The Brother Hubbard Cookbook: Roast Chicken Wings with Dipping Sauces and Herbs

Roast chicken wings with dipping sauces and herbs

Discover a new way of eating with Brother Hubbard’s fresh, pure flavours dedicated to sharing and happiness. Leaning towards aspects of Middle Eastern and Southern Mediterranean food, The Brother Hubbard Cookbook is packed with nutritious, wholesome, often deceptively vegetarian dishes that emphasise flavour, colour and texture. These roast chicken wings are delicious, a bit healthier than usual and really versatile.

Chicken wings are a bit of a secret shame for me. They are an addictive snack to have any evening, but I generally feel quite guilty about them, as they are too often deep-fried and served with a very buttery, oily and surprisingly sugary sauce. So we decided to have a go at making them just a little healthier without compromising on flavour. The fact that they eliminate a lot of that guilty feeling just adds so much more to the experience! This is actually one of the dishes I’m most proud of. I hope you will see why when you taste it.

These are very easy to make, and with the yogurt and herbs they are really quite a delight and far better for you than the typical wing, so please do make them as suggested below, with the sauces recommended, for the full effect.

SERVES 2–3 PEOPLE AS A SUBSTANTIAL MEAL WITH SOME SALAD OR 4 AS A DECENT STARTER

• 1kg chicken wings
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• juice of lemon
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp sweet or smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

• 100g in total mixed soft fresh herbs (a mixture of at least 3 or ideally all of the following: coriander, flat-leaf parsley, mint, lovage and/or dill)
• 6 dessertspoons thick Greek yogurt
• squeeze of lemon
• 4–5 tbsp hot sauce (see page 330 of The Brother Hubbard Cookbook) for our recipe or use Tabasco or any hot sauce that takes your fancy)

When buying your wings, they are often sold as a full joint with the wing tip attached. If you get them like this, it’s very easy to prepare them as follows. Straighten out the wing and just cut down through the joint or ‘elbow’ – it should be easy enough to cut through. On the wing section, trim off the wing tip.

Next, marinate your chicken wings by placing them in a big bowl with half the crushed garlic and the lemon juice, cumin, paprika, turmeric, oil and some seasoning. Toss them around well and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour or several hours or overnight if you have the time (for a longer marinade, pop them in the fridge, covered). When ready, preheat the oven to 180°C.

Tip the wings out onto a lined roasting tin in a single layer and pop in the oven for 20 minutes. While that’s all happening, prepare your herbs by chopping the stalks very finely (except the mint) and placing them in a bowl, then chop the leaves quite finely and add them to the bowl too. (If you fancy it, some very finely chopped fresh chilli and/or very finely diced red onion would be sensational added to this mix.)

Make your yogurt dipping sauce by folding the remaining garlic puree, seasoning and a dash of lemon juice into the yogurt – don’t overmix. Taste and adjust any of the components as you feel necessary. It should be lovely and creamy while also having a nice punch of lemon and garlic to it.

Take the chicken wings out of the oven and turn up the heat to 220°C.

Toss them in a decent amount of the hot sauce and return to the oven for the final blast to get them nicely browned and a little crisp and charred on the outside – 5–10 minutes should do it. You can do this under a very hot grill or on a hot frying pan if you prefer, turning once they are nicely browned and repeating on the other side.

To serve, put the yogurt sauce in a bowl with a dash of hot sauce stirred through it. Put the finely chopped herbs in a separate bowl. Serve these on the side, dipping the wings into the yogurt and then the herbs as you eat! Having more hot sauce available on the side too would be appreciated by some people, I’ m sure. Serve with finger bowls of warm water with a slice of lemon in each and a good few napkins, and wash down with some crisp white wine or a cold beer.

Tips and Tricks

This recipe can be played around with as you wish – consider trying the following:

• Dress the wings with a little honey and dried chilli flakes instead of the hot sauce before the final blast in the oven.
• Try serving with a little bowl of our dukkah (page 340 of The Brother Hubbard Cookbook) instead of or alongside the herbs.
• Make a more classic dipping sauce by mashing some blue cheese into the yogurt and proceeding as described above.

The Brother Hubbard Cookbook is available on our website, Eason, Amazon and in all good bookstores.

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