Teriyaki Chicken Wings

  The last thing I made over break were some chicken wings for my brother to take back to New Orleans with him.  He really wanted teriyaki flavored wings, but he wasn't exactly thrilled with the teriyaki sauce that I made for his beef jerky earlier in the week.  He said it wasn't strong enough and my sense of taste still hadn't returned from being sick earlier in the week.  I went scouring the Internet looking for recipes but my mom's house is not equipped for cooking the way mine is and I didn't have a lot of ingredients here in Ohio that I would have in my apartment in State College.  I needed to find a recipe that was simple and didn't have complicated ingredients but still tasted excellent.  Unfortunately, Food network failed me because their recipe for teriyaki was so complicated I would have had to visit Cleveland in order to find half of the ingredients I needed.  So I decided to try to piece together a recipe using ingredients from a bunch of recipes.  I was nervous, but it turns out, one taste and my brother was hooked!  He ate almost all the wings the moment they came out of the oven and then he raved about them to my mother and my grandpa.  He actually said that they were better than any wings he's ever ordered at a restaurant.  I'll be honest, these wings take some time to make, but they are definitely worth it. 

Recipe
 5lbs or more of chicken wings, I used frozen, but use whatever
1 c. pineapple juice
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 tsp  ground ginger (or more depending on how much ginger you like) or 1/4 tsp fresh ginger
2 tsp of minced garlic from the jar (if you use fresh garlic, 1 tsp.)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vinegar

2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Select a large pot, but not too large, your colander needs to rest above an inch of water in the bottom of the pan.  Once you have the pan, pour an inch of water into the bottom of the pan and bring to a boil.  The object here is to steam the fat out of the chicken wings so that when we bake them in a bit, they will be super crunchy.  Line the colander with chicken wings in a single layer, it may take you several times to do all the chicken wings, but steam them for ten minutes.  They'll be a white color and not completely cooked after 10 minutes, but place them cookie sheet lined with paper towels.  Once they have cooled a bit, rinse them off and put them back on a cookie sheet lined with clean paper towels.  Put the cookie trays in the refrigerator for an hour and let them dry out completely.  This is key so that the wings don't smoke too much.  Put the dry wings on a greased cookie sheet and bake them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes flip the wings over and cook for another 20 minutes.  In total, cook for 40 minutes. 


     While the wings are cooking, make the sauce so it has time to boil, cool and thicken.  In a blender combine the pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, brown sugar and vinegar.  Blend until smooth.
Mix the cornstarch and water together and add to the mixture.  Pour into a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Remove from heat and let cool while the chicken wings cook. 
      When the chicken wings are close to done, grab a big bowl and dump some of the sauce into the pan.  As soon as the wings come out of the oven, remove the wings from the cookie sheet and put them directly into the bowl with the sauce.  Gently stir the wings into the sauce and make sure the wings are completely coated.  Dump onto a plate and serve immediately!!!  
   If you're planning on saving them, once you remove them from the bowl with the sauce in it, dump them on a piece of wax paper and let them cool, that way the sauce won't come off or stick to the tray. 
   These are so good!  Please give them a try.  You could also make them with a Buffalo Garlic sauce.  Instead of the Teriyaki, take 2 tbsp of melted butter, mix it with Buffalo hot sauce and some garlic (to taste) and coat the wings in that sauce instead of the teriyaki. 

No need to go out to your local wing place, grab some beer, put some football on the television, jump into your comfiest jeans and get ready for finger licking good wings.