Empress Chicken Wings coat oven baked wings with sauce for Empress Chicken, which is similar to a General Tso’s chicken sauce.
Empress Chicken Wings
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
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Empress Chicken Wings is my recipe of the day with the blogging group Sunday Funday. We join up weekly to post recipes on common topics. This week we are sharing recipes for Wings. Glad you could join us.
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I first had Empress chicken back in the 1980’s when I worked at the Bloomin’ Flowers Factory in St. Louis. It was during the holidays and a lady who had a second job at her family’s Chinese restaurant brought these in to share one evening after they closed for the night.
I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread as I hadn’t ever had Tso’s (which is quite similar). Apparently Tso’s is very American while the Empress is more Chinese. Don’t ask me. All these origin stories probably need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Supposedly the Empress Chicken, which is not usually wings, is spicier than Tso’s. I guess that depends who makes it.
However, the sauce seems to be floating in wine, which goes along with the story of how Empress chicken (or Drunken Chicken) was named after Yang Kwai-Fei, an empress of the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century. She was said to be overly fond of alcoholic beverages (a drunk). I doubt that. I don’t think an Emperor would have allowed it.
At any rate, it’s quite good as a sauce and perfect for wings. I seem to enjoy every manner of wing sauce, either with or without booze added.
Sunday Funday
Wings
- Amy’s Cooking Adventures shares Baked Boneless Buffalo (and Honey BBQ) Wings
- Palatable Pastime shares Empress Chicken Wings
- Karen’s Kitchen Stories shares One Pot Sticky Chicken Wings
- Sneha’s Recipe shares Spicy Fried Chicken Wings In Gochujang Sauce
- A Day in the Life on the Farm shares Honey Garlic Wings
Empress Chicken Wings
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Empress Chicken Wings
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Empress Chicken Wings
Ingredients
Meat:
- 2-1/2 pounds chicken wings
Marinade:
- 1/4 cup rice wine
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger root
- 1 teaspoon garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons chili oil
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
Garnish:
- 2 scallions chopped
Instructions
- Mix marinade and add chicken wings.
- Marinate in refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Remove wings from marinade (save that marinade) and place on baking sheet.
- Bake wings for 25 minutes, then turn over and bake 20-25 minutes more.
- While wings are baking, take the marinade you saved and bring to a boil in a saucepan, cooking for three minutes.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the sauce ingredients.
- Bring to a boil and cook one minute, stirring, until sauce thickens.
- When wings finish baking, toss them in the sauce and garnish with scallions.
Notes
Nutrition
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These sound wonderful and it was a fun story too.
This sounds like a delicious recipe with a fascinating history