Xinjiang-style Chilli & Cumin Chicken Wings

Like many people, I dream about recreating dishes from my travels. The thing is, though, these dreams stay largely in my head. Why? Well to draw a sporting analogy, cooking is very much like diving or gymnastics. By that I mean both 'difficulty' and 'execution' come into play when judging how well a particular dish turns out. And as I am far from being adept in the kitchen, I'm limited to dishes that aren't that 'difficult'. So sorry guys, my attempt at knocking up xiao long bao will just have to wait another day.

Instead, here's a simple recipe inspired (not for the first time) by a Beijing restaurant: Xinjiang-style chilli & cumin chicken wings. I tried these out at a joint called Xiao Wang's, and while I have no idea if it's an authentic dish as rustled up by the Uyghur people from Xinjiang in China's Wild West, who really cares? After all, these chicken wings, liberally laced with chilli and cumin, are proper fiery, super-tasty and highly addictive. And the best thing of all is that even kitchen-numpties, like me, can score high 'execution' marks!

Xinjiang-style Chilli & Cumin Chicken Wings
The ingredients and instructions are just a guide, and you should feel free to experiment and play around with the ingredients in proportions that work for you.

Ingredients
12 chicken wings (around 1kg)

For the marinade
Minced garlic
Shot glass of sesame oil
Juice of one lemon

For the spice mix
Dried chilli flakes
Coarse sea salt
Toasted cumin seeds

For the garnish
Lemon wedges
Iceberg Lettuce

Method
1) Mix the juice of a lemon with a shot glass of sesame oil in a bowl.

2) Mince a couple of cloves of garlic and add to the marinade.

3) Place chicken wings in a large freezer bag and add the marinade.

4) Give the bag a bit of a grope to ensure the marinade covers all the wings.

5) Tie the bag and leave for a few hours (twitter consensus says 3 hours is plenty).

6) Pre-heat oven to 200C.

7) Line an oven tray with foil and place a wire rack over it.

8) Arrange chicken wings on rack and place tray in oven for 40-45 mins.

9) Toast cumin seeds in a dry frying pan for 5 mins or so.

10) Add the toasted cumin seeds along with dried chilli flakes and coarse sea salt to a mortar & pestle and give them a good old grind.

11) Remove chicken wings from oven and test a larger one to check that it's cooked through.

12) Add some of the chilli cumin salt mix to a mixing bowl.

13) Add a couple of the wings to the bowl and toss in the mix until covered to your satisfaction.

14) Repeat steps 12) and 13) until all the wings are covered in the spice mix.

15) Serve chicken wings on top of some lettuce with some lemon wedges on the side.

Top Tips
1) Toast the cumin seeds on the lowest heat and give them an occasional toss to prevent burning.

2) Make plenty of spice mix – you don't want to be left short with a few wings to go! Any spice mix you don't use can be saved and used in other dishes e.g. spare ribs and lamb chops.

Three Famous Beijing Restaurants

By chance, and by choice, I ended up at three Beijing restaurants regularly mentioned in guidebooks and the interweb: Xiao Wang's Home Restaurant (小王府), Shun Yi Fu (顺一府) and Noodle Bar (面吧).

Xiao Wang's Home Restaurant 小王府
I am someone whose foodie mindset has been conditioned by living in the UK, where mediocre restaurant chains, peddling all things to all people, blight the landscape. In particular, tourist areas are badly afflicted by chain-blight; London's South Bank is a prime example. So one might assume that I would have issues with Xiao Wang's. After all, it has a pan-Chinese 'Greatest Hits' menu, is a mini-chain, and the branch I visited is located in Ritan Park, a popular Beijing tourist spot.

I needn't have worried. Dishes like the fried hot spicy chicken wings in Xinjiang-style (孜然鸡翅), which were liberally laced with not only chilli but also cumin, and deep-fried pork ribs with pepper salt (飘香排骨) really hit the spot. And for those of you who like to match booze to food, I recommend ice-cold lager in the form of the local Yanjing Beer (燕京啤酒).

Another beer-friendly dish was an amazing giant mountain of fried potato slivers laced with spring onion, coriander & dried chillies. I know this dish is more than a bit trashy, but by god, these crispy spicy slivers of spud were SO addictive.

The squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish (松鼠桂鱼), so named because it's carved and cut up to look like a squirrel, was another winner. Don't be put off by the radioactive sweet & sour sauce; it went really well with the perfectly deep-fried Mandarin fish and pine nuts. Note to food geeks, although often thought of as a Shanghai speciality, it actually originates from Suzhou.

The classic hot & sour soup (酸辣汤) from Shandong province is found on Chinese menus worldwide, but like many famous dishes, it is often abused. Not at Xiao Wang's, where the use of top quality vinegar gave it a depth so often missing from versions that use the cheap stuff. And nor did they skimp on the other ingredients, especially the egg!

I know this meal appears to be a bit unbalanced with a, quite literally, unhealthy reliance on deep-fried treats. However, we did balance it out by ordering Cantonese-style pak choi with garlic, Sichuan cucumber salad and fresh wai-san in honey with cassia flower (the photo doesn't really do it any justice).

Wai-san (淮山) aka mountain yam is one of those Chinese ingredients that doesn't really taste of anything, but is highly valued due to its perceived health benefits. More commonly used in dried form in slow-cooked Cantonese soups; this was the first time I had tried it fresh. I really liked this dish with the slightly crunchy yam nicely complemented by the sweet honey. And as it's so healthy, it meant that I could bag that extra chicken wing without feeling guilty!

I like Xiao Wang's, and it shows that with enough expertise, a geographically diverse menu needn't mean compromises in the quality of the food. Combined with a comfortable European-style dining room and efficient service, this restaurant is an excellent option for those occasions when one is paralysed by the myriad choices found in Beijing.

Xiao Wang's Home Restaurant 北京小王府
Address 地址: 北京 日坛公园内北天门东侧
Tel 电话: +86-10-8561-7859 or +86-10-8561-5985

Shun Yi Fu 顺一府

Dinner at Xiao Wang's was my last meal with my Beijing colleagues, a fine bunch who looked after me really well. However, my food exploits were far from over, as I had a couple of days to myself armed with a shortlist of Beijing eateries. First on my list was Shun Yi Fu; I was really looking forward to eating at this dumpling joint after a previous visit three years ago. So you can't even begin to imagine how pissed off I was when I saw that the restaurant had been bricked up.

Mercifully, there was another branch about five minutes walk away, and once I found it, I ordered a steamer of pork & fennel dumplings (猪肉茴香蒸饺). There wasn't anything wrong with these but they could have done with having a more intense fennel flavour.

While I'm sure some of the other varieties of dumplings would have been more to my taste, there was something else that was wrong. The location. This newer branch is located in a shopping mall, and is totally devoid of the charm and character that made the original Shun Yi Fu so great. And while I wouldn't discount visiting this restaurant again, I won't go out of my way to do so.

Shun Yi Fu 顺一府饺子馆
Address 地址: 北京 王府井138号 APM Shopping Mall 5/F 新东安广场5层
Tel 电话: +86-10-6513-9558

Noodle Bar (面吧)
The simply named Noodle Bar is located in an upscale development called 1949 - The Hidden City that is also home to an art gallery, a wine bar, a cocktail bar, a private club, and two other restaurants including the highly rated Duck de Chine.

Noodle Bar is a tiny joint with just a dozen or so seats at a counter surrounding an open kitchen. Given the small scale of operations, the menu is brief with a few small plates supplementing the soup noodle selection. For the latter, the choice is beef brisket, tendon, tripe, a combination of all three, or wild mushroom (for the veggies) with a further choice of thin or thick noodles. I chose the beef brisket with thin noodles and from the selection of small plates I dodged the salads and went with spicy chicken wings.

Whilst the al dente hand-pulled noodles that I saw made before my very eyes were excellent, the rest of the combo was a big letdown. In particular, the broth lacked depth with little evidence of star anise, cinnamon or any of the other spices usually found in beef noodle soup. I had to give it a big kick-start from the pots of chilli oil and roasted garlic on the side along with the crispy bits from the spicy chicken wings. I also got the hump at how little beef there was, especially as there was a massive chunk of (unadvertised) mooli. I may have caught it on a bad day, but I find little to recommend Noodle Bar.

Noodle Bar 面吧 @ 1949 - The Hidden City
Address 地址: 北京 工体北路 太平洋百货南门对面
Tel 电话: +86-10-6501-1949