must try chicken wings (san tung chicken wings)

Our friends introduced this amazing chicken wings to us and ever since, we fell in love with it! San Tung restaurant makes the BEST chicken wings. The sauce is amazing. The chicken wings are made to perfection. But we seldom go to San Francisco, so I was looking for a recipe online. I found this recipe on blog.melonat.com. The recipe is great, but we made some changes to it. You can try both recipes and tweak the recipe according to your taste. :) 

Ingredients:

[Chicken Wings]

Chicken wings - 2 lbs

[A - Chicken marinade]
Salt - 1 tsp
White pepper - 1 tsp
Five spice powder (optional) - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 2 tsp

[B - Chicken wing batter]
Cornstarch for dry coating - 1/2 cup
Cornstarch - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup

Oil for frying

[Sauce]
Honey - 1/3 cup
White sugar - 1/4 cup (or more if you want it sweeter)
Green onion - 1/3 cup (chopped)
Cilantro - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Rice vinegar - 1/2 cup
Soy sauce - 1/3 cup
Water - 1/3 cup 
Chili peppers (dried) - 1 tsp
Garlic - 3 cloves (minced)

[Garnish]
Cilantro - as much as you want (chopped)
White Sesame seeds (optional)

 Prep: 

1. Make few slits on chicken wings. Then marinade with [A] and set it aside for at least 1 hour.
2. Put all the ingredients under 'sauce' in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then turn the heat down and let it simmer until the sauce thickens a bit. Taste as you go and adjust by adding more water, sugar, soy sauce, etc. You can keep the sauce overnight in the fridge.

Marinade chicken wings for at least one minute

 Cook:

1. Heat a pot with oil (about 2-3 inches of oil). 
2. While the oil is heating up, coat marinated chicken wings with cornstarch. 
3. Mix 1/2 cup cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water. 
4. Dip already-cornstarch-covered chicken wings into the cornstarch/water mixture (you need to keep stirring the mixture [I use chicken wings to mix. haha] since it separates quickly). 
5. Deep fry until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes. Flip after 2 minutes. Place them on paper towel-ed plate.

 Serve:

1. In a large bowl with lid, combine chicken wings and sauce. Shake the bowl so the sauce will evenly coat the chicken wings. 
2. Serve it with lots of chopped cilantro. 

TIPS

• Combine sauce and chicken wings right before you serve them or else it will be soggy.
• You can omit chili flakes for sweet, milder taste. 
• Use chicken wings to mix the cornstarch - save you some time! 
• My brother-in-law (Jacob) suggested to add peanuts for extra crunch! Thanks for the great idea!