Recipe: Healthy Buffalo Wings

I Love Buffalo Wings. This was my favourite "local" food when I was based in the US. The only thing that stopped me from making them at home was the deep frying. The problem with deep frying meat is that the oil you fry it in is pretty much useless after that & my nana's voice keeps whispering in my conscience "waste not, want not" and other such gems agaianst wasting food.

But I was really craving them the other day & I thought, why not make a non deep fried version. I confess these don't taste as good as the batter coated, deep fried real thing, but they are still pretty good for someone who wants to eat healthy.

A friend has told me about the air fryer & I will check it out (a device that lets you deep fry with just a tsp of oil), but until then these wings will be seen on our table quite often.

A big plate of wings is great when sitting around a table catching up with friends, as a side with beer, while watching a game. You need to get your fingers sticky to eat these, but you will definitely be licking your fingers clean, after.

Ingredients:
1kg Chicken Wings
3 tbsp - rawa/soji/semolina
salt, pepper, chilli flakes to taste
1 tsp oil
200ml tomato puree
1 bottle of tabasco or any other spicy chilli sauce - adjust to taste. (If using something like Chings, you will need to add some vinegar too for sourness)

Method:
Mix the rawa, salt, pepper & chilli flakes together.

Wash, drain & pat dry the chicken wings.
Toss the wings in the flour mix.

Pan fry the wings in 1 tsp oil.
Kim's Tip: If you have to do 2 batches of frying, fry the wings in one batch and the half legs in another batch. They will take the same amount of cooking time, making it easier to watch them
Fry till almost completely cooked.

Mix the sauces together in a bowl.

Drop the cooked wings into the sauce.

Toss well untill all pieces are well coated.

Pop it in the oven/microwave on the grill setting until browned.

Turn over & repeat.

Serve hot & eat immediately. This dish doesn't reheat very well.

Kim's Tip: I use Rawa/soji/semolina, not flour because rawa gives a crunchy bite even when pan fried, unlike flour which tends to get soggy.