A few night back, I met my good friend Candice for dinner….she had been wanting to check out Iron Pig Alehouse in PB. It was a decent meal, hopefully I'll get around to doing a post, but in case you're wondering, Kirbie pretty much hit it on the head in her post, the wings were our favorite item. I brought some home for the Missus who thought they were good….however, She also said, "I think you can do better…." So guess what I did this afternoon? Anyway, I tried three versions of smoked wings, one with a simple seasoning, the other with my "chicken rub", and for the last….well, I decided to go outside the normal playbook a bit and used my Shio Koji Chicken marinade.
Guess which one won out?
It was a pretty simple and quick smoke in my WSM. I used a combo of cherry with a bit of pecan. When the wings were done, they looked quite similar, but the shio koji wings had a very pronounced savory fragrance, think miso-wine.
I decided to give the wings a quick deep-fry….for the shio koji wings, it was about 90 seconds….the sugars cause it to turn black fairly quickly. I'm going to try to figure out how to get these a bit more crisp without burning…..
In the meantime……
The Missus said this was maybe some of the best wings She's ever had. The shio koji adds that amazing savory flavor, a touch of salty-winey-miso like flavors, and also sealed in the juices. It's also got me motivated to start cooking new stuff……..thinking a bit, trying different things again.
The best compliment….."I'd pay money to eat this….ummm, not from you of course, but I would….."
Shio Koji Marinade:
1/3 cup shio koji
1 Tb grated garlic
1 Tb ginger juice
3 Tb mirin
1 Tb hoisin
– Marinate 4-5 hours
– Remove from marinade and smoke at 250-275 for 1 1/2 – 2 hours
– Remove from smoker and deep fry in 350 degree oil for 1 1/2 minutes
Grab a couple of cold one's….this is great beer food!
