Eating Like a Teenage Boy – Sichuan Mala Chicken Wings

Have you ever watched a teenage boy eat? It’s amazing – and a little revolting – to see how much food they can stuff inside their body. They go to the refrigerator, stand with the door wide open, and eat whatever is in sight. As a high school student after the final bell would ring, I would eat a whole cheesesteak (not a small meal) and then go home and eat dinner.

The overnight camp at which I spent the summers of my youth was staffed mostly by teenagers, roughly half of whom were boys. Looking back now, we were practically starved of food. It’s not that they didn’t feed us – there were three perfectly good meals a day with basically as much food as you wanted – but for a teenage boy it was not enough. In the late 1970s and early 80s, there were no snacks in between, and at night, after the campers went to bed, we had to leave camp to fill our bellies, lest we go to sleep hungry. We would drive five miles to a local pizzeria where I once witnessed my friend Dave eat a whole large pie. Or we made the 15-mile trip to the nearest town for Friendly’s or fast food to satiate our hunger.

Occasionally we would raid the dining hall kitchen, a serious crime at camp. We never touched food that was important for a future meal, but if there were leftovers, we felt they were fair game. I recall a friend once sneaking into the kitchen at probably 1:00 a.m. and returning with their jacket filled with chicken legs, surplus from dinner that evening. It was the only way to carry so much poultry. A handful of famished boys, we stood around in the dark of the countryside, stars above, stuffing our faces with drumsticks. We went to bed happy, a satisfying solution to our problem.

At certain meals, I recall, we ate more than others. When you could make your own hoagies for lunch, the sandwiches were stuffed to the gills, and when cheeseburgers were served, I remember some people eating five or six in a sitting. Hard shell tacos were a favorite; downing nine or ten during lunch was not unheard of. As teenage boys we were bottomless pits. We also knew that we would be able to sleep off the mid-day feast during rest hour immediately following lunch and our next meal was not until dinner, some six hours in the future. The girls must have been disgusted watching us eat.

A few times each summer Wing Dings were served for dinner; a highly anticipated feast. These chicken wings, tips removed and split into their component drumettes and flats, were breaded, lightly seasoned, probably with salt and MSG, and fried to crispness. Some people ate a normal size serving, maybe five or six pieces. But others had contests to see who could eat the most. While I could be wrong, I vaguely remember being astounded by some guys eating 30 or 40 or more. That was far more than I could stomach, and I can only imagine how sick they must have been when they were done.

We all survived camp as teenage boys, no worse for wear, despite our summer diet, and we always anticipated our return the following summer. As I grew older, naturally, my diet changed. I never eat cheesesteaks now, and if I did, more than even half of one would result in dire intestinal consequences and eating nine or ten tacos is laughable. Chicken wings, however, are still on the menu, although not in Wing Ding form, and the volume I consume has drastically reduced. Thankfully as I age, I no longer eat like a teenage boy.

Sichuan Mala Chicken Wings

These Sichuan Mala Chicken Wings are quite different from the Wing Dings we were served at camp. Much more flavorful, they are spiced with chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns giving them the numbing spiciness characteristic of the mala flavor profile in many Sichuan dishes. Despite their appearance and the proliferation of chili peppers, they are not as crazy hot as you would expect.

The recipe is a modified version of Chongqing Chicken, named after a city in Sichuan Province, in which marinated chunks of chicken are deep fried then covered in heaps of dried red chilis, garlic, ginger, and scallions. Since I’m not going to deep fry chicken wings at home, this recipe modifies a technique developed by America’s Test Kitchen to bake them to almost-fried crispness. The flavorings, modified from recipe by Maggie Zhu at Omnivore’s Cookbook, are then added on top.

While the whole chili peppers aren’t usually eaten, be sure to pick through the pile to get flavorful peanuts and bits of garlic, ginger, sesame seeds, scallion, and cilantro. Your numbing tongue will thank you.

serves 4 as a main course, or more as an appetizer, about 2 hours, about a half hour active, plus several hours resting

cooking oil spray

4 lbs. chicken wings, tips removed, separated into flats and drumettes

3½ tsp. toasted, ground Sichuan peppercorns, divided, from about 2 – 3 Tbsp. unground

2 Tbsp. baking powder (not baking soda)

2 Tbsp. cornstarch, plus ½ tsp. mixed with 1 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

1 cup whole dried red Sichuan chili peppers

2 Tbsp. Sichuan chili flakes

½ tsp. brown sugar

3 Tbsp. vegetable, canola, avocado, or peanut oil

5 cloves garlic, peeled and very thinly sliced

1 Tbsp. minced ginger

½ cup roasted peanuts

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. Shaoxing cooking wine

2 Tbsp. Chinese black (Chinkiang) vinegar

4 scallions, roughly chopped, 2 Tbsp. of green parts reserved for garnish

chopped cilantro, for garnish

1. Cover a sheet pan in aluminum foil and place a baking/cooling rack on top. Coat with cooking oil spray to prevent the chicken from sticking.
2. Cut the tips off the wings and reserve for soup. Separate the flats and the drumettes and set aside.
3. Heat a small heavy skillet over medium heat and add unground Sichuan peppercorns. Cook until hot and just smoking, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Allow to cool and then grind to a powder in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Set aside.
4. In a zip-top bag or bowl more than large enough to hold all the chicken wings, thoroughly combine baking powder, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, ground cayenne pepper, salt, and 1½ teaspoons of ground Sichuan peppercorns. Toss in wings and stir to completely coat. Lay chicken wings on baking/cooling rack in a single layer, skin side up. Place sheet pan in the refrigerator uncovered and allow to dry for several hours or overnight. This will make for crispier baked wings. (If you did not plan ahead, let the wings dry as long as you can. They will still be delicious.)
5. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 250 ^oF and adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle levels.
6. Bake chicken wings on the lower-middle oven rack at 250 ^oF for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, move tray to the upper-middle rack and increase temperature to 425 ^oF. Bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, until crispy, flipping wings after 30 minutes.
7. While the chicken is baking, make the spice mix. In a bowl, combine sesame seeds, whole dried red Sichuan chili peppers, Sichuan chili flakes, brown sugar, and remaining 2 teaspoons of toasted, ground Sichuan peppercorns. Set aside.
8. Once the chicken wings are done, remove them from the sheet pan and place them in a large serving bowl or platter.
9. Heat vegetable oil in a wok or heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic slices and cook, stirring frequently, until just starting to turn light brown. Remove fried garlic and reserve, leaving oil behind.
10. Place ginger and peanuts in wok with oil, cook for a minute, then stir in soy sauce, Shoaxing cooking wine, and black vinegar. Give cornstarch mixed with water a stir and pour in to slightly thicken the liquid in the wok. Immediately dump in the chicken wings and toss to coat. Add in scallions (leaving aside 2 tablespoons of the greens for garnish) and reserved spice mix and stir to combine. Cook for a minute or two, allowing dried chili peppers to turn slightly darker red, but not blacken.
11. Add in reserved fried garlic and give a quick stir before placing in a serving bowl or platter and garnishing with chopped cilantro and reserved scallion greens.

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