These crispy oven baked Indo-Chinese chicken Manchurian wings are a crunchy, spicy, and saucy appetizer that are a hit at parties and require no frying!
What Is Indo-Chinese Food?
Indo-Chinese food is a highly popular sub genre of Indian cuisine that involves adapting Chinese dishes to fit the Indian palate. Think of it similarly to how take-out Chinese food is created to fit the American palate. Indo-Chinese is neither completely Indian nor Chinese but is a beautiful category of food that could not have been created without the two.
My recipe for Indo-Chinese chicken Manchurian wings is what happens when you take an Indian-American who loves game day wings but also loves Indo-Chinese cuisine. It involves the same sweet and spicy flavors found in a chicken Manchurian dish but without the frying that is often done to get a crispy exterior. Instead, the chicken wings are baked in the oven until their skin gets golden and crispy and tossed in the spicy and sweet Manchurian sauce.
How to make Indo-Chinese Manchurian Sauce
Indo-Chinese Manchurian sauce perfectly balances sweet, heat, tang, and umami for a thick sauce that clings on and glistens to almost anything that you coat it with. Here are the ingredients in my recipe and the part each one plays in this delicious sauce...
- Oil - This is the fat of choice to toast and infuse our aromatics in. You can easily swap with butter if you choose.
- Garlic - Garlic provides an umami richness to the sauce
- Fresh Ginger - Warming and peppery. It gives a brightness and depth to the dish.
- Fresno Chilis - This adds heat to the sauce. I like fresno chilis for their taste and medium spice level. If you want to kick it up a notch you can use thai chilis. If you want to reduce the spice level, you can reduce the amount of fresno chilis added or substitute serrano peppers.
- Ketchup - Gives the sauce a sweetness and tartness as well as a thick consistency
- Soy Sauce - Gives the sauce a rich saltiness
- Vinegar - Brightness up the sauce with it's acidity. I like to use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar.
- Kashmiri Chili Powder - Gives an earthy heat as well as imparts its red color to the sauce
- Sugar - Rounds out all the flavors and gives a subtle sweetness to the sauce.
Secret to crispy oven baked chicken wings
Fried wings are great but they definitely require more active work and tend to be greasy. That is why I love oven baking my chicken wings especially if I am throwing a large party. However, there are a few tips to getting oven baked wings extra crispy. The secret to crispy oven baked chicken wings involves time, a wire rack, and baking powder.
First, seasoning chicken wings and allowing them to air dry for 4-16 hours allow the excess moisture to be released from the wings leading to an extra crispy wing. The next is to have a wire rack. The wire rack allows air circulation around the chicken when it is first drying but also when it is in the oven allowing for an evenly brown chicken. The last trick for crunchy wings is baking powder. Baking powder helps break down the peptide bonds in chicken wings which helps the chicken wings brown faster!
Tips for serving wings at a party
- Prep the wings the day before- The wings get extra crispy if coated in the spice rub the night before!
- Prep the sauce ahead of time - This sauce comes together pretty quickly but if you want to skip measuring and chopping garlic on the day of your party make it ahead. It can simply be reheated before you are ready to eat.
- Keep wings warm in the oven - Once the wings are cooked, you can keep them warm in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit until you are ready to serve.
- Sauce the wings right before eating - You want to eat the wings right after being sauced for a crunchy wing. You can either sauce the wings right before you eat or serve it on the side.
- Serve about ¼ lb of wings per person if you have other appetizers at your party and ½ - 1 lb per person if this will be the main item at your party.
Other crowd favorite appetizers to serve
These wings are my go to when it comes to football parties. You can checkout more of those recipes for the Super Bowl here. If you like this recipe, you may also like these easy to make and tasty appetizers.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is best to buy chicken wings that are air chilled as they contain less water than other varieties of chicken wings that are typically frozen in water.
Typically a pound of chicken wings has 8-10 drums/flats.
It is best to sauce chicken wings right before eating to have optimal crunch of the chicken wings.
Yes! You can absolutely use your air fryer to cook your chicken wings. Since the air fryer typically holds fewer wings you will have to cook them in batches. In addition, check on the wings at the half way
Baking powder is the secret ingredient that makes oven baked chicken wings so crispy. The baking powder helps break down the peptide bonds in the chicken and speeds up the browning process!
Serve about ¼ pounds (~2-3) of wings per person if you have other appetizers at your party and ½ - 1 pounds (~6 - 10) per person if this will be the main item at your party.
You can alternatively use tofu and bake it in the oven and toss it in the Manchurian sauce or fry cauliflower florets to make gobi manchurian.
Indo-Chinese Chicken Manchurian Wings Without Frying
Product Reccs
Ingredients
Wings Ingredients
- 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 2.5 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder or ½ teaspoon regular chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2.5 pounds chicken wings
- Cooking oil spray
Manchurian Sauce Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger root grated
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1-2 fresno or Thai chilis minced
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder or ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- Green onions finely chopped for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix the 2.5 teaspoons baking powder, 2.5 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder , 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon sugar to form a dry rub.
- Add the dry rub and 2.5 pounds chicken wings to a large bowl and coat and massage the dry rub onto the wings.
- Line a large baking tray with foil and place a wire rack on top of the lined baking tray. The aluminum foil is helpful later to catch the fat that drips from the wings and save cleanup but is optional and the wire rack is crucial to help the chicken get air circulation on all sides.
- Spread the chicken wings on the wire rack and refrigerate uncovered between 4-16 hours. Allowing the chicken to rest with the rub helps remove the excess moisture out the chicken to lead to crispy oven baked wings and allow the spices to season the meat.
- Preheat the oven to 450 Fahrenheit.
- Lightly spray the wings with cooking oil before placing them in the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Flip the wings over and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the wings have a golden crispy exterior.
Make the sauce
- Prep ingredients for sauce: Finely mince 4 cloves garlic and grate 2 teaspoons ginger root using a microplane.
- In a small saucepan on medium heat add 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and melt. Add mined garlic, grated ginger, and chopped 1-2 fresno or Thai chilis to the oil and sautee for ~1 minute until the ginger and garlic softens in order to infuse the oil with the aromatics. If necessary add a tablespoon more oil if there isn't enough fat to coat the saucepan and sizzle the ginger and garlic in.
- Add 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or white vinegar, 2 teaspoons sugar, and ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder to the sauce and mix. Allow the sauce to simmer ~1-2 minutes and turn off the heat.
- Coat the wings in the sauce right before serving! Garnish with sliced green onions.
Notes and Tips
- Giving the chicken wings time to dry in the fridge is important for this recipe. It helps the spices penetrate and helps remove excess moisture from the chicken so it can crisp in the oven.
- Baking powder is important in this recipe as it helps the chicken wings crisp in the oven.
- Wings will loose crispiness once coated in sauce so it's important to coat in sauce right before eating. You can alternatively serve the sauce on the side.
Shri Repp
Joseph
I made these wings last night and they turned out so good! My wife even remarked, "Why don't we make wings more often?" The baking powder / baked wings is a game changer for crispiness. When making the sauce, at first I was suspect of the consistency as it was coming together. When tossed with the baked wings it works perfectly. Next time I might even just used premade garlic-ginger paste as a little shortcut. Either way, we'll be enjoying again!