Any meal in Chinatown in Calcutta must begin with some chicken lollipops, washed down with some fresh lime soda. This particular recipe is based on the drums of heaven that used to be served at Songhay on Waterloo Street. It is very simple. The hardest part for a beginner is to form the chicken lollipops from chicken wings. Pritish Kumar Halder tried to give you a detailed step-by-step guide to forming your own chicken lollipops at home.
The second important detail is to get the chicken marination and frying right, so that the drums of heaven turn out crispy with only a thin coating. The sauce can be customised to your taste. Just make sure it has a sticky and thick consistency before adding the fried wings.
If making a large batch, you can fry the lollipops and make the sauce in advance. Then you can re-fry the wings at a high temperature for a minute, re-heat the sauce, and toss to coat just before serving. This is the only way to ensure the wings are crispy when you serve them.
COOKING TIME
2 hours
YIELDS
12 lollipops
INGREDIENTS
MARINADE FOR THE CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS
500g (6 whole wings) chicken wings
6g (1 tsp) soy sauce
6g (1 tsp) green chilli sauce
15g (1½ tbsp) red chilli sauce
4g salt
¼ tsp MSG (Ajinamoto)
½ tsp ground black pepper
2g ginger
2g garlic
1 tbsp egg whites
4 tbsp plain flour (Maida)
2 tbsp cornstarch
vegetable oil for deep frying
FOR THE SAUCE
10g vegetable oil
50g onions
5g ginger
12g garlic
3 tbsp chicken stock
30g (3 tbsp) red chilli sauce
8g (1 tsp) ketchup
8g (1 tsp) dark soy sauce
2 pc spring onions
EQUIPMENT
Paring knife
Cotton cloth for holding the chicken
Mixing bowl
Kadai or wok
Stove
Weighing scale
METHOD
MAKING THE LOLLIPOPS
Separate the drumette and the flat. Pop the joint between drumette and the flat. Then cut between the joint to separate.
With the flat, hold the tip in your right hand, and flat in the left hand (reverse if you’re left-handed). Use force to push out the two bones small bones. Discard the smaller bone.
You can now discard the wing tip. We needed it for gripping earlier.
Gather the meat to one side, turning the meat inside-out. This is the first lollipop—the smaller (but tastier) one.
Now, the drumette. We need to expose the joint at the end where we separated the drumette from the flat.
Cut the connective tissue around the base of the bone, then angle the blade and scrape towards you to form a clearing where you can hold the bone.
Hold the exposed joint with a cloth and scrape away to detach the meat from the bone and gather it at the other end. This will take some force.
Now, hold the loose meat with the cloth and pull to turn the meat inside out to form the second (bigger) lollipop.
Repeat these steps for all the wings. You will end up with double the number of lollipops as the wings you start with.
MARINATING THE LOLLIPOP
Mix the soy sauce, green chilli sauce, red chilli sauce, salt, MSG, pepper, ginger, garlic, and egg whites in a mixing bowl.
Add the chicken lollipops, massage them well, and leave them to marinate for as long as it takes to prep the ingredients for the sauce.
MAKE THE SAUCE
The cooking will take place quickly on high heat. So, all your ingredients should be prepped and at hand before the cooking starts.
To make the sauce mix, combine red chilli sauce, ketchup, and dark soy sauce in a bowl.
Heat the kadai until very hot. Add vegetable oil and let it start smoking.
Add the diced onions and cook for one minute.
Add the ginger and fry 30 seconds.
Add garlic and fry 30 seconds.
Add sugar and let it melt and caramelize—about 30 seconds.
Next add the salt, ground pepper, the sauce mix and the chicken stock.
Reduce for a few minutes until the sauce gets syrupy and sticky. Turn off the heat.
FRYING THE LOLLIPOPS
Heat oil in a kadai or wok until it is very hot (200ºC).
Just before frying, add the plain flour and cornstarch (cornflower) to the marinated chicken and mix to form a dry batter. Adding too much liquid in the batter or the lollipops won’t stay crisp.
Add the lollipops to the hot oil, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Fry in two batches if required. The oil temperature will drop to about 150ºC. The rest of the frying should take place at this temperature to make sure the chicken cooks all the way without getting too brown outside.
Drain on a basket lined with paper towels.
ASSEMBLE
Re-heat the sauce if too cold, and turn off the heat. Now add the chicken lollipops to the pan and toss to coat it evenly.
Garnish with spring onions and serve.
Reference
https://www.bongeats.com/recipe/chicken-lollipop