Easy Asian Dino Wings a Perfect Weeknight Supper



Dino Wings - all the flavor of wings, 10 times the size, 1/10th
the cost!

 You had me at easy. But now you're just talking trash by callin' these cheap...

Full Recipe: $5.35
Per 2 Leg serving: $0.90 each

I asked you guys to vote on your next post here on Fluffy Chix Cook. The majority voted to do Chile Rellenos, but one of the last comments struck a chord. The person mentioned that I had been concentrating on Tex-Mex too much.

Now, for a Texan those are fightin’ words. You could almost lose your card-carryin’ status if you were to say something that heretical. A Texan is born and raised on Tex-Mex and if you don’t eat it at least twice a week your tummy will think your throat’s been cut. And that craving doesn’t ease if you leave the state, either. You will miss and pine for Tex-Mex and the specific essence of Texana the rest of your life.
But I am sensitive to other people. I realize you may not share my Tex-Mex obsession. For that reason, I decided to go ahead and do the Asian Dino Wings, just to break things up a bit, despite chile rellenos’ landslide victory over the Asian “wings”.

I’ve been toying with building a mini-cookbook. And if there’s enough interest, I might build it for Tex-Mex recipes first. It would have the recipes in an easier format for printing or for following it in the kitchen, in case you don’t want to see the step-by-step process. I will put the chile rellenos recipe there for sure, but I might also be persuaded to post it here after a Tex-Mex break. (I’m not saying I’m gonna see “other people” here, I’m just gonna take a little break from Tex-Mex.)

This “wing” recipe developed out of necessity. I was jonesing for wings, but dang! Have you seen the price of chicken wings lately? It’s ridiculous. They cost more than breasts! Here in Texas they cost about $2.78 to $3.00 per pound and I’m sorry, but I refuse to pay that for just a regular hunk of meat. I will hardly spend that amount on a beef roast! For cripes sake! Whaddathey think I am - a nickel millionaire?

Denny loves the drumette portion of the wings. He says it takes less work to eat them. LOL. I figured well heck, does it matter that I use legs instead of wings? Sure it’s dark meat and not white meat, but legs are moist and if you cook them correctly, they become very tender. So the dinosaurus-rex wing was born. The meat for Dino Wings cost us $0.66 per pound. They were big too. Two wings make a hearty meal and cost about $0.90 per person. Winner winner Asian Wing Dinner! (Sorry Guy Fieri but I had to steal your tagline.)

Easy Asian Dino Wings

Serving Size: 6 servings   Yield: 10-12 Legs
Prep. Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 1 Hour 20 Minutes Baking
Start to Finish: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Difficulty: So easy Fred Flintstone could do it.

This is a riff on Buffalo wings - Asian style! This dish will work with chicken legs or any cut of chicken, turkey, or pork.

A Platter of Asian Dino Wings, add a side salad...mmmm!

Ingredients3 pounds  chicken legs -- (large legs, about 10-12 legs)
10 tablespoons  Asian Wing Sauce (See Recipe Below)
2 tablespoons ginger – ground
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper -- freshly ground
 
Optional Finishing Sauce6 tablespoons butter, unsalted
4 cloves  garlic
6 tablespoons  Asian Wing Sauce (Recipe Below)

Wash and dry chicken legs. Trim any extra fat or skin off and clean any pin feathers. Sprinkle legs liberally with ground ginger, granulated garlic and black pepper. Sprinkle on salt.

Brush each leg with 1 tablespoon of Asian Wing Sauce. Place in sealed bag in the icebox and marinate for a minimum of 2 hours and up to 24 hours.

Heat propane or gas grill on ignite. Reduce heat to medium. If possible, place legs inside a wire grill basket that has a lid. It makes turning the legs easy and swift with 1 motion. Cook legs for 24 minutes over medium heat. Alternate cooking for 1 minute lid down and 1 minute lid up. Look for flare-ups from the fat drippings from the skin and marinade. Reposition the basket so that all legs get evenly brown. Flip basket to the opposite side every four minutes.

After you develop good color on the legs, turn off the burners on one side of the grill. Place basket over the side without the fire. Turn fire down on opposite side to low heat. Cook with the lid down, indirect heat, for 60-80 minutes. Check for doneness. Liquids should run clear when pierced and internal temp of the largest leg should read 175°. More importantly it should be fall-apart tender.

For Optional Finishing Sauce: Peel and thinly slice garlic cloves. Place butter and garlic in small saucepan. Allow to simmer until garlic is tender - about 5 minutes. Add Asian Wing Sauce. Stir to combine. Toss cooked legs or wings in finishing sauce and serve!

Per Serving: 472 Calories; 36g Fat; 31g Protein; 4.5g Carbohydrate; .5g Dietary Fiber; 169mg Cholesterol; 1197mg Sodium; 4g Net Carbs

Serving Ideas: Serve with a cold, crisp salad or Asian pear slaw. Also delicious with a bacon wedge salad.
Serve with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

SUSIE T’s NOTES: Split decision here! Denny didn't care for the Asian Sauce. Fluffy Chix loved it! Denny preferred finishing his legs with the garlic butter only - no Asian Wing Sauce added to it! If you want to spice up your legs, add more sambal oelek!

These are a cheap alternative to chicken wings. Chicken wings these days are almost $2.75 - $3.00 per pound. Chicken legs can often be found for $0.69/lb or less! Each gigantor leg weighed about 5 ounces, cooked with bone and skin. Meat and skin portion weighed about 3oz/leg.



Asian Wing Sauce

Full Recipe: $3.15
Per 1 Tablespoon: $0.14
Serving Size: 24 servings   Yield: 24 Tablespoons
Prep. Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 0
Start to Finish: 10 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Great as a salad dressing, marinade, or sauce! Stores well!

Toss with optional Asian Wing Sauce to finish it or
do a combination of the AWS and Garlic Sauce. Yum.

Ingredients2 cloves  garlic
½ cup  House Vinaigrette salad dressing
½ cup  Walden Farms sesame ginger dressing
2 tablespoons soy sauce, Tamari -- (or coconut aminos)
2  tablespoons sambal oelek
2  tablespoons sherry -- dry
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Peel and press garlic, or chop finely.

Combine all ingredients and shake to combine.

Per Serving: 17 Calories; 2g Fat; trace Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 164mg Sodium. 

Serving Ideas: Serve as a sauce or salad dressing. Works great on Asian slaw. It's also a delicious marinade.

SUSIE T’s NOTES :
This marinade tastes great on poultry and seafood. I give it 3 forks because it's a split decision in our house. I give it 4 forks and Denny votes for 3. He's not a big fan on the Asian profile. I on the other hand crave these!