Elephant & Castle chicken wings? Read first post!

pleasant Co.

vibe666 wrote: »

last time I was in E&C for wings (admittedly a few years ago) you'd swear they used sparrow wings, they were tiny, the meat was dry like they'd been re-fried and no meat on them at all.

never been back since, but being part of this thread and helping to tweak the recipe and cooking method, with home cooking i've got way past the level of any wings i've had anywhere else, and it was always my go-to starter any time we ate out and anyone else can read up on what's here and how it's evolved over the years and make their own wings far batter than E&C or anywhere else out there and at this point, even if it turns out that E&C don't use franks, that's their loss, not ours.

What tweakage do you use (nearly 700 posts in this thread :P) I tend to just use franks+butter.

vibe666

pleasant Co. wrote: »

What tweakage do you use (nearly 700 posts in this thread :P) I tend to just use franks+butter.

personally, I use de-boned thighs (two supermarket packs) with the skin on instead of wings (cut into three wing sized strips), then dust with a mixture of 2/3 flour to 1/3 cornflour (for extra crispiness) with a teaspoon of smoked paprika.

i love using the thighs because you get all the flavour you get from wings, but with no bones.

deep fry and then heat up a wok with some butter and franks (more or less equal parts of each) and cook out until it starts to separate, stirring all the time, before dumping in all the wings and giving them a good toss in the sauce (this is where the curved edge of the wok comes in really handy) mixture and serve.

a really simple but tasty dressing is to slightly water down some mayo and add a squeeze of lemon juice, salt, pepper and either mashed up blue cheese or roasted garlic.

Mike Litoris

Same as above with regular bone in wings dusted and cooked in a deep fat fryer for 15 mins at 190 c. Let drip dry and dab with paper towel before transferring to a bowl.


When making the sauce I use 60% Franks to 40% Unsalted butter (must be unsalted), boil and constantly stir for 15-20 mins. The stirring should stop it separating and create an emulsion.


I only use enough sauce just to coat the wings and not smother them.

vibe666

i actually prefer letting it split as it helps the good stuff stick to the wings and more of the oily ghee part of the butter is left in the bowl.

dammit, now i want me some wings.

Mike Litoris

vibe666 wrote: »

i actually prefer letting it split as it helps the good stuff stick to the wings and more of the oily ghee part of the butter is left in the bowl.

dammit, now i want me some wings.

Cant help it but this is going sound worse than your Oily Ghee! :D

I tried the Ghee once and didn't like the taste and it didn't smell too good. Maybe it was gone off. It had a more sour taste compared to the unsalted butter and smelled very ropey.

Thats a good point about letting it split so butter drops. I think its just a visual thing with me have a smooth sauce. My arm does be hanging off me by the time its made.

rubadub

Mike Litoris wrote: »

I tried the Ghee once

did you make the ghee yourself or by it ready made? I never imagined the long life store bought stuff could be any use, its also very expensive whenever I see it.

Mike Litoris

rubadub wrote: »

did you make the ghee yourself or by it ready made? I never imagined the long life store bought stuff could be any use, its also very expensive whenever I see it.

Yes ready made from an Indian store. Is there much difference between it and unsalted butter?

vibe666

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Yes ready made from an Indian store. Is there much difference between it and unsalted butter?

same here, it tasted nasty. i guess neither of us have had any luck with the ghee.

also, i'm just assuming the oily bit is the ghee/clarified butter bit?

these days i usually just use kerrygold as it's what we normally have in the fridge.

Seaneh

Ghee is basically just clarified butter.

Put a block of butter in a pot on low heat until it's fully melted, the milk solids and the fat separate.

Some of the solids will bob up to the top and you can skim them off with a spoon and the rest will sink to the bottom, after you skim the top you can just slowly pour the butter fat into a new bowl/container and leave the milk solids behind in the bottom of the pot.

It's handy for lots of things and the butter fat won't burn as quickly as whole butter so you can use it to cook at higher heats and stuff.

vibe666

i got a tin of the stuff from an asian supermarket, but didn't like the taste at all. not sure if its meant to taste that way though or if it had just spent 6 months on a sweaty container ship getting here from india or something and gone bad en-route. either way, it really wasn't the kind of flavour i was looking for in my wings.

vibe666

Had to get the brother in law round to help mow the lawn as i've had an op on my back recently and had to bribe him with some boneless buffalo wings(thighs).

first time we've done them in ages and I'd forgotten how much we love them.

here's a before/after franks shot of them once they were cooked.

that's all meat, no bones at all and so so very tender, tasty and moreish.



one thing I did learn though is that tesco are robbing b*stards. :mad:

did a tesco online shop (due to the bad back) and ordered thighs, but they give it to you with the bit of spine on it (like kfc do), so by the time you've removed that and trimmed it (instead of just having to remove the thigh bone), probably 2/5 of it is waste.

they still charge €2.99 a pack, but you end up with only half the meat that you'd have gotten in dunnes, or lidl/aldi etc. and just end up throwing out tesco's rubbish for them.

mind you, even that couldn't ruin it, we had them out in the back garden under our new homestore+more gazebo and it was lovely.

garbanzo

Sweet Jesus that was a long but mighty informative 47 pages.

Mike Litoris

garbanzo wrote: »

Sweet Jesus that was a long but mighty informative 47 pages.

It's worth it. So so worth it.

gerryk

garbanzo wrote: »

Sweet Jesus that was a long but mighty informative 47 pages.

To be fair, it could be summed up in one word: Franks

vibe666

gerryk wrote: »

To be fair, it could be summed up in one word: Franks

franksnbutter

MissFlitworth

vibe666 wrote: »

franksnbutter

cw girl

Has anyone cooked the wings in an oven? Don't have a deep fat fryer, any suggestions?

The Hill Billy

Check out last week's entry in The Cooking Club.

frag420

cw girl wrote: »

Has anyone cooked the wings in an oven? Don't have a deep fat fryer, any suggestions?

If you want them crispy from the oven then par boil your wings in salt water for about ten mins. Pat them dry with kitchen roll and make sure they are dry, no visible wetness. Then bang them in the oven at 190c for 30-40 mins or until golden crispy!!

As good as fried!!

Mike Litoris

frag420 wrote: »

If you want them crispy from the oven then par boil your wings in salt water for about ten mins. Pat them dry with kitchen roll and make sure they are dry, no visible wetness. Then bang them in the oven at 190c for 30-40 mins or until golden crispy!!

As good as fried!!

I must try that!

frag420

Mike Litoris wrote: »

I must try that!

Let me know how they turn out....

vibe666

can anyone think of anything lower in fat that could be substituted for butter?

gerryk

vibe666 wrote: »

can anyone think of anything lower in fat that could be substituted for butter?

Nothing that will be quite as wonderful. Frank's by itself is pretty damn nice anyhow.

I say go for it... it's not as if you'll be having them every day, right?

Faith

Honestly, if you're eating chicken wings, the butter is the least of your concern! They're never going to be a healthy food.

vibe666

Faith wrote: »

Honestly, if you're eating chicken wings, the butter is the least of your concern! They're never going to be a healthy food.

*if* i was eating chicken wings that would be true, but i'm going to be eating chicken thighs with the skin off, which aren't anywhere near as fatty as wings.

I was thinking about maybe a low fat cream cheese, that *might* work and some of them are only 2-4% fat.

Dizzyblonde

vibe666 wrote: »

can anyone think of anything lower in fat that could be substituted for butter?

Kerry Low Low dairy spread claims to be 81% lower in saturated fat than real butter, is suitable for cooking and baking and tastes quite like real butter. I'd use that rather than low fat cream cheese.

rubadub

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Kerry Low Low dairy spread claims to be 81% lower in saturated fat than real butter, is suitable for cooking and baking

Its is much lower partly as its simply watered down so much.

The pack does say suitaable for cooking & baking but I would be very cautious about it

http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=252293289

Water,Sunflower Oil ,Vegetable Oils ,Salt (1.4%) ,Buttermilk Powder ,Emulsifier (Mono and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids) ,Stabiliser (Sodium Alginate) ,Preservative (Potassium Sorbate) ,Lactic Acid ,Vitamin E ,Vitamin B6 ,Folic Acid ,Colour (Natural Carotene) ,Flavouring ,Vitamins A, D and B12

Water is the main ingredient, it is only 38% fat.

Some of the really low fat spreads have even more water, and using it on toast is like putting a scrape of butter on and running it under a tap.

I would rather just have normal natural butter than watered down oil held together with stabilisers & additives. Some would argue that butter is far more healthy than sunflower oil for cooking.

Mike Litoris

How about just using less butter. If you get the ratios right at least you'll still get the butter taste instead of Toast Lubricant.


Hold on, if you're that worried about it, just how much of them do you eat?

vibe666

I'd eat a bucket load of them if I could!

Unfortunately, Mrs vibe666 has us both on diets as we're off to Oz in mid-October to see my muscley ex-model brother and his lovely wife (who also happens to be a former miss western australia), so i'm under orders to keep everything low fat.

Tarzana

Faith wrote: »

Honestly, if you're eating chicken wings, the butter is the least of your concern! They're never going to be a healthy food.

I'm not really seeing what is particularly unhealthy about chicken wings. The portion sizes generally, yes, but other than that they're good stuff. Meat, fat, hot sauce, a cheesy dip and no crappy refined carbs. I see them as a fairly pure foodstuff.