From Vietnamese-inspired wings with a fiery fish sauce glaze to Korean fried chicken with its signature double-frying technique, Chicago's culinary scene is brimming with creative takes on the classic dish. This article explores three unique chicken wing offerings across the city, highlighting the flavors and stories behind each.
While Buffalo may not have made it to the Super Bowl, you can bet plenty of folks will be diving into that city’s famous wings at parties everywhere this Sunday. And yet NBC Chicago's Food Guy Steve Dolinsky takes the road less traveled, a trio of chicken wings, inspired by three different Asian countries. Buffalo may have served as inspiration, but there’s no denying the chicken wings at Cà Phê Dá and Dang Good Wings in Pilsen take their cue from Vietnam.
“I wanted to treat it like Buffalo wings where I dredge it, and then fry it and have a sauce separately and tossing in it,” said Thai Dang, the chef and owner. Marinated in fish sauce, sugar, chilies and garlic, the wings are dredged in cornstarch and rice flour before being fried for the first time.They’re fried a second time to-order, then tossed in a vibrant, lip-smacking sauce of fish sauce, sugar, fresh Thai chilies, garlic and scallions. A riff on the Buffalo version contains sriracha and Thai chile, balanced by sugar and garlic. Korean fried chicken – both as sandwiches and wings – has been the heart of the menu at Crisp in Lakeview the past 18 years. The style is notable for its two-step frying, as well as the saucing options. “We do pressure fry at the beginning, so it coats and makes it nice and juicy – forms a shell – and then we do a second open fry to really get it crisp, and then it’s infused with some sauce on the outside,” said owner Jae Lee.“Seoul Sassy is a soy-ginger-garlic, more like a sweet soy glaze; Crisp BBQ is based on a gochujang – it’s a smoky, sweet pepper paste – so it has that familiar flavor of barbecue sauce but not tomato-based; it’s a little more spicy,” Lee said. Up in Albany Park, Great Sea is one of a handful of restaurants left still serving Gam Pong chicken wings. “In the early 1980s, a lot of ethnically Chinese Koreans moved to Albany Park, and they made this dish that was actually something they made back in Korea, but they noticed that wings in the United States were so cheap, so they said instead of doing the whole chicken, let’s just use wings,” said Monica Eng, co-author of the book 'Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites.'“But it’s kind of messy, so let’s make a little handle by Frenching the wings and making them lollipop wings,” she said.“Made it spicier, stickier and sweeter and they actually sell the sauce here now,” said Eng.
CHICKEN WINGS VIETNAMESE FOOD KOREAN FOOD CHICAGO RESTAURANTS ASIAN FLAVORS
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