bigabyte
somebody shut me the fark up.
I wanted something with an American Style Chinese flair, but with those dang Spring Rolls I love so much. So I made this.
I started with a pack of chicken wings from Sam's Club. I cut each wing into seperate pieces, tossing out the "flipper". I brined them in a salt/sugar brine and then let them rest for several hours in the fridge with a light mayo slather. I find mayo helps to make the skin more soft and bite through, and since these won't be the traditional crispy fried kinda chicken used for Orange Chicken, I want the skin to be soft and bite through. By the time these are smoked and glazed, the mayo is not going to impart any noticeable flavor or texture.
While the chicken was resting I made up a batch of Orange sauce from the following recipe:
1.5 Cups Water
2 Tablespoons Orange Juice
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1/3 Cup Rice Vinegar
2.5 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Orange Zest
1 Cup packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Minced Ginger
2 Tablespoons Chopped Green Onion
1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
Heat all ingredients in saucepan. In a seperate small bowl, stir together 3 Tbsp Cornstarch with a couple tablespoons of water and mix into the saucepan with the sauce. Stir until thickened.
Later on I fired up my WSM. I then prepared a bed of aromatics to cook the chicken on made of slices of Orange, Lemon, Onion and Red Bell Pepper plus chopped Garlic cloves and Serrano peppers, Basil and Cilantro. Here's a pic of the bed of aromatics and then another after adding the chicken:
I put this in the WSM on the bottom rack, and put some Pig Candy on the top rack so that the bacon drippings would fall down onto the chicken and aromatic veggies.
Then I got some smallish shrimp, peeled and cleaned them and tossed with some Asian Peanut Sauce. Here is a pic of the shrimp before and after saucing:
I put the shrimp on the WSM on the top rack right along the outer edges of the rack where there is a lot of heat. I sprinkled them with some of the leftover spicy Pig Candy sugar that was kicked up with even more cayenne for a good strong heat. I just sprinkled that on each shrimp and let them cook for a bit until they were ready. Here's what they looked like when they were done:
With the shrimp done, I was now ready to make the Spicy Peanut-Glazed Thai Spring Rolls. These use rice paper which if you are lucky enough to have an ethnic store around you should be able to find these. I really like my spring rolls very simple. I use just green lettuce, basil, mint and cilantro for my greens, and then add in meat or some chopped nuts and black grapes. Since I am using shrimp, I am just adding the meat to this simple mixture. Some people like adding all sorts of stuff in their Spring Rolls. I am making these my way. Here is a pic of the Rice Paper (hard to see as it's almost invisible) with the shrimp and the chopped greens, followed by a shot after I rolled them up.
When the chicken hit 165 I pulled it off along withe the Pig Candy. Here is a shot of the two items after pulling them off:
I took the chicken off the bed of aromatics and tossed in a bowl with half of the Orange Sauce I made earlier, and set aside for a bit. Then I took the bed of aromatics which looked like this...
...and pulled out the leafy greens from off the top. Then I took all of the veggies and put them on my cutting board, leaving behind the sliced oranges and lemons on the veggie rack. I put the veggie rack back on the top rack of my WSM and put the chicken on top of this and poured the remaining Orange Sauce in the bowl over the chicken on the rack to let the sauce set on. I went back inside and chopped up the veggies I had pulled off like so...
I then heated up a large skillet with a little sesame oil and tossed in and egg and scrambled it up. Then I tossed in some cooked Basmati Rice along with my chopped vegetables and the Pig Candy (which I had also chopped earlier). I added in a little soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar. Here is a shot of the Pig Candy Fried Rice when it was ready to go...
After the chicken had been on about 20 minutes, I brought it back inside and tossed with the rest of the Orange Sauce. I put a layer of the fried rice on a plate, topped with some of the chicken and some chopped green onions, and served the spring rolls on the side with plum sauce for dipping.
Here is a shot of the final product. Orange Chicken Wings over Pig Candy Fried Rice with Spicy Peanut-Glazed Shrimp Thai Spring Rolls. It was absolutely farking delicious! All Chinese restaurants need to immediately start serving Pig Candy Fried Rice!
I started with a pack of chicken wings from Sam's Club. I cut each wing into seperate pieces, tossing out the "flipper". I brined them in a salt/sugar brine and then let them rest for several hours in the fridge with a light mayo slather. I find mayo helps to make the skin more soft and bite through, and since these won't be the traditional crispy fried kinda chicken used for Orange Chicken, I want the skin to be soft and bite through. By the time these are smoked and glazed, the mayo is not going to impart any noticeable flavor or texture.
While the chicken was resting I made up a batch of Orange sauce from the following recipe:
1.5 Cups Water
2 Tablespoons Orange Juice
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1/3 Cup Rice Vinegar
2.5 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Orange Zest
1 Cup packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Minced Ginger
2 Tablespoons Chopped Green Onion
1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
Heat all ingredients in saucepan. In a seperate small bowl, stir together 3 Tbsp Cornstarch with a couple tablespoons of water and mix into the saucepan with the sauce. Stir until thickened.
Later on I fired up my WSM. I then prepared a bed of aromatics to cook the chicken on made of slices of Orange, Lemon, Onion and Red Bell Pepper plus chopped Garlic cloves and Serrano peppers, Basil and Cilantro. Here's a pic of the bed of aromatics and then another after adding the chicken:
I put this in the WSM on the bottom rack, and put some Pig Candy on the top rack so that the bacon drippings would fall down onto the chicken and aromatic veggies.
Then I got some smallish shrimp, peeled and cleaned them and tossed with some Asian Peanut Sauce. Here is a pic of the shrimp before and after saucing:
I put the shrimp on the WSM on the top rack right along the outer edges of the rack where there is a lot of heat. I sprinkled them with some of the leftover spicy Pig Candy sugar that was kicked up with even more cayenne for a good strong heat. I just sprinkled that on each shrimp and let them cook for a bit until they were ready. Here's what they looked like when they were done:
With the shrimp done, I was now ready to make the Spicy Peanut-Glazed Thai Spring Rolls. These use rice paper which if you are lucky enough to have an ethnic store around you should be able to find these. I really like my spring rolls very simple. I use just green lettuce, basil, mint and cilantro for my greens, and then add in meat or some chopped nuts and black grapes. Since I am using shrimp, I am just adding the meat to this simple mixture. Some people like adding all sorts of stuff in their Spring Rolls. I am making these my way. Here is a pic of the Rice Paper (hard to see as it's almost invisible) with the shrimp and the chopped greens, followed by a shot after I rolled them up.
When the chicken hit 165 I pulled it off along withe the Pig Candy. Here is a shot of the two items after pulling them off:
I took the chicken off the bed of aromatics and tossed in a bowl with half of the Orange Sauce I made earlier, and set aside for a bit. Then I took the bed of aromatics which looked like this...
...and pulled out the leafy greens from off the top. Then I took all of the veggies and put them on my cutting board, leaving behind the sliced oranges and lemons on the veggie rack. I put the veggie rack back on the top rack of my WSM and put the chicken on top of this and poured the remaining Orange Sauce in the bowl over the chicken on the rack to let the sauce set on. I went back inside and chopped up the veggies I had pulled off like so...
I then heated up a large skillet with a little sesame oil and tossed in and egg and scrambled it up. Then I tossed in some cooked Basmati Rice along with my chopped vegetables and the Pig Candy (which I had also chopped earlier). I added in a little soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar. Here is a shot of the Pig Candy Fried Rice when it was ready to go...
After the chicken had been on about 20 minutes, I brought it back inside and tossed with the rest of the Orange Sauce. I put a layer of the fried rice on a plate, topped with some of the chicken and some chopped green onions, and served the spring rolls on the side with plum sauce for dipping.
Here is a shot of the final product. Orange Chicken Wings over Pig Candy Fried Rice with Spicy Peanut-Glazed Shrimp Thai Spring Rolls. It was absolutely farking delicious! All Chinese restaurants need to immediately start serving Pig Candy Fried Rice!
