syrupy. Then I put the wings in a roasting pan and poured the thickened teriyaki sauce over them, covered them with foil and roasted it all together. I'm pretty sure it is not fussy and I'm absolutely positive that it is delicious. Just ask my family.

The Sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup light brown sugar
8 garlic cloves, chopped fine or put through a garlic press
2 " fresh ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

Measure all of the above ingredients into your blender. Blend on high (I used the puree button) until sauce is a uniform color. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

The Wings:

Buy 2 lbs party chicken wings. Put them into a resealable plastic bag. Pour freshly made sauce over them. Squeeze out extra air from bag and seal. Let chicken marinate for at least 1 hour and up to 24.

When ready to cook, pre-heat broiler. Carefully remove wings from marinade and arrange in a single layer on broiler pan. Broil between 5 -10 minutes on first side or until golden brown and crispy. Try not to let them get burnt. Flip wings over and broil another 3-5 minutes on second side.

While wings are broiling pour marinade into small saucepan and cook on high until it has reduced by about 1/2 and looks thicker.

When wings are finished broiling turn oven down to 375 degrees and remove wings from the broiler pan and put into roasting pan. Pour thickened sauce over wings and stir to coat thoroughly. Cover roasting pan with aluminium foil (shiny side down) and roast for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce. For the final 5 minutes I remove the foil to crisp everything up a little.

Remove from oven and let cool. Serve warm or room temperature with lots of napkins.