2013 Cooking Club Week 35: Coca-Cola Chicken wings

Mellor

I think wings are perfect for parties, poker nights, BBQs etc. I love hot and spicy wings, but not everyone enjoys does. So usually I serve up these sweet wings as an alternative. If you've go to the effort of making a batch of hot wings to go with these, the contrasting flavours go really well together.
(I was going to post a hot wing recipe too, but one has already been posted in the cooking club, as well as a few 100 times in the Elephant and Castle Wings thread )


Ingredients

500ml Coke
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 large onion, grated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1kg chicken wings,
Juice of one lime (I had to use bottle stuff here, fresh is better)



Notes:
Pepsi is fine instead of coke. But not diet, zero, max variations.
Somebody might be wary of the fact that the recipe add sugar to Coke, which is already full of sugar. But don't worry about it, a lot of this gets left behind when serving, and also when divided up its a small amount per portion.


1. Preheat oven to 150°C.

2. Separate wings at joint into wingettes and drumettes. I use a kitchen scissors to joint the wings, a heavy chefs knife is good too. Discard the tips.

3. Combine coke, sugar, garlic, onion and soy in a bowl.

4. Arrange chicken wings in a single layer in a deep oven tray and pour over cola mixture. A small deep tray works a lot better than a wide shallow one. A deep tray keeps the wings under the sauce, if the tray is too wide the sauce will just run away from them.



5. Bake for 3-3.5 hours or until sauce is thick and sticky.
Keep an eye on them, and turn and toss them to coat evenly every now and again. More frequently towards the end.

6. Take them out and serve. As they are slow cooked in the sauce, the meat should be falling off the bones, and the connective tissue melting in your mouth.




Bonus Tip:
There should be plenty of sticky Coca-cola-y oniony sauce left behind. Don't toss it out. Scoop up the onion bits and keep it in the fridge. It's basically a sweet onion marmalade, only cola flavoured. Goes well with strong cheese, use sparingly as its very sweet.

Loopy

Wow!
You did all that on a Monday morning before work

MugMugs

Looks really yummy OP.

Mrs Fox

Looks scrumptious there, Mellor. I've tried baking whole chicken with coke but will definitely give wings a go with lime and all.

meoklmrk91

Good god, I has a want!

Mellor

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Looks scrumptious there, Mellor. I've tried baking whole chicken with coke but will definitely give wings a go with lime and all.

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Good god, I has a want!

It's not really a recipe to try for dinner during the week but hopefully you can find an excuse to try it out soon.

Birdsong

Had this this dish this, twas yummy. Really easy to make, just put in it oven & it looks after itself. Thanks so much

Mrs Fox

Made these tonight, and had them with homemade chips.
I did crank up the oven temp the last 15 min (3.5 hours in total) as I thought the coating sauce was still a bit runny. But you're right, the key is to keep flipping them towards the end. Even after taking them out of the oven while they're resting, keep flipping and coating with the sticky messy goodness.
Meat fell off the bone effortlessly. The onion bits were the business. Not sure if I have any left to save -- I was scooping them off with the chips.
Nice recipe OP. Well worth the long slow cooking.

Graham_B18C

Giving these a go tonight! It's almost afternoon where I am in case anyone is wondering why I'm planning dinner at 2am!

Gloomtastic!

Tonight's dinner! Salivating already........

Gloomtastic!

Lime juice! I take it you add this to the coke liquor before pouring over the wings? Read through a couple of times, couldn't see it anywhere!

Gloomtastic!

They were delicious! Kids absolutely loved them, so melt in the mouth.

Sprinkled mine with a load of chilli flakes just before eating to liven them up a bit. Thanks Mellor!

Mrs Fox

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Lime juice! I take it you add this to the coke liquor before pouring over the wings? Read through a couple of times, couldn't see it anywhere!

Haha you know I was aware of this when I was adding ingredients to the coke, especially sugar and lime. So i poured the coke into a big stock pot to avoid the 'lava'.

Mellor

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Lime juice! I take it you add this to the coke liquor before pouring over the wings? Read through a couple of times, couldn't see it anywhere!

Yeah it goes in the step with everything
Glad you enjoyed them

all_smilz

wonder could I try this with pork fillet??????????

Mellor

all_smilz wrote: »

wonder could I try this with pork fillet??????????

Pork Fillet (and beef too) works best with faster cooker methods. It's quite lean and will probably get tough.

If I was going to use pork, I'd go with cubed pork belly or spare ribs.

Stench Blossoms

Could these be done in a slow cooker?

Mellor

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Could these be done in a slow cooker?

I'd say a slow cooker would be perfect. I'd have used that if I had one. Would prob take 3-6 hours depending on slow cooker. You'll have an idea as you check them and the sauce reduces.

BaZmO*

Mellor wrote: »

I'd say a slow cooker would be perfect. I'd have used that if I had one. Would prob take 3-6 hours depending on slow cooker. You'll have an idea as you check them and the sauce reduces.

Would the sauce reduce though? Liquid doesn't boil in a slow cooker so I doubt it.

Mellor

BaZmO* wrote: »

Would the sauce reduce though? Liquid doesn't boil in a slow cooker so I doubt it.

You might be right actually. I think it depends on the slow cooker.
My only slow cooker experience is with my mam's one, it's nothing too fancy but the high set will gently simmer a liquid. But that might not be the norm.

I remember in the pulked pork thread, a few guys had the liquid boil off unexpectedly.

Sorry Stench, maybe check how your slow cooker goes first. Lid off would help reduction if it gets cloe to 100.

BaZmO*

Mellor wrote: »

You might be right actually. I think it depends on the slow cooker.
My only slow cooker experience is with my mam's one, it's nothing too fancy but the high set will gently simmer a liquid. But that might not be the norm.

I remember in the pulked pork thread, a few guys had the liquid boil off unexpectedly.

Sorry Stench, maybe check how your slow cooker goes first. Lid off would help reduction if it gets cloe to 100.

I have the little Argos Slow Cooker that Sparks has in the Pulled Pork thread and when making PP recently I decided to see how hot the liquid actually gets. On high it holds the liquid at a steady 95°C and the temp of the the meat was around 80-85°C

Mellor

BaZmO* wrote: »

I have the little Argos Slow Cooker that Sparks has in the Pulled Pork thread and when making PP recently I decided to see how hot the liquid actually gets. On high it holds the liquid at a steady 95°C and the temp of the the meat was around 80-85°C

That's probably the correct setting, would make more sense. The one at home prob runs a little hot.

gg2

So has anybody tried these in the slow cooker? Wanna try them tonight... Maybe 3 hours on low and last 40 mins or so on high to get the sauce to reduce?

Stench Blossoms

Have these in the oven now.

Stench Blossoms

dipdip

Part of the appeal of wings is the crispy skin. That would be lost entirely in a slow cooker. I imagine the skin would be flabby and the sauce thin. I'd stick with the original recipe.

gg2

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

They look amazing!!Mine did not look like that:( As dipdap said, the slow cooker does nothing for them, I took them out and put them in the oven for an hour but no joy, there was frig all taste off them.... I know for next time:D

Mrs Fox

I stuck to the original recipe, and you won't get crispy skin even from the oven because it's slow cooked at a lowish temperature. This is what gives the fall-of-the-none meat.

dipdip

Yes, I suppose it's braised. But the sauce will at least evaporate at a good rate.

Mellor

Yeah, as MrsFox said, these aren't crispy skin wings. Sticky, juicy, falling from bone is what you are after

Gloomtastic!

Going to try this again but with chicken legs. I'll let you know........

foodaholic

I made these last week. They where very tasty but for some reason the liquid wouldn't reduce and get sticky. I measured out the amount of liquid, but wouldn't go sticky for me. There was none leftover either way !!

Gloomtastic!

foodaholic wrote: »

I made these last week. They where very tasty but for some reason the liquid wouldn't reduce and get sticky. I measured out the amount of liquid, but wouldn't go sticky for me. There was none leftover either way !!

Turning the oven up for the last 20/30 minutes should reduce any liquid to a sticky dark coat. Keep turning the wings though.

Galadriel

foodaholic wrote: »

I made these last week. They where very tasty but for some reason the liquid wouldn't reduce and get sticky. I measured out the amount of liquid, but wouldn't go sticky for me. There was none leftover either way !!

They where delicious!

Gloomtastic!

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Going to try this again but with chicken legs. I'll let you know........

Wanted to have these tonight for a Halloween treat but was working this afternoon so I cooked them last night for three hours at 140c. Then stuck them in the fridge until this evening when I got home. Blasted them in the oven at 180c for an hour, turning every 15 mins. I had to reduce the sauce in a separate pan.
Served with matchstick chips and coleslaw.
A bit more delicate than the wings, several of them fell apart while turning, but just as nice.
Loads leftover, any suggestions on how to serve them up tomorrow night - I'm thinking a BBQ chicken risotto!

Donadea Leo

just discovered the cooking club so started with this recipe. Mmmm lovely thanks mellor only complaint is i ate too many. I took a pic but don't know how to get it off my phone and up on boards. It actually looks like the other pics here much to my amazement. I used lemon instead of lime but can t imagine that would make any difference. Thanks again i m off to loosen the belt on my trousers

connollys

Made these at the weekend and was also making some pies, and had left over puff pastry, so mixed the cooled oniony marmalade left from this with some cheese and baked in the puff pastry. Sweet lord they were good.