Knead the Dough

February 2003 I had my first encounter with Thai Angel Wings.  My husband, then boyfriend, and I lived walking distance from 5 Thai restaurants in lower Queen Anne.  Our favorite was located less than two blocks away in an early 1900’s home/restaurant conversion.  It was painted an obnoxious shade of blue with white trim & lace window treatments.  No one was ever there to greet you upon arrival and they made it a point to communicate there are NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS to all who enter.  In the center of the main dining room was an impromptu half-assed Tiki Bar with charm.   It was Valentines Day and Angel Wings were the evening’s appetizer special. 

I hadn’t heard of Angel Wings before but I knew I liked Thai & I knew I liked chicken wings.  So we threw caution to the wind and decided to try something new.  I wasn’t sure what to think when they arrived at the dimly lit table.  The plate of wings consisted of two, very swollen, whole wings resting on a bed of assorted greenery.  Were we supposed to use our hands like a normal chicken wings?  In front of me was a whole chicken wing: deboned and filled with noodles, carrots, ground pork, mushrooms & ginger.  Then it was fried & served with a thin spicy sweet & sour sauce.  I hate to admit this, but that Valentines Day, I was seduced by a piece of chicken.  I needed to figure out how to do this myself.  If I didn’t, it had the potential of becoming an expensive habit. 

Here is how I de-bone chicken wings but I am using turkey wings in these photographs.  The technique is the same as the bone structure is shared.  Until you get the hang of it, I recommend keeping the wings refrigerated, working with one at a time.  Remember to make sure you purchase whole wings and do not remove the wing tip.

How to de-bone a whole wing:

1. Break wings at joints by bending in opposite direction.  Careful not to tear the skin.
2. Hold the drum end vertical, so the ball joint is pointed at the ceiling, and begin to loosen the meat from around the ball joint using an extremely sharp pairing knife.   Allow the meat to peel away & invert away from the ball joint - gravity is your friend here but BE CAREFUL not to tear the skin & try not to use the knife like a saw.
3. After the ball joint is exposed, gently use the edge of your knife to push the meat away from the bone, working in a circle around the bone and continuing to let the wing meat to invert back on to its self till the bone is half exposed.  Slice through any tendons.
4. At this point the exposed ball joint and bone have become your new handle.  Hold the wing by the ball joint and continue to loosen the skin away from the bone till you almost get to the first joint.
5. When you have almost reached the first joint, carefully twist the exposed wing bone until it is loosened freely and then pull to remove.  If it is not loosened, use your paring knife like in step 2.  Continue to allow the meat and skin to fall inside out over its self taking care not to puncture the skin.  Also, look for any cartilage to remove.
6. Continue loosening the meat and skin away from the bones.  Separate the two connected bones by slicing through the cartilage and then repeat steps 4 and 5 with each bone.
7. Carefully revert the wing right side out

The next post includes recipe for the filling, spicy sweet & sour sauce and finally preperation instructions.