When street vendors in Thailand make deep fried chicken wings, they marinate their wings in a rice flour or glutinous rice flour slurry.  This allows them to skip the step of coating the chicken with flour.  You could do this too, as it’s simpler and less messy (related article here that inspired my recipe).  I prefer to pre-marinate my wings before coating them in rice flour and deep frying them.  If you prefer to use glutinous rice flour, note that it works great in a slurry or as a light coating, however if you use it as a light coating, it may give your wings a slightly powdery look.  I’ve also tried using a combination of rice flour and cornstarch, but I much preferred using just rice flour.

Thai Deep Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

vegetable oil for deep frying

5 chicken wings, cut at the joints with the tip discarded, leaving you with 10 pieces of chicken

4 cloves garlic, peeled

4 cilantro roots, cleaned well

10 cilantro stems, below the leaves, cleaned well

2 tbsp fish sauce (Three Crabs brand; fish sauce should be the colour of brewed tea, the darker the worse the quality)

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

black pepper

1 to 2 small red chillies deseeded and sliced thinly or pinch of dried red pepper flakes (optional)

1/4 to 1/2 cup rice flour

1 to 2 limes, cut into wedges

Sriracha hot sauce (optional)

Rinse the chicken wings in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.  Put them into a large ziploc bag.  Use a mini food processor or a mortar and pestle and blend the garlic, cilantro roots and cilantro stems until they become a paste.  Add this paste to the ziploc bag.  Then add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, and a large pinch of black pepper (and red pepper or flakes if using) and mix well.  Make sure that the wings are well coated.  Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, and up to 24 hours.  Halfway through, mix the contents of the bag again.

When ready to cook, drain the wings of the sauce well and bring the chicken to room temperature.  Preheat the oven to 200 F.  Set a rack over a baking sheet for keeping the chicken warm if you need to deep fry more than 1 batch.  Heat the vegetable oil over medium low heat until 350 F.  Meanwhile, put the rice flour into a large bowl.  Coat each wing with the rice flour and set aside until the oil heats up.  Shake the excess flour off and deep fry the chicken wings until golden brown and just cooked, about 7 minutes.  Do not overcook.  Using a slotted spoon (I use a Chinese wire strainer), transfer them to paper bag lined plates to drain the oil.  Note that I use brown paper bags because paper towel can make deep fried foods soggy.  If you need to deep fry another batch of wings, keep the first batch of chicken warm in the oven.  Wait until the oil heats back up to 350 F before deep frying the second batch.  Serve immediately with lime wedges and Sriracha hot sauce.