Signature · about 3 hours of work spread over 2 days, plus 4–8 hours of brining · Serves 4
Crispy orange, pink peppercorn and coriander wings
Wings glazed with orange, made with the method of the wing collection: aromatic brine, slow confit in oil and a final crisping, for very tender meat and crisp skin before the sauce goes on. It is the sweet-and-sour, citrusy finish of the series, in an intense amber color.
The central technique is a gastrique, the classic sweet-and-sour sauce of caramel and acid: a blond-amber caramel cut with rice vinegar and finished with orange juice, stock and soy. Toasted coriander and pink peppercorns reinforce the citrusy, floral notes of the orange, and the butter at the end gives an intense shine.
Special equipment: thermometer for the confit oil; convection oven
Ingredients
Wings and brine
- 1500 g whole chicken wings (about 12 wings, 24 separated pieces)
- 1.2 liters cold water
- 84 g fine salt
- 40 g sugar
- 4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
- 8 g black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- Peel of 1 lemon, without the white pith
Confit
- Neutral oil, as much as needed to cover the wings; 15–20% can be replaced with duck fat
- 4 garlic cloves
- 4 thyme sprigs
- Peel of 1 lemon
Crisping
- Neutral oil for frying, only if frying is chosen
Orange gastrique
- 90 g sugar
- 40 ml rice vinegar
- 600 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
- 160 ml poultry stock
- 30 ml light soy sauce
- 2 garlic cloves
- 6 g ground ginger, or 20 g fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes, optional
- 50 g cold butter
- Zest of 2 oranges
- Salt
Finishing
- Segments from the 2 zested oranges, without membranes
- Pink peppercorns
- Dried orange peel, optional
- Microgreens, optional
Method
Wings and brine
- Breaking down. Separate each wing at its joints into drumette and flat, and set the tips aside for a poultry stock. Remove any feathers or visible bits.
- Brine. Fully dissolve the salt and sugar in the cold water and add the garlic, pepper, bay leaves and lemon peel. Submerge the wings and refrigerate for 4 to 8 hours, never longer. Remove them, rinse very briefly to take off the excess salt and pat carefully dry with paper towels: the drying is what later allows a crisp surface.
Confit
- Slow cooking. Arrange the wings in a saucepan or deep dish, cover them completely with the oil and add the garlic, thyme and lemon peel. Keep the oil between 95 and 105 °C (203–221 °F) for 75–90 minutes: there should be no intense frying, only small bubbles. This cooks the connective tissue slowly and leaves the meat very tender without falling apart.
- Cooling. Remove from the heat and let them cool first in the fat; then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, ideally from the day before.
Crisping
- Drying. Lift the wings out of the oil and dry them carefully.
- Browning. Choose a method: convection oven at 225–230 °C (435–445 °F) for 12–15 minutes, turning halfway; deep-frying in oil at 180–185 °C (355–365 °F) for 2–3 minutes, or a very hot cast-iron pan, 2–3 minutes per side. They must be crisp before they touch the sauce. Since these are cooked and chilled wings, the center must reach 74 °C (165 °F): with frying or the griddle, it is best to take them out of the refrigerator 20–30 minutes ahead and, if they do not reach it, finish them for a few minutes in the oven.
Orange gastrique
- Spices. Toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan for 30–60 seconds, remove them right away and crush them. Crush the pink peppercorns too, leaving them fairly coarse.
- Caramel. Heat the sugar in a small, clean saucepan, without stirring too much, to a blond-amber caramel. Carefully add the vinegar, because it gives off a lot of steam, and right after the orange juice, stock and soy. The caramel may seize for a moment: it dissolves again with the heat. Reduce for 6–8 minutes, to about two thirds of the volume.
- Aromatics. Add the garlic, ginger, coriander and, if using, the chili, and cook 1–2 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter bit by bit, then the orange zest and pink peppercorns, and correct the salt.
Finishing
- Segments. Cut the zested oranges free of peel and pith and separate the segments without membranes. If you like, mark them very briefly with a torch or on the griddle.
- Lacquering. Coat the wings with the gastrique and bake them at 230 °C (445 °F) for 2–3 minutes. Apply a second film and bake 1 minute more: the finish should be intensely glossy.
The dish
Use a matte black plate, which brings out the orange-amber color. Arrange the 6 lacquered pieces and add a few membrane-free orange segments around them, lightly marked if you like. Finish with crushed pink peppercorns, a little dried orange peel or zest and, if using, a few microgreens, and serve at once. Final look: intensely glossy amber wings, juicy orange segments and pink dots of peppercorn.
Key points
- Dry the wings very well after the brine and after the confit: moisture prevents the crisp crust.
- Confit between 95 and 105 °C (203–221 °F), without intense frying: only small bubbles.
- Bring the crisped wings to 74 °C (165 °F) at the center before lacquering, because they start cooked and chilled.
- Take the caramel only to blond-amber: darker, and the gastrique turns bitter.
- Lacquer with two thin, glossy films, never a thick coat: crisp wing, first film, strong heat, second film, finish and serve immediately.
Pairing
A witbier with coriander and orange or a young Torrontés.
Notes
- Scale: the original cooks 1.5 kg of wings to share among several finishes, with sauce for 8–12 pieces of each. This recipe uses double the sauce to lacquer all 24 pieces with a single flavor, about 6 per person as a starter.
- Five-flavor tasting: you can serve one wing of each finish, in this order of increasing intensity: roasted lemon and honey, amber orange, Parmesan and black garlic, Malbec and cocoa BBQ, and spicy gochujang. The other four recipes of the collection share the same base.