Chicken Popsicles

The holidays are over (boo..) and I'm ready to start expanding my culinary expertise again. I've been making these little chicken treats for pot luck parties and they are always a hit whenever I make them. I think that's because they're so fun to eat. They may take hours to prepare but they'll disappear in a matter of minutes. There's very little that goes into cooking them, but the effort that goes into shaping these chicken wings into popsicles is what makes them challenging.

About 8-10 wings, separated at the joint and wing tips removed
Oil for frying (about 3 cups)
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine
⅓ cup of rice flour or all-purpose flour
⅓ cup of corn starch
Salt and pepper

 Using a knife, make a cut across the skin near the joint. Insert the tip of the knife into the incision and loosen the meat from the bone using the knife. Scrap the meat away from the bone and gradually work your way down to the base. Then pull the meat with your hands and shape into a ball. The technique is easier to describe with pictures:

With the wingettes, since there are 2 bones that you have to deal with, this process is a lot more painstaking. Start from the narrower end (where it was attached to the wing tip) and detach the 2 bones from each other using a knife. Scrap the skin and meat away from one bone until you get to the joint and then pull the bone out so that you're left with only one bone. Then proceed as usual.

Once the wings have been turned into popsicles, coat them with the soy sauce, rice wine, flour and cornstarch.

Heat up a wok or pot with oil. When the oil is hot (about 375°F), drop the popsicles in and fry them in batches of 6-8 at a time. Scoop out when they're golden brown and drain on a piece of paper towel.

I like to serve them with a dip that's made from hoisin sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce and minced ginger.