Yes! Well made fried whole chicken wings come from good Chinese restaurants. They are crispy outside and moist and tender inside, ergo perfect. In this instance the original recipe came from The Woks Of Life® web site. That is regularly pretty much a guarantee of fine results, regardless of which Chinese food you are making.

I made some minor changes to their recipe, reducing the time of the second frying to four minutes, and changing some of the wording and methods of marinating the wings.

The results were nothing less than superb! My sweetheart Peggy and I both declared them to be the best fried chicken wings we ever had, and that is no small claim as we've enjoyed and often made many types over many years.

Overall the procedure and the ingredients of the Chinese recipe vary a lot from common USA recipes for fried chicken wings. And clearly the Chinese method works exceptionally well. You definitely want to make fried chicken wings using this recipe.

I've used this recipe for frying drumsticks and thighs as well as wings. Drumsticks come out perfect (and they are a lot cheaper to buy than wings). Think $3.99/lb. for whole wings and $1.29/lb. for drumsticks. I simply increase the frying times to six minutes and then five minutes for the second frying for drumsticks.

Thighs do not fry as nicely as wings or drumsticks (with thighs, the skin doesn't adhere well to the flesh) so I do not plan to use this recipe for frying thighs (or for strips of chicken breast) unless I coat the marinated parts with a thin, rice flour based batter right before frying. The batter will help keep (protect) the surface flesh of thighs or strips of chicken breast from become dry during frying.

Note that you can increase the amount of marinade you make, easily, if you want more intense flavor for a given quantity of wings or drumsticks.

Ingredients: (Serves two to three people)

10 whole chicken wings

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine (You can use dry sherry but the Shaoxing wine is best. Buy it.)

1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil

1 extra large egg

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

2 to 3 quarts of peanut oil (for frying)

Directions:

Wash the chicken wings and pat them dry with paper towels.

Whisk the egg in a large mixing bowl, then add the black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, sea salt, sugar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil.

Whisk the contents of the mixing bowl, then add the chicken wings to the bowl one at a time, coating each wing completely with the sauce mixture.

Mix everything until all of the wings are well-coated, then sprinkle the cornstarch and the all purpose flour evenly over the tops of the wings, then mix again until the cornstarch and flour are incorporated and the wings are evenly coated.

Put the coated wings into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag and expel the air, seal the bag, and flatten the contents so the wings are not on top of each other. Alternatively, you can vacuum seal the coated wings in a large vacuum seal bag and then flatten the contents.

Let the wings marinate for 2 hours or more at room temperature, turning the bag over every 30 minutes, or put them into the refrigerator overnight for the best results. (If you refrigerate the wings, be sure to let them come to room temperature the next day before frying them).

Fill a one gallon pot about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up with the peanut oil, and heat it to 325 degrees F. Vary the heat during frying to maintain the oil temperature close to but not above 325 degrees F. Use an instant read thermometer and check the temperature often and adjust the heat as necessary.

Fry the wings in two batches of five wings each, for 5 minutes, then remove the wings with tongs and put them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet.

After all of the wings are fried and cooled, return them in batches of 5 wings to the hot oil and fry them again for 4 minutes.

Drain the wings on the cooling rack for a minute or two after frying. If you aren't serving them immediately then put them into a bowl and keep them in a 180 degrees F warming oven.

Serve the wings hot, with or without hot sauce, along with whatever other foods you prepared for the meal. Cold beer is a fine beverage to serve with hot chicken wings.

Enjoy!