Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

How to make Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

I haven't experimented with chicken wings very much. They have always been fairly expensive in our area, so we usually go with legs or thighs.

Used to be, if I was going to spend $5 for just the meat portion of a single meal, I'd pick up a nice steak or piece of Salmon instead.

Today, flat-iron steak has risen to almost $10 for a single meal, for two people, so we have started saving steak for special occasions. I can't even remember when we had salmon last, as it's almost double what steak costs here.

I was surprised to see a family-pack of chicken wings marked down to $5 the last time I was at Walmart.

It will feed the two of us for two meals, so that put the price right inside our budget. Marked-down wings are rare here, but it does happen now and then, so I try to keep an eye out.

The chicken wings came out super crispy with just the right amount of pungent, freshly minced ginger, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. I have made this before with legs and thighs, and they turned out well.

Legs will be more flavorful than thighs, since they're smaller, but the thighs make great leftovers or a quick and easy grab-and-go low-carb breakfast.

Tips on Imitating a Sweet Teriyaki Sauce

My favorite go-to has always been a good old-fashioned hot wing recipe, with Heroine Wings coming in at a close second. When I first tried doing this, I wasn't eating Parmesan Cheese as I was dairy free.

I opted for a sweet Teriyaki instead.

When I was doing a Protein Sparing Modified Fast once, I threw together:

• soy sauce
• diet maple syrup
• freshly minced ginger
• and minced garlic

That made a nice sauce to baste chicken breast. I couldn't use diet maple syrup when I created this recipe, so I decided to switch out the maple flavor for some sesame.

In the late 90s, before good-tasting sugar substitutes were available, low carbers used a little bit of real sugar, and counted it at twice the carbs. I know that today die-hard Atkins followers would cringe at that, but that's what we did.

It worked just fine for me and many others, but that's not what I'm suggesting, here.

I'm just saying . . .

I was reacting to corn, so I had to revamp the way I did things. Even though I actually used brown sugar in this recipe, just use whatever type of sugar substitute works best for you.

Hubby isn't crazy about anything that's too spicy, so if you want to spice these up a bit, they could withstand a little minced chili pepper, dried crushed chilies, or hot garlic chili paste.

Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• About 1-1/2 pounds chicken wings, cut in half and wing tips removed
• 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons water
• sugar substitute equal to 2 to 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon freshly minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Place the chicken wings in a gallon zip-lock bag. In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, and stir well. Pour the sauce over the chicken wings, legs, or thighs. Marinate for several hours, preferably overnight.

Line a cook sheet with foil and place a baking rack inside the sheet. Bake the chicken on the wire rack in the center of the oven, at 350 degrees, until crispy -- about 1 hour. I like to watch these carefully, to make sure they don't burn, and flip them over a couple of times during the baking process.