Sriracha & Honey Chicken Wings

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! I'm terrified of heights, so I do the most logical thing I can think of, which is to do idiotic things that involve heights, with the hope that they will help me overcome my fear. Things like, rappel down a building, shimmy up a tree and jump over the gap to get atop a building to retrieve cricket balls, dive 50 feet into a cold lake to impress a girl, climb atop ruined city walls to take the perfect picture, and skydiving. Yes, these aren't clever things to do. No, I don't have a death wish. Rewind back to 2012, I was living in Antrim, Northern Ireland, with my roommates, Beer-chugging-Goan and Big-talking-UPite, and since my birthday was coming up, I wanted to do something memorable. So I thought of all the things that I could possibly do, and after careful consideration, I decided that throwing myself out of a plane at 13,000 feet with a biggish piece of nylon strapped to my back to slow my descent seemed the way to go.

I did some reading online, made some calls, and decided on a venue in Garvagh, Northern Ireland, to make the dive. The easy part sorted, I now had to convince a couple of others to take the plunge with me, because let's be honest, there was no way I was doing this alone. I turned to my roommates and after a few days of convincing (begging) they consented to doing the jump with me. As we were finalizing our plan in the office one lunchtime, another friend, F*cks-sake (this was his pet phrase), overheard us and expressed interest in doing the jump too. Not wanting to give the others time to overthink things and get spooked, I booked the 4 of us in for my birthday weekend. We rented a car and drove down to Garvagh, only to be disappointed since the weather was stormy and it was too risky to go up. We monitored the forecast for the next few days and rescheduled our jump to the following weekend. Upon our arrival, we were informed that the weather was good, and that we would indeed be making the jump that day. After some basic training, and a walkthrough of the process, we were suited up in maroon jumpsuits, strapped into our harnesses, clipped onto the jump instructors (It was a tandem dive. Even I'm not mad enough to attempt this by myself!), bundled into a little plane, and up we went. As we went higher and higher, my stomach started churning more and more, and even little glances out of the window towards the ground so far below, made me immensely queasy. Once we had made the required altitude, F*ucks-sake and his instructor, who were closer to the door, lined up to jump first. As I watched, with nary a warning, the duo were out the door, and as I saw them suddenly disappear I was more afraid than I had ever been. My instructor then dragged us over to the door, terror plain on my face, a prayer on my lips, wishing I had gone to loo before getting on the plane. He hung me out as he positioned himself at the door... and let go. As we plummeted to the ground, my instructor deployed the little drag chute to slow our descent to about 120 mph. For 45 seconds we hurtled towards the ground in free fall, spread-eagled as the freezing wind assaulted our faces, my fear having been replaced by pure exhilaration and I let out a whoop of unbridled joy. He then deployed the main chute, and we spent the next several minutes drifting slowly earthwards, drinking in the gorgeous views, loving the peace and quiet, my only complaint being the tight harness that was pushing uncomfortably against my bits.

As we plonked gently onto the ground, I found myself (as I had often done as a young boy) wishing I had wings so I could soar unassisted across the skies! Speaking of wings and flight, did you know that the longest recorded flight of a chicken is a whopping 13 seconds? Seems like an underachievement if you ask me. This recipe for wings however, is by no means an underachievement.

For my Sriracha & Honey Chicken Wings, you will need the following: 

Chicken wings	10-12
Sriracha sauce	5 tbsp
Honey	2-3 tbsp (depending on how sweet you like it)
Hot sauce (Tabasco or similar)	big splash
Lemon	wedge
Spring onion greens	handful
Oil

Prep:

1. Grab a bowl.
2. Pop in the sriracha.
3. Add in the honey.
4. Splash in the hot sauce.
5. Squeeze in the lemon.
6. Mix.
7. Taste.
8. Adjust the heat/sweetness as desired.
9. Divide into 2 batches. (70-30, 70% one for the marinade, 30% for the finish.)
10. Throw the wings into the marinade batch.
11. Mix and shake the bowl until all the wings are well coated.
12. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on. (Preferably one with a lid.)
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20 as it heats up.
5. Pop the wings in. (Make sure they're not one on top of the other.)
6. Cook for a few minutes until you have a nice sear.
7. Pop the lid on for 8-10 minutes until the wings are cooked through.
8. Take the lid off.
9. Crank up the heat.
10. Cook for a few minutes on each side until you have the desired amount of char on each side.
11. Drop the heat to low.
12. Plop in the 'finish' batch of the sauce mixture.
13. Toss expertly.
14. Turn the gas off.
15. Serve garnished with spring onion greens.
16. Stuff face.
17. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: You can cook the wings in the oven first, the finish them off in the pan for the char and finish. 180 degrees for approximately 15 minutes (you can always check) in a fan oven with the wings laid out on grease proof paper should do the trick.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!