Peanut Chicken Wings and Rice Noodle Salad, Peanut Chicken Wings and Rice Noodle Salad

SERVES 4

This dish perfectly illustrates how two different recipes can deliciously be more than the sum of their parts. While the sticky peanut chicken wings and fresh noodle salad are good separately, serving them together makes for a wonderfully tasty experience. If you can, try to source whole chicken wings. This will maximize the amount of savoury, peanuty glaze and crispy chicken skin that ends up on your plate.

Peanut chicken wings

3 lbs chicken wings

1 tbsp vegetable oil

⅓ cup sweet chili sauce

3 tbsp smooth natural peanut butter

1½ tsp low-sodium soy sauce

1½ tsp fish sauce

1½ tsp red curry paste

1 garlic clove, minced

¼ cup water

Rice noodle salad

1 package rice noodles

½ cup seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 green onion, trimmed and thinly sliced into rounds

1 tsp finely grated lime zest

1 tsp toasted sesame oil ¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes

2 cups bean sprouts

1 large carrot, spiralized or julienned

½ English cucumber, spiralized or julienned

¼ cup packed cilantro leaves

½ cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts

1 lime, cut into wedges

Preheat oven to 400˚ F. Line a rimmed baking tray with parchment paper.

Place chicken wings on prepared baking tray and toss with oil. Arrange in a single layer and bake until cooked through and crispy (about 1 hour for full wings, which include the wing tips, or about 40 minutes for trimmed wings and drummettes). Once cooked, remove from oven and set oven to broil.

While chicken wings are baking, make peanut butter glaze. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together sweet chili sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce, curry paste, garlic and water. Bring to a boil and let cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make the rice noodle salad, in a small bowl, whisk together rice vinegar, garlic, green onion, lime zest, sesame oil and pepper flakes until well combined. Set aside.

Cook rice noodles according to package directions, drain and place in a large bowl. Add bean sprouts, carrots and cucumber before drizzling with half the dressing and tossing all together. Drizzle over remaining dressing before scattering cilantro and peanuts over top. Set aside while finishing chicken wings.

In a large bowl, toss chicken wings with peanut butter glaze. Place on a foil-lined baking tray in a single layer and broil until golden brown and sticky (about 2 to 3 minutes). Watch wings closely as they can burn easily.

To serve, divide salad among plates or shallow bowls. Top each salad with chicken wings and garnish with additional chopped peanuts and a couple of lime wedges, if desired.