Every chinese kid will tell you, soy sauce chicken wings, or 紅燒雞翼, is one of their favorite snacks bar none. And how could it not be? Melting from the bone chickeny goodness coated and infused with the aromatically sweet, savory, sticky coating of red cooked soy sauce with a subtle hint of licorice and ginger. This is chinese snack food at its supreme. Well at least for kids and those of us who still keep their inner kid alive and kicking.
My family originally being from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, we grew up eating this kind of thing pretty much every day, be it red cooked (another name for soy sauce cooking) chicken or beef or pork. This kind of cooking is more of a northern china kind of thing and since I've been in Hong Kong I have missed it.
I know, I know, you can find some red cooked meats in Hong Kong too, but, honestly, I don't think it's that good. It's only so-so on the taste radar. Usually the flavor's not quite right or it's been sitting around too long.
So what else to do but make it myself every once in a while to sooth my nostalgic longings. Beware, though, these little suckers will disappear before you can say "Soy Sauce Chicken Wings"!
