Fish Caramel Wings

I have this thing for fish sauce caramel, ever since I first tasted it 30-35 years ago. It's glorious on catfish, pork, and even chicken wings. We are currently serving it on scallops at the restaurant. Even Carter, who is fairly teenager picky about things, has really enjoyed the pork tenderloin that I have done in fish caramel.

When Ann told me on Sunday that we had some chicken wings in the freezer that she wanted for dinner, my mind immediately went to fish caramel wings, a dish that I first had at a Cambodian restaurant maybe 30 years ago. We have also fish caramel wings more recently, at Pok Pok in Portland, where I was impressed by the size of the wings, but not the caramel.

Fish Caramel Wings

I marinated the chicken for a couple of hours in a little oil, sriracha, fish sauce, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Then I tossed them in a bit more oil with a bit more salt and a lot more black pepper and put them on a sheet tray in a very hot convection oven with the fan on and turned them three times over the course of a half an hour until they were very crisp.

Meanwhile I made a caramel by slicing a couple of shallots and cooking them in a bit of oil, then adding sugar and caramelizing it. At this point, I added a lot of fish sauce and a lot more black pepper and let the sauce cook for a couple of minutes, thinning with water as necessary.

Out of the oven, the wings went into a big bowl and I tossed them in the sauce. A delicious sticky mess by all accounts!