
Recipe of the Month (September 2016)
Welcome to our recipe of the month page where I will be sharing recipes for dishes I serve at Chalet Bluebell, our catered chalet in Les Gets.
Crispy Boneless Chicken Wings with Curried Cauliflower Puree, Fermented Cabbage, Onion Bhaji
Difficulty: Medium
Prep time: 1.5 hours
Cooking time: 2 hours
Portions: 6
Special Equipment: Blender
Cooked on the bone and served boneless, these chicken wings are little nuggets packed full of flavour. Complemented with the spice from the puree & bhaji, light acidity from the cabbage and a fantastic mixture of textures.
I make my fermented cabbage but you can buy it ready made as it takes 3-4 weeks to make!
If you have a sous-vide set up you can skip steps 1-6 for cooking the chicken wings and cook them sous-vide at 70C for 10 hours.

Ingredients:
Chicken Wings
- 9 chicken wings
- olive oil
- salt
Method:
- Preheat an oven to 130C
- Cut the chicken wing through its 2 joints into 3 pieces. Keep the tip of the wing for another use (I use mine for sauces) and keep the larger 2 pieces of the wing.
- Take an oven tray big enough to hold all the chicken wings in one layer, line it with baking paper and place the chicken wings on top.
- Season the wings with salt on both sides and drizzle with olive oil.
- Place another sheet of baking paper on top of the wings and cover with foil.
- Cook for 1 ½ – 2 hours until tender.
- To de-bone the wings cut the knuckle off the bone on one end of the wing. This will enable you to pull the bone through the wing from the other side with a little twist. Half the wing pieces will have 1 bone and the other half 2 bones.
- Place the wings onto a tray, cling film and cover with another tray. Place a weight such as a couple of tins on top of the tray and place in the fridge to cool.
Curried Cauliflower Puree
- 15g raisin or olive oil
- 200g cauliflower
- 4g curry powder
- 300g chicken stock
- salt
- Finely slice the cauliflower.
- Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and add the cauliflower, curry powder, a good pinch of salt and sauté for 3 mins on a medium heat stirring frequently.
- Add the chicken stock, cover with a lid and simmer for 15 mins until tender. If there is still liquid in the pan, remove the lid and reduce the liquid until there is almost none left.
- Puree in a blender until smooth.
- Adjust the seasoning with salt.
Fermented Cabbage
- 1 Red cabbage
- Kosher salt
- olive oil
- Finely slice the cabbage and place in a large bowl, sprinkle with a couple of table spoons of salt and mix the cabbage well. Leave for 1 hour.
- Take a large crock or a couple of large Jars big enough to hold the cabbage. Cut an old plastic lid to fit in the crock to sit on top of the cabbage.
- start adding the cabbage to the crock and use the lid to push the cabbage down so its very compact.
- Once all the cabbage is compacted into the crock there should be enough liquid from the cabbage to cover the top of the cabbage when the lid is pushed down, if not add a little water.
- Place a weight on the lid to keep the cabbage submerged.
- Add 1/2 inch of olive oil to the surface of the liquid. (this keeps the oxygen out but lets gasses escape).
- Cover with a tea towel to unsure there are no gaps any flies to get through and seal with a rubber band or string.
- Leave for 3-4 weeks.
Onion Bhaji
- 1 onion (approx. 170g)
- 25g Chickpea flour/gram flour
- 16g rice flour
- 3g cumin seeds
- 3g fennel seeds
- 1 small dried chilli
- 3g turmeric
- 2g coriander seeds ½ star anise
- 5g chopped coriander leaves
- 7g ghee or melted butter
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Peel & finely slice the onion and place in a bowl.
- Add 1 tbsp of salt and toss together well. Leave for 30mins.
- Wash the salt off the onions with water and squeeze out the excess moisture from the onions in a tea towel.
- Dry fry the spices in a pan, blitz to a fine powder in a spice grinder or pestle & mortor.
- Mix the flours, spice powder, butter or ghee, good pinch of salt and add enough water to make into a loose batter.
- Add the onions to the batter, mix together.
- Pre heat an oven to 180C.
- Heat the oil to 170C and spoon the onion mixture in balls into the oil, fry until golden, drain, place on an oven tray and cook in the oven for 12 mins.
To Finish
- Heat a heavy base frying pan with a little oil and place the chicken wings in with their best side down. Fry until golden on both sides (this may need to be done in batches)
- Heat the puree and place a spoon full on the base of the plate and push it across the plate with a spoon or small palate knife.
- Place the chicken wings on one end of the puree, a little fermented cabbage next to them and then a bhaji on the end.
Bon Appétit!