These crispy, savory, soy garlic chicken wings are the best snack to satisfy your crunchy chicken cravings. These soy garlic wings are fried and then coated in a delicious sticky soy garlic sauce.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the chicken wings, minced garlic, grated ginger, rice cooking wine and salt until evenly coated. Cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes on your counter or overnight in the refrigerator.
Prepare for Frying
Coat the wings. Place the cornstarch in a mixing bowl and individually coat each chicken wing thoroughly. Make sure to cover the entire surface of each wing.
Heat the oil. In a heavy bottomed pot, add about 2 inches deep of vegetable oil. Heat the oil on medium heat until it reaches 345°F or 174°C.
First fry. Using a spider strainer, slowly add a batch of wings and fry them for about 5-6 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to not add too many wings to crowd the pot. Using a spider strainer, remove the chicken wings and place them on a wire rack over a sheet pan to cool. Scoop out any floating debris from the oil. Repeat with the remaining wings.
Second fry. Raise the temperature of the oil to 375°F or 190°C. Double fry the wings by cooking them in batches again for about 1 minute or until crunchy and golden brown. Using a spider strainer, remove the chicken wings and place them on a wire rack to cool.
Soy Garlic Sauce
Make the sauce. In a large skillet, add the soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, minced garlic, grated ginger, water, rice cooking wine, and pepper. Heat on medium low heat, stirring often until the sauce starts to boil. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch slurry then add to the soy garlic mixture. Stir until the sauce thickens into a glaze about 1 minute then remove from heat. To finish, add the toasted sesame oil and mix to combine.
Coat the wings. You can coat the wings by either basting the sauce with a brush or placing the sauce and wings into a large bowl and toss them with a wooden spoon.
Serve. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and minced green onion and serve warm.
Notes
Marinate your wings! Marinate your wings for a minimum of 30 minutes, but preferably overnight for maximum flavor.
Remove the bits after each fry. Make sure to remove all the leftover craggily bits from the oil after each fry so that they do not burn in the oil, changing the flavor of the oil.
Watch the oil temperature and use a candy thermometer. If you use a candy thermometer, you will be able to see that the temperature of the oil fluctuates a lot when you add the chicken to the oil. Using a candy thermometer will allow you to gauge the temperature and increase or decrease the heat accordingly. If the oil is not hot enough, the chicken may come out overly oily and soggy. But if it is too hot, you may risk burning the chicken on the outside without fully cooking it on the inside.
Double fry for the ultimate crunch. I know the sound of frying anything twice seems time-consuming and daunting, but because this soy sauce chicken recipe has a sticky garlic soy sauce glaze, the chicken must be extra crispy to hold up its crispy texture. This can only be done by double frying the chicken.
Don’t add the toasted sesame oil until the end. If you cook the toasted sesame oil, then the flavor will dissipate. Instead, remove the garlic soy sauce from the heat before mixing in the toasted sesame oil.
Storage: these soy garlic chicken wings are best served immediately. However, you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To reheat, I recommend baking them in the oven or air fryer at 350 degrees to crisp up the soy garlic wings